Tribune's Chief Innovation (LOL!) Officer and crazy, crazy clown Lee Abrams snuck into Manhattan yesterday to "speak" at a media conference, using his trademark nonsensical version of "words." Luckily Jeff Bercovici was there to chronicle his wisdom, lest it be lost in the huge cloud of purple haze smoke that, we like to imagine, follows Lee Abrams at all times. I wonder if he got a chance to compare the newspaper industry to rock-n-roll?

I think [a 'government bailout' of newspapers—Ed. note: probably not an imminent threat!]is a terrible idea. What would happen is newspapers would then focus on this ultra-elite point-five-percent and create these papers that are just unreachable to a mass audience...I think for government to come in and force this intellectual thing would be terrible. It'd almost be like in 1950, with rock-n-roll coming, all the sudden the government comes in to support classical music.

Tribune is already taking steps to ensure that its papers don't appeal to the ultra-elites. [via Mixed Media]