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Published on Tuesday, 19 October 2010 12:50
Lee Abrams, who resigned as Tribune Company's Chief Innovation Officer on
Friday afternoon, after a recent email
sparked another Tribune controversy, spoke out today about that email and why he chose to quit.
Jeff Bercovici, currently a media blogger for Forbes' website, this afternoon reprinted a long email he received from Lee Abrams, defending himself and his reputation. In it, Abrams talks about the one true controversial part of the now infamous email: the link to a comedy video from The Onion, labeled "Sluts." He says of it:
"I would have hoped that the use of a brilliant parody to demonstrate the ills of popular TV would have been an effective communication vehicle and that people would have taken it as it was intended; a parody that illustrates what not to do."
He continued,
"It saddens me that in light of the remarkable challenges that old media faces, there would be such an uproar over this clip. I am sorry for the timing and the results of my action, but continue to believe that people working in traditional media needs to open their eyes to the realities of our culture in 2010 without denial, self-righteousness or arrogance."
Abrams denies that he ever had anything to do with Tribune downsizing or newspaper decisions. He strongly denies that he had any part of creating a hostile and sexist work environment, or that he was part of any ex-Clear Channel "Boys Club," since he never worked for Clear Channel before.
Forbes' Jeff Bercovici reprints Abrams entire email on the Forbes website today, and it can be viewed at this link
HERE.
But wait, there's more...
In his attempt to confirm that the above-mentioned email came from Abrams, Bercovici had a phone conversation with Abrams, as well. In it, Abrams said that he sent the email out to a few people because he wanted to mention his point of view because he thought
"it got skewed a little bit in the blogosphere."
He also said that it as his idea to resign from Tribune Company and that it was not asked of him.
Bercovici's description of the Abrams phone call can be found at this link
HERE.
