REPORT: Freedom Fat Cats Enriched Themselves While Company Burned

I'm rich, bitch!

​Remember Freedom Corp, the folks who own the OC Register?

Yeah, that Freedom Corp, the one that filed for bankruptcy in September. The one that announced Nov. 2 that its 118-year-old East Valley Tribune is going bye-bye at the end of the year. The company that has been forcibly retiring and laying off just about anyone who isn't named Frank Mickadeit.

Well, according to a Nov. 5 story by the Arizona Capitol Times that was based on figures collected from recent bankruptcy filings, even while all these cut-cutting measures were taking place, Freedom executives paid out nearly $3.7 million in bonuses to--you guessed it--themselves. Freedom CEO Scott Flanders took home $1.1 million in the past year, including one "$400,000 bonus just weeks before the company filed bankruptcy."

What about Register publisher Terry Horne, you ask? He got about $200,000.


Since that's about one-fifth what Flanders gave himself, apparently the logic behind this intrepidly avaricious self-reward system is that the more responsibility you have over the decisions that paved the way for this company to go down the tubes, the more cash you win.

Don't hold your breath waiting to read any news stories or editorials about this in the Register but you can read the entire report over here.