More Sturm und Drang at WFMT
“Mr. Antlitz was one of the last ties to the old WFMT,” Brackett explained. “He had his feet in both camps, I think.”
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“One of the major reasons I stayed in Chicago rather than go back to my native Texas 30 years ago was because of WFMT,” Brackett was saying. “It was second to none.”
And now?
“Rumors feed on an environment where people perceive that management’s holding its cards very close to its vest. That is not my intention at all,” Schmidt told us. “There are no hidden agendas. And I can say unequivocally there are no plans to sell off any part of the Fine Arts Network.”
We called an old friend, Charles Lewis, who’s now Washington bureau chief of the Hearst newspapers. “It’s not a flaming issue,” said Lewis. “People are curious to see if some source is going to get nailed. That guy from Newsday I’m sure will be under a lot of pressure–not from his peers but from regulatory bureaucratic types–to say how he got it. I’m sure he won’t, and I’m sure they’ll never find out. It’s a subject of bemused speculation, but it’s not a crusade, certainly.”
