Poor Phil Rosenthal. As Sam Zell sells off bits and pieces of the Tribune Co. to make the conglomerate economically viable, the Chicago Tribune reporter was just doing his due diligence and reporting on the happenings. Then the PR flacks stepped in with less than helpful quotes.

In an article in today's Trib, Rosenthal reports on the potential sale of some Tribune Media Services assets. Writing about the people who pay your salary is a touchy situation, so he went to a Tribune Co. spokesman who offered the following gem:

"We're providing certain information to parties who have expressed interest in some of the assets owned by TMS, but we have made no decision concerning those assets, and in no event would we sell all of TMS."

C'mon guys, Rosenthal's your boy; throw him a freakin' bone.