Los Angeles Times employees protest Sam Zell firings

Merry pranksters scaled a Los Angeles Times building Thursday to unfurl a three-story high banner protesting news cuts by the paper's owner, real estate billionaire Sam Zell.

The banner was hanging from the historic Times building in downtown Los Angeles. It read: "Zell Hell: Take back the Los Angeles Times." A website address on the bottom directed the curious to the mysterious protest site by an anonymous Times employee: www.tellzell.com

"Like many of us, Sam got in over his head in the mortgage crisis," said one Times employee who participated in the banner drop. "He can't afford what he bought. But instead of selling his house, he's chopping it into pieces."

The banner was the most dramatic in a series of protests that have broken out at the LA Times and across other newspapers owned by Zell, who took over the Tribune Co. at the beginning of this year.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Sam
• Zell
• Banner
• Drop
• Journalism
• Los
• Angeles
• Times