PEOPLE IN GLASS TOWERS...

Zorn's gone golfing... so let's beat-up on the Trib.

From Phil Rosenthal's column in today's Sun-Times Tribune:

[Tribune Media Services] plans to sell and distribute a version of Arianna Huffington's celebrity blog, HuffingtonPost.com, set to debut online next month, showcasing a stable of big names from Hollywood, New York and beyond.

The major distinction from what's available online is that the syndicated version will be copy-edited and fact-checked, raising the issue of whether an edited blog is still a blog at all.

"I had urged Arianna to find a different description," [John C. Twohey, vice president of editorial and operations for Tribune Media Services] said. "As soon as there's editorial intervention, you've got something else, which to me is of a higher order and more useful."

Also from today's Chicago Tribune, the flagship of the "higher order and more useful" Tribune media empire:

At first, Frank Calabrese thought Tuesday's front-page Tribune story was simply another article about the mobster who shares his name.

Then he turned to page 18.

There, in black-and-white, was his own picture in a graphic titled "Infrastructure of a Chicago mob."

Calabrese, a longtime Chicago businessman and horse owner who has no mob ties, could barely believe his eyes.

"I opened it up and I said, 'God, what am I doing in the paper?'" Calabrese, 76, said Tuesday. "It's aggravating. People assume things."

Tribune editors said they had intended to run a head shot of Frank Calabrese Sr., 68, a convicted mobster who is in prison on a 1997 conviction for using violence to collect several million dollars in "juice" loans. ***

Frank Calabrese the businessman did nothing wrong, but on Tuesday was paying the price because he has the same name and the newspaper made a mistake. ***

Frank Calabrese said he has never met the mobster who shares his name. ***

"It's just upsetting," he said. "I have voice mails from people calling me who were my customers asking me what's happening. Is that you?"

I sure hope that Tribune Media Services' John Twohey develops a different description for HuffingtonPost.com.

We wouldn't want such "higher order and more useful" publishing associated with the good name of blogging.