A Tribune Company executive who allegedly offered a waitress in a bar $100 to show him her breasts, shocking management colleagues who were present, tops this spicy front-page piece today in The New York Times.

Descriptions of the “poisonous workplace,” “pervasive sex talk” and “frat house culture” at the bankrupt company were the source of sardonic reactions this morning from current and former staffers at the (Tribune-owned) Baltimore Sun, who also reflected on their own encounters with that culture.

They’re finding particularly bittersweet humor in an email sent to Tribune employees last night by chief executive Randy Michaels, in advance of today’s Times story, by media writer David Carr.

“Mr. Carr knows that an outside firm investigated the most substantial of these allegations, and that they were found to be without substance,” Michaels wrote.

(Michaels, a former radio executive who was the person alleged in the article to have offered money to a waitress in return for her displaying her breasts, is quoted in Carr’s piece denying the charge.)

“As you know,” Michaels wrote in his email, “it is our intention to create a fun, non-linear creative environment.   I am tremendously proud of the results of that creative culture.’

Or, as salty-tongued Tribune owner Sam Zell once said to an Orlando Sentinel reporter who questioned him in a staff meeting, “F— You!”

“That was a non-linear sort of comment,” cracked the former Sun reporter who reminded others in a group email about the day Zell dropped the f-bomb.

“The memo sounds a lot like Humphrey Bogart’s paranoid rant in the Caine Mutiny about disloyal officers and missing strawberries,” another wrote, in the group discussion thread.

Here is the full text of the email sent at 9:00 p.m. Tuesday evening:

“Message from Randy Michaels/Anticipated Column About Tribune.”*

We have been informed that tomorrow’s New York Times will run a column written by David Carr (http://www.nightofthegun.com/#).  Many of the questions Mr. Carr asked us for this article concerned events, distortions and rumors more than two years old.    He will apparently paint the work environment at Tribune as hostile, sexist and otherwise inappropriate.  Many of the rumors Mr. Carr referenced were spread by an ex-Chicago Tribune employee who is now a contributing writer to the New York Times.   Mr. Carr has made clear that he is digging up these old allegations because he believes that decisions about the company’s management are about to be made, and he wants to influence those decisions.  Mr. Carr knows that an outside firm investigated the most substantial of these allegations, and that they were found to be without substance.   Mr. Carr intends to use them anyway.

As you know, it is our intention to create a fun, non-linear creative environment.   I am tremendously proud of the results of that creative culture.  Our websites on the P2P platform are the most advanced in media.  We have reconfigured production of the newspaper with standard ad sizes, Media on Demand Modules, and combined editing, design, and layout functions using technology.   We have “Breaking News Centers” that eliminate redundancy and give newsmakers one contact point for each market’s most powerful news media.   TOPS, TONS, and BRUTUS have changed the way TV is produced and aired.

It is our intention to have creative environment.  A creative culture must be built on a foundation of respect for each other.  Our goal is an environment where people are free to speak up, free to challenge authority, and free to fail on the way to success.  Our culture is NOT about being offensive or hurtful.  This is supported by our Harassment Policy.  It’s in the Employee Handbook which is posted on TribLink—Section 3.

The fact that so many at other media companies dwell on the way it used to be creates great opportunity for those of us willing to rethink our opportunities and recast our culture.  Ignore the noise.  Treat each other with respect. Have fun, and let’s go create the future.

Randy

* Some former Sun journo’s were ticked off before they even got into the bodyof the email.
“Is it too much to ask,” one wrote, “that the owner of one of the biggest newspaper companies in the world knows the difference between a column and a story?”