Tribune Co. owner and noted asshole Sam Zell's most charming feature might be his sense of humor. Forget about all the cutbacks at the L.A. Times and how he's trying to drop Newsday: He enjoyed the video a Chicago Tribune intern did for the rival Chicago Sun-Times mocking Zell for selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field. That's leadership! Memo after the jump via L.A. Observed.

From: Talk to Sam
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 1:35 PM
Subject: Shocking Video
Partners,

I returned from out of the country this weekend to learn that one of our employees had entered a video in the Sun-Times contest designed to protest a name change of Wrigley Field.

Needless to say, I was shocked! Appalled! The video was a blatant disregard for Tribune Company policy. It demonstrated a glaring disrespect for your chairman and CEO. (I'm much better looking, clearly more agile, and I think whoever played me was singing off key.)

So, I immediately referred to the 11th commandment: Thou shalt not take oneself too seriously. And, then I shared the video with my family and friends.

Here's the link if you didn't catch it: http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-suntimes-song-contest,0,1932877.htmlstory

It's most definitely worth the watch, and it was a deft grab of the ball away from that other paper. What was their name again?

Sam