Tim Rutten's last media column for the LA Times is about the purchase of the paper's parent company by Sam Zell:
[W]hen Cortés landed on the shores of the New World, he burned his ships so that his men would know that death was the only alternative to success. For the foot soldiers of American commerce -- like the 20,000 Tribune employees who have been drafted into serving as Zell's co-investors -- that remains true, at least in a financial sense. But American capitalism being what it is, there's always a comfortable way out for the guys at the top.It is exactly this sort of metaphor that will make me miss Rutten, before he shuffles off to the Op-Ed page. WHO WILL BE ZELL'S DOÑA MARINA? WHOOOOO? Disclosure: Does anyone care that I'm taking some of Sam Zell's money?
A change of hands for Tribune [LAT]