None of our business

Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell visited UCLA's business school last week. The press was barred from attending the event, but Matthew Fleischer of LA CityBeat hung around outside to get a sense of things. From his dispatch:

A couple of students described the event as “mellow.” Questions for Zell ranged from the economic downturn to Zell's management style. Most students lacked an opinion about the efficacy of referring to your staff as "overhead," as Zell has told members of the Times' editorial section on at least one occasion.

In general, the students I spoke with seemed to eat up Zell's spiel. His presentation style was "lucid," and he had a tremendous "command of the room."

"I really like how the event was media-free," one student remarked to another.

“Really?" her conversational partner responded. "I thought that it was kind of ironic actually. I mean, the guy owns a bunch of newspapers right?"

Hey, the kid’s alright.