Lovey, Princess Puffy Pants? A word.

Additional responses to critics of last week's CWBChicago commentary

10-6-2022 (issue No. 56)

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above.

This week

• Last week’s winning tweet

• Following up on the CWBChicago commentary

• News and Views

• Podcast Rx — Johanna Zorn returns with three more listening recommendations.

• Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go

• The rich irony of Dan Proft complaining about “personal attacks.”

• Is Zorn a crank for complaining about clubhouse celebrations after minor advancements? Your vote matters!

• The Weekly Schmich — Thoughts from Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mary Schmich

• A promo for “The Mincing Rascals” podcast — this week featuring Carol Marin

• Re:Tweets — featuring the winner of the visual tweets poll and this week’s finalists

• Songs of Good Cheer update

• Tune of the Week — another great `80s song (1880s, I mean), “Wait Till the Clouds Roll By.”

Last week’s winning tweet

“When a kid says "Daddy, I want Mommy." That's the kid version of "I'd like to speak to your supervisor." — another joke that’s been repeated/stolen so often that I’m unable to pinpoint the source.

Here are this week’s nominees and the winner of the Tuesday visual-tweets poll. Here is the direct link to the new poll.

CWBChicago, a follow up

“Lovey, Princess Puffy Pants,” “SamCanOfChiraq,” “ShitshowPatron,” “Moo and Oink MOO MOO MOO” and scores of others on Twitter expressed their contempt for me last week when I issued a call for the writers and editors of the all-crime website CWBChicago to drop the veil of anonymity behind which they have hidden for the nine years of their existence.

CWB (the initials stand for “Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown,” the geographical area the site covered before going citywide) has become a significant player in local journalism circles. Its reports, scoops and videos often appear in legacy print and broadcast media. Inside Publications’ weekly community newspapers feature lengthy “Police Beat” columns “compiled by CWBChicago.com.”

So, I argued, the news-consuming public should have a much better idea who is behind the site, how they operate and what their agenda might be. That sort of transparency, while not complete, fosters accountability, which is central to the mission of journalism.

Omitting the purely ad hominem invective, I’d sum up the views of my inflamed critics this way:

Who cares who is passing along this information, so long as it’s accurate? You’re just jealous and angry because CWB is reporting what mainstream media is afraid to or neglects to report, and you don’t like that it has found an eager audience for their reports. Old-fashioned news outlets are losing their grip on the narrative and should embrace, not disparage, the modern ways of imparting information.

I responded to such criticisms in some detail in Tuesday’s paid-subscriber edition (now no longer behind the paywall), by saying, in short, that my critique of CWB’s anonymity is not a critique of the accuracy of the information they report. But to compare the output of a site with a total focus on one topic to mainstream media sites that see their mission as covering a wide range of issues is not useful to the point of being obtuse.

Specialty websites are here to stay and can be key parts of the information ecosystem. But no matter how many there are and how thorough and accurate they are, they will not and should not replace publications, stations and websites that strive to contextualize this information and advance productive discussions about it.

CWB provides very little context and isn’t clear about what, exactly, its writers and editors hope readers make of their firehose of reports of mayhem. That’s not a criticism so much as it is an observation. They provide data points you aren’t going to get elsewhere.

That form of journalism is closer to stenography. And, again, there’s nothing wrong with it. Some of mainstream journalism falls into that category. And my impulse as a citizen, commentator and, yes, journalist is to believe in the value and power of facts.

Is CWB trying to sound the alarm about the rise in crime in certain neighborhoods? If so, what do its editors and reporters think are the causes and other implications of that rise? I mean, sure, the often horrifying stories of random predation make us angrier and more paranoid. But on a larger scale, what needs to change? What are best practices — the policy reforms most likely to reduce the threats? What steps should individuals take to better protect themselves and motivate politicians to move in salutary directions?

Does the posting of booking photographs — police mug shots — enhance anyone’s understanding about anything?

Journalism explores such questions, even in these days of diminishing resources, and its editors and reporters do so openly. And yes, that means that they can be the subject of criticism, scorn and unfounded accusations of all kinds of character flaws. When you put your name to your work, you’ve got to develop a thick skin and grow a sturdier spine. But, I speak from experience, it can be done!

Given the increased prominence of CWBChicago, it would be fitting for those behind it to discuss what they think it all means and what their goals are with their brothers and sisters in local media.

Why so many found this suggestion so outrageous I can’t say.

News & Views

News: JB Pritzker declined to appear at the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board’s endorsement session, saying the board has “consistently” been unfair to him.

View: I’m very eager to see if the Editorial Board will be able to get over this slight and endorse Democrat Pritzker for reelection despite his churlish, even childish refusal to play along with the endorsement process. These joint candidate interviews often resemble debates and generate objective news stories as well as editorials. It’s disrespectful to the public as well as to the newspaper to skip them.

The Republican alternative, Darren Bailey, is a manifestly unqualified populist dope who has complaints but no solutions. Maybe we can look for a surprise endorsement of Libertarian Party candidate Scott Schluter? Stranger things have happened.

Note that I did not put the periods into Pritzker’s name. That’s because, as I reported Tuesday, he prefers “JB” to “J.B.,” and it’s customary to render people’s names as they prefer them to be rendered.

News: Trevor Noah is stepping down from hosting “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central.

View: My nominee for the ideal replacement is comedian/commentator Hasan Minhaj, whose Peabody Award-winning “Patriot Games” show on Netflix revealed his gift for the sort of sharp, funny political analysis that has long been the hallmark of “The Daily Show.”

When I posted this suggestion to Facebook, quite a few commenters suggested Samantha Bee, whose weekly show, “Full Frontal,” was recently canceled by TBS. She would also be terrific.

News: During a news conference, President Joe Biden forgot that former Indiana U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski died in a car crash over the summer.

View: Whether this was a “senior moment” or an ordinary lapse in memory that could happen to anyone at any age, the disturbing thing about this was how White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to explain it away, saying that the reason he called for Walorski to be recognized in the room was because she was “top of mind” for Biden.

Biden, who will turn 80 next month, is clearly not as sharp as he once was, though he appears to be running a fairly competent administration. What scares me is not gaps in his memory, but the apparent willingness of his team to close ranks around him and deny, deny, deny. If he has a serious problem — as Ronald Reagan did when in office — we’ll learn about it too late.

News: Former President Donald Trump has filed suit against CNN for $475 million, claiming the network caused him “embarrassment, pain, humiliation and mental anguish” for, among other things, comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

View: Even if this weren’t an utterly frivolous legal action that will get tossed by the first judge to consider it, Trump would never follow through because he’d have to sit for a lengthy deposition under oath and that would require him telling the truth.

And he seems unmindful of “The Streisand Effect,” which says that high-profile attempts to counter or suppress statements or information is highly likely to amplify them instead.

The phenomenon takes its name from the lawsuit filed in 2003 by singer Barbra Streisand alleging invasion of privacy because a photo of her clifftop mansion in Malibu appeared in a California Coastal Records Project archive. Only six people had viewed the photo before she filed the suit, but nearly half a million people viewed it after news coverage of the suit called attention to that suit (which got tossed, of course).

The news-consuming public is likely to hear “Blah blah blah, Trump, blah blah blah, Hitler.”

Podcast Rx: Three suggestions for fall

An occasional feature written by my wife, Johanna Zorn, an independent editor and podcast consultant who is co-founder and executive director emeritus of the Third Coast International Audio Festival.

These podcasts have nothing to do with fall, except that, with the change of season, you may find yourself wanting some aural companionship as you take long leafy walks, cook stews and casseroles, store away your summer clothes or engage in other cool weather activities. Though, for myself — and I know this sounds odd — sometimes I listen to a podcast without multitasking. I just relax on the couch, close my eyes and listen. I highly recommend it!

Project Unabom

History, True Crime, Character Study

This podcast echoes the recommendation in my first Podcast Rx column of “Mother Country Radicals” in that it’s about individuals choosing violence as a means to focus the public’s attention on an issue. But the results here are much darker. In an effort to slow down the pace of technological change, Ted Kaczynski staged a nationwide bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 from 1978 to 1995. Then he wrote a manifesto titled “Industrial Society and its Future” that The Washington Post published in full and that caused David Kaczynski to recognize his estranged brother’s prose style and report him to police.

Host and co-producer Eric Benson says that though he thought he knew the story of the Unabomer (also frequently spelled Unabomber) it turned out to be much stranger and messier than he’d expected. Project Unabom invites us to revisit this history through the voices of David Kaczynski, who shared many of Ted’s concerns and who understood his hermitlike ways, and of FBI investigators who, slowly, painstakingly, put together the pieces of the puzzle.

