No respect due Lauf's 'litterbox' claim
No respect due Lauf's 'litterbox' claim
& a response to those inflamed by last week's CWBChicago post
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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.
Crackpottery in illinois
How goofy do you have to be to believe this nonsense?” writes Rich Miller, from whose Capitol Fax blog I grabbed the image of this Twitter exchange. “It’s just so silly and downright stupid.”
Republican Lauf is challenging incumbent Democrat Bill Foster in the 11th U.S. Congressional District and is embracing a nutty, widely debunked culture-warrior accusation. Social media is highly amused:
Notes and comments from readers —lightly edited —- along with my responses
Some of these messages are in reference to items in last week’s issues of the Picayune Sentinel. I received by far the most feedback on Thursday’s item on the crime-news website CWBChicago in which I called on the proprietors to shed their cloak of anonymity and put their names to their product the way real journalists do.
This opinion inflamed fans of the site, who gleefully dogpiled me on Twitter:
@Grolier1 — LOL! This screams of jealousy and insecurity. Poor Eric .
@Parker19872 — Sad seeing old people who for years have been politically motivated get upset when real news is reported. Whatever. The Trib is irrelevant.
@Stupette1974 — Bro’, you’re just mad because you’ve been rendered irrelevant in the digital age. You’re now the stale journo our parents used to read. The shocking part you haven’t grasped is that you are out of the game and someone newer, fresher, younger is doing it better. Take a (permanent) seat.
@AnneElliotNS21 — I didn’t know one could simultaneously be smug, sanctimonious and utterly clueless, but you’ve proven it here. You and the Trib goofballs collectively aren’t a fraction of the actual journalists the CWBChicago team is.
I found myself wondering how many of those who chimed in to bash me even read the item. Clearly quite a few of the commenters were unaware that I haven’t been at the Tribune since June 2021. And many didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that what I wrote wasn’t critical of CWBChicago’s reporting or its accuracy — in fact I noted that I’m unaware of the site ever making any serious factual errors.
CWBChicago has become a significant player on the local journalism scene — frequently cited by legacy media — and has a mission and approach so different from the Picayune Sentinel that it’s beyond obtuse to suggest I’m envious of what it has accomplished. I criticized the site only for its insistence on anonymity.
And didn’t most of us learn in middle school that responding to criticism with “you’re just jealous!” is a pathetically weak and vapid response?
CWB has marshalled its resources to cover crime and criminal justice issues in detail. It ignores all other stories, so declaring its journalism to be superior to the journalism practiced by mainstream media outlets with a far broader mission is neither useful nor illustrative.
I admit it’s a good question to ask whether crime coverage in print and on broadcast outlets is sufficient and proportional. Yes, there seems to be enough of an appetite for it to sustain a site like CWB — and, again, I have no problem with that, as those who read for meaning will realize — but is it therefore a journalistic failure for outfits with a broader mission not to devote more time and space to crime, and correspondingly less time and space to other topics?
@Chicagos_Toast. — What do stalkers and Zorn have in common? Discounting the word "No." Eric was told no twice by CWB, and he persists. No means no, you creep! No is non-negotiable. If a stalker, as Zorn demonstrates (he is) here, chooses not to hear it, he's clearly trying to control his victim.
Tim Hecke, who identifies himself as the “managing partner” of the site when he responds to email, declined my interview request in March. I followed up in September politely asking if he would talk with me about the narrower issue of why CWBChicago insisted on anonymity. He declined. Stalking? No, Bunky, that’s journalism. I suspect Hecke knows this, which is why he hasn’t tried to take out a restraining order on me.
@Docwal3 — Hello Eric, CWB is the real deal in Chicago journalism. Nobody cares about your opinion.
The repeated insistence that “nobody” cares what I think is rich coming in the context of a lengthy thread of seething comments from people who cared enough about what I thought to post about it. Hello, @Docwal3, you care!
@rwsscott — You say that CWBChicago ought to be more transparent, but how does that demand apply to the Tribune? Your argument is that we can't evaluate the motives of anonymous reporters and editors. But what information does the Tribune give us about the agenda of its sources, editors and advertisers?
Really? You don’t understand the difference? Having names attached to stories that appear in a publication whose sources of funding are fairly transparent gives readers important clues and bolsters a sense of accountability.
And now let’s leave the fetid swamps of Twitter for some actual e-mail:
H.G. — CWBChicago’s success is a direct result of shrinking newsrooms. Most of what they cover is not covered — or is covered late — by the dailies. Not because the dailies are hiding anything, but because they have fewer reporters on the cop beat.
While I, too, was skeptical of the site at first, I came to appreciate the fact that it's compiling all these crime stories that the city would rather not be out there. They've raised the stakes and are serving as a source for other media outlets, especially the TV stations. Without this coverage, most people would have little window into the rising crime downtown, which is something the city continues to downplay.
The majority of serious crime in this city — carjackings, assaults, lootings, