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The seat belonged to Zell as CEO of the Tribune Company because the president of the Gridiron Club is Dick Cooper — formerly of the Los Angeles Times but now, technically, of the Tribune Company’s combined Washington bureau. Since Zell wasn’t going to the March 21 dinner, his seat was passed down to Tony Hunter, publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Hunter came up through circulation, and as someone at the Tribune Company puts it, he’s in his element speaking to truck drivers. The head table at the Gridiron Club dinner alongside the president might not have been a comfortable milieu.
Hunter possibly thought so. A few days before the dinner he gave his seat to Gerould Kern, editor of the Tribune.
Kern: Soon as I get back to Chicago I’m canning our foreign correspondents. RedEye doesn’t have any.
Company spokesman Gary Weitman (he was there), gave me a statement. “We committed to sponsor the Gridiron long before we filed for Chapter 11,” he said. “Event contribution is part of the group’s membership agreement.”