Fine Gorilla Person

Celebrity, History, Nature

Koko the gorilla was an A-list celebrity who hung out with William Shatner, Betty White and Robin Williams among others stars in the 1980s and ‘90s. Clearly, her life was very different from a gorilla living in the wild, or even an ape in a zoo. Koko was the subject of psychologist Penny Patterson’s research to understand the nature of language and how closely humans and apes are related. Patterson taught Koko how to use sign language and understand some spoken English, and then she put the ape into the spotlight. To say that Patterson’s studies got perverted is an understatement as host/producer Lauren Ober shows us in wonderful, disturbing, and sometimes comic detail.

Note/disclosure: This podcast is available only through Audible, where I am a paid consultant. You can listen during a free trial period.

Terrestrials

Nature, Narrative Storytelling, Kids

 I listed “kids” last on purpose. Yes, Terrestrials was created for 3- to 12-year-olds. But as a grown-up, I found that I enjoyed the great storytelling about the creatures who share this planet with us and the scientists who study them. Lulu Miller, the host of the show, and also the co-host of WNYC’s RadioLab, is having so much fun, it’s infectious. At times she breaks into song. There are two episodes out so far -- one about an octopus that is freakily smart, the other about “one of the most fearsome animals” in the world, the tsetse fly. 

—Johanna Zorn

Land of Linkin’

• “There was something about this killing, on the side of a Denver street on a sunny June morning in 2020, that captured my attention,” writes NPR host and Highland Park resident Peter Sagal in “Killed For Walking a Dog” (The Atlantic) “I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to Bella Thallas. Maybe it was her age—about that of my own daughters—or maybe it was the specific circumstances of her murder, which were both mundane and completely insane. … We all now live in a kind of permanent Sarajevo. Whenever we go outside, to work or school, to walk our dogs, to attend our parades, we know without saying and accept without protest that gunshots might ring out and take our lives or the lives of those we love. But we don’t think about it—we don’t scan the rooftops, because there’s no point. The gun could come from anywhere at any time, and so we do what humans do: We pretend that nothing is wrong and go about our day.”

• The Tribune’s website redesign gets an upvote from me.

• Here is a definitive list of scientists who became creationists after studying the evidence.

• A.V. Club quickly turns around reviews of “Saturday Night Live” along with video clips in case you’re not inclined to DVR it. Last weekend’s show earned a D+ rating.

• I want to call your attention again to “Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders,” an excellent ongoing Chicago Tribune podcast series hosted by my former colleagues Stacy St. Clair and Christy Gutowski. On the production team at At Will Media is Alexandra Zaslow, whose father, Jeff, was an advice columnist at the Sun-Times for 14 years and a best-selling author of nonfiction books. Jeff, who was a friend, died at 53 in a car crash 10 years ago. So I reached out to Alexandra to tell her how proud I thought Jeff would be of where she’s landed. She replied, “It does bring me joy to know I'm somewhat following in my dad's footsteps, although those are big shoes to fill. I often wonder what he'd be up to now — he may have even had his own podcast!”

• You can now shop online at Goodwill.

• “Textbooks on the shelves at (the Christian fundamentalist school founded by Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey) now teach students that ‘God regulated but did not forbid slavery,’" reports Mark Maxwell of KSDK-TV St. Louis in his fact-check of an attack ad from Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. “Teachers are instructed to ask students to compare outlawing abortion to ending slavery, and to ask students to explain the strengths of the Three-Fifths Compromise, the part of the U.S. Constitution that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person.”

• Tip of the fedora to the person who took the video from Black Satan’s heavy metal song "Satan of Hell"and overdubbed it with “Yakety Sax.”

• The Picayune Sentinel on the air: On Thursdays at 4:30 p.m., WCPT-AM 820 host Joan Esposito and I chat about ideas raised in the new issue. The listen-live link is here.

• The Picayune Sentinel preview: Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. I talk with WGN-AM 720 host John Williams about what’s making news and likely to be grist for the PS mill. The WGN listen-live link is here.

Leave the disparagement to Proft!

In a Tribune op-ed published Tuesday, Republican political consultant/talk radio host/propagandist Dan Proft wrote, “The playbook by Democrats is always the same. Discredit those who disagree with you. Shame opponents by calling them racists. Disparage them with personal attacks.”

But apropos of disparagement via personal attacks, Twitter finds more than a dozen instances of Proft body-shaming JB Pritzker by referring to him as “Jelly Belly,” including:

Dan Proft @DanProft

Per Illinois' pending "reopening" months after the fact, Gov. Jelly Belly has again proven himself to be a man of science, data and cupcakes but mostly cupcakes.

Dan Proft @DanProft

An "old injury" is what Gov. Jelly Belly says is the cause of his leg fracture. He must've aggravated the leg injury he suffered when he tripped and fell chasing the ice cream truck.

Dan Proft @DanProft

New Illinois state song. My bologna has a first name. It's J-E-L-L-Y. My bologna has a second name. It's B-E-L-L-Y. Oh, I love to eat it everyday and if you ask me why I'll say: because Jelly Belly has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

chicagotribune.comColumn: Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Illinois lawmakers talk of ethics reform, but taxpayers know it’s all bolognaTalk of ethics reform by Illinois politicians is an inside joke, and taxpayers are the punch line

Among his other activities, Proft is running a PAC that’s flogging the candidacy of Republican gubernatorial challenger Darren Bailey, pictured below:

Bonus link: Better Government Association head and contributing Tribune columnist David Greising debates Proft on “Fake News” and the merits of traditional journalism. Proft begins by mispronouncing “Greising” in a contemptuous five-minute introduction.

Crank or not a crank?

I sneered at this news photo showing members of the Philadelphia Phillies carrying on crazily and spraying Champagne all over the locker room because they earned a wild-card berth in the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Good for them. They’re one of 12 teams — out of 30 — to make the postseason. High-fives are in order. Slaps on the back. Fist pumps. But goggle-wearing, protect-the-locker-room-with-sheets-of-plastic delirium?

Only crazed fans will remember or care who was in the 2022 wild-card spots, or any playoff spots for that matter. But when I mentioned on Facebook that this is like having a wild celebration for fifth grade graduation — Yeah. Congratulations. You still have a lot of work to do — some so-called friends chided me for having such a sour take.

“Who hurt you?” asked one.

“I’ll let them know to get off your lawn,” said another.

“What's wrong with a little celebration?” added another. “I'm throwing a flag for curmudgeonliness! Five yards.” (More than a dozen likes on that one.)

Others agreed with me: “The new rule should be, Champagne baths are only for World Series winners.” “Save it for winning the pennant at least,” and so on.

So I’ll put it to a jury of readers:

Well said!

You may not want to get involved in politics, but you can’t stop politics from getting involved in you. A fascist Republican movement is coming after our freedoms. It’s time to fight back. … Mark Jacob

Disturbing, extremist and otherwise unfit candidates dot the national landscape in 2022 like monkeypox, from Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania to J.D. Vance in Ohio to Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, but Arizona surely takes the highest honors for the sheer concentration of ranting incompetents who threaten the democratic process. … Mona Charen

Mary Schmich: Help some kids go traveling

My former colleague Mary Schmich posts occasional column-like entries on Facebook. Here, reprinted with permission, is her most recent offering:

A few months ago, Dave Weindling emailed to ask if I’d participate in a fundraiser for the Farther Foundation. I didn’t know Dave and hadn’t heard of the Farther Foundation but it didn’t take me long to say yes.

Good people (hi, Charlie Meyerson) vouched for them, and the foundation’s mission spoke to me: To give young students who couldn’t otherwise afford it the chance to go traveling, to see the world and learn from it.

I was once one of those young students and going to France at 19, which I couldn’t have done without financial aid from Pomona College, changed my life.

So on Thursday, Oct. 13, I’ll be one of the “storytellers” in the Farther Foundation’s “StorySlam” event at Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn. The other storytellers are a diverse lot (more interesting than I am too!). I’ll tell the story of what happened to me in France, which includes the heretofore untold story of how I wound up living in a van in Paris with two guys named Fred.

I hope some of you will come support what is sure to be a very fun event. Here's the website. It includes details on the event.

We all have a lot of demands on our time and money, but this is a cause dear to my heart. To quote the foundation’s official statement:

Too many students in and around Chicago live in communities defined by historic inequities and have their ambitions stifled by disinvestment and lack of opportunities based on race, ethnicity and other factors unrelated to their talents and aspirations.

Farther Foundation enables students to break free from these constraints and experience the wider world through educational travel.

— Mary Schmich

Carol Marin (DePaul University)

Minced Words

Chicago journalism legend Carol Marin joined “The Mincing Rascals” podcast panel Wednesday for the first and I hope not last time. Host John Williams, Austin Berg and I were also around the virtual table. Among the topics we discussed was the Workers’ Rights Amendment, a proposed change in the Illinois Constitution that will be on the ballot in November but has not gotten much public attention. Berg, of the Illinois Policy Institute, is opposed, so I guess that means I should be in favor. Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can now hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.

Re: Tweets

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor and so can’t be included in the classic Tweet of the Week contest in which the template for the poll does not allow the use of images. Subscribers vote for their favorite, and I post the winner here every Thursday:

Neil Lowenthal @NeilLowenthal1

I'm always game to try something new - but is this even legal?

The new nominees for Tweet of the Week:

• If being sexy is a crime, you’re free to go. — @Jake_Vig

• Me: [opens fridge]. Bag of decaying broccoli: Pleas- . Me: [closes fridge] — @kloogans

• It says a lot about our educational system that Northwestern is smack dab in the middle of the country. —@pittdave13

• One does not joke about gender-neutral, indefinite, personal pronouns. — @JimmerThatisAll

• Celebrities say “We’re just like you” Then they name their kids Fruitcake and Archipelago. — @smiles_and_nods

• My boss calls me "The Computer." Not because of my calculation skills but because I go to sleep when left unattended for 15 minutes. — unknown origin

• Rick Springfield (now middle-aged): I wish that I had Jessie's grill. — various

• Now most chefs will tell you to flip the fish sticks at eight minutes like the Gorton's box says, but readers of this blog know I like to do things just a lit-tle bit differently. — @kipconlon

• So an NFT is I give you money and I get nothing, do I have that right? — @bazecraze

• No, I don't know the Muffin Man. Stop namedropping. — @Benjones2Jones

Vote here in the poll. For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.

Cheer Chat

Tickets are now on sale for the Songs of Good Cheer winter holiday caroling parties at the Old Town School of Folk Music. For the 24th year, my former Chicago Tribune colleague Mary Schmich and I will co-host a singalong of familiar and unfamiliar seasonal songs led by a stellar band of local musicians who consent to let us play along with them.

Meanwhile, the Old Town School has expanded on the basic idea and is presenting “Spooky Singalong” on Oct. 30 “featuring a live band made up of stupendous Old Town School teaching artists.” I think they missed a bet not calling it “Songs of Good Fear.”

A few years back, Mary and I joined the Pickin’ Bubs at the late, lamented Grafton Pub for a “Songs of Bad Cheer” evening of gloomy, gory folk songs such as “Katie Dear.”

We’re still in the planning stages for Good Cheer, but “Carol of the Bells” looks like a lock this year because it’s based on a Ukrainian folk song (and it contains the lyrical fragment from which I stole the title of the show). And though we try to keep politics out of SOGC, it seems appropriate to show some solidarity with Ukraine.

Shows:

• Friday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m.

• Saturday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m.

• Saturday, Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m.

• Sunday, Dec. 11, 4 p.m.

Call 773-728-6000, go online or visit the box office in person at 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. A portion of ticket proceeds benefits the McCormick Foundation Communities Fund.

Tickets are $50 for the general public and $48 for Old Town School members, and they tend to sell out quickly.

Tune of the Week

I’m not sure how “Wait Till the Clouds Roll By” escaped my notice for so long. It’s a wistful, romantic 19th century parlor song that’s been recorded many times over the years. Vaudeville-era pop singers, folkies and even old-time music legend Uncle Dave Macon cut versions of it, but if I’d ever heard them, they all were evidently too stately and lugubrious to catch my ear.

This peppier take featuring the bluegrassy high tenor of Larry Perkins and the vocal accompaniment of Urbana’s own Andrea Zonn was a revelation. What a great song this is!

From Folk Song a Week:

In an 1884 newspaper interview, in response to the question “What was the most successful song ever written during your existence?” the publisher’s reply was, “Oh, ‘Wait Till the Clouds Roll By’ had by far the greatest sale. We sold over 75,000 copies in a single month. It was the easy, jingly music did it, and the sentimental words.”

“J T Wood” and “H J Fulmer” (the names under which the song was published) were actually pseudonyms of the American musical arranger Charles Pratt. He used the same pseudonyms to claim authorship for ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean’, which of course was –- at the very least –- not an entirely original composition.

Consult the complete Tune of the Week archive!

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