Opinion: It took me three days to realize that F.U. stood for Felix Unger

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My feelings on the fabled Sam Zell f-word exchange with a photographer for the Orlando Sentinel pretty much boil down to: Whatever you say, Mr. Zell! How else may I be of service? I’m not going out on a limb by saying it’s bad form for the chairman of a company to curse out an employee. (Based on our story’s indication that Zell was seeking to smooth things over with the employee in question, it would appear he feels the same way.) But I’m with Patterico in finding the photographer’s ‘what readers want are puppy dogs’ comment to be far more alarming than the four-letter word. A cuss is just a cuss, but there is a lot of journalistic arrogance embedded in that dismissive comment about readers. People on the wrong end of the plummeting-circulation continuum should show some humility, and maybe even gratitude, toward the customers who are still showing up.