It’s amazing how unused to receiving criticism reporters can be. Since writing about the future of journalism in Chicago this week, I’ve been inundated with comments from reporters telling me that I don’t have the right to share my opinion or voice dissent when it comes to reporters…because I’m not a journalist myself. In today’s video post I ask my audience, do you think you should believe everything you read just because a reporter writes it?
Estimated reading time: 49 seconds
On Chicagosphere I asked whether the Chicago Sun-Times union truly understands the endgame faced by their paper and journalism in general, calling out the Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner along the way for suggesting that columnists be forced to ditch commentary in favor of strict news analysis. There’s nothing I find more tiresome than yet another reporter throwing the rest of the world under the bus for the failings of their own field.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
If news is inherently a shared effort on the Internet, why are traditional news outlets trying to monopolize it with ham-fisted behaviors that violate the accepted norms of online community?
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
As all of Boystown–and all of Chicago media, for that matter–already knows, former Chicago Transit Authority President Ron Huberman is a proud gay man. Today, however, for the first time, that fact was reported in citywide media.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
CTA President Ron Huberman calls new signage barring ‘continuous riding’ through ‘L’ terminals part of an overall ‘sign upgrade’ at stations. But what about the health and safety of homeless people ejected from the rail system into frigid Chicago winters?
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Today, the controversial editor of the Sun-Times Opinion page resigned. After the battle I had with her in these pages over remarks she made at a Chicago Publicity Club event in December, I’m not surprised.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
On Friday, I opined about the deliberate lack of editorial direction on the Commentary page of the Chicago Sun-Times. My criticism stemmed from comments made by Sun-Times Opinion editor, Cheryl Reed, at a Publicity Club of Chicago luncheon last Wednesday. Now Reed is claiming she was misquoted. I don’t think so.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
I just heard the Chicago Sun-Times Opinion page editor, Cheryl Reed, speak at a Publicity Club of Chicago luncheon. Based on what she had to say, someone in the audience asked a pointed question, one my entire table was thinking: What’s the use of an opinion page when the editor admits they only write what their readers want to hear?
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
You could fill 25 Soldier Fields with the number of people who use Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains on an average weekday. It would take 1.5 million people–half of Chicago’s population–to do it. That still wouldn’t take into account almost 300,000 additional daily riders of Metra and Pace suburban trains and buses. And most of these 2 million plus people are potential voters. So why doesn’t Chicago’s mainstream media take Chicagoland’s transit beat seriously?
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes