Is there any question as to why, really, campaign financing is now a free for all?

Tough decisions await new Tribune Co. board

When the new seven-member Tribune Co. board officially convenes for the first time in the next few weeks, the group of media and entertainment executives will name the company’s executive officers. Then comes the bigger job of assessing a diverse portfolio of broadcasting and publishing assets, with an eye toward maximizing the value of the Chicago-based media company.

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Tribune Co. plunged into bankruptcy in December 2008, saddled with $13 billion in debt from real estate investor Sam Zell’s heavily leveraged buyout one year earlier. It emerged from bankruptcy Monday, relatively debt-free and generating cash.

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Tribune Co.’s biggest challenge has been declining revenue and cash flow as the advertisers that sustained it through the years defected to digital media alternatives. But 2012 was a slight improvement, likely boosted in part by election year ad spending in the company’s broadcasting unit.

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I guess we should be happy that the Tribune Co. didn’t fall to Murdoch, or to San Diego based wingnut Manchester (as was feared.)

Yet this is a classic story of contemporary capitalism: an unwise overly leveraged buy out left an old company highly vulnerable, only to be picked over by vultures.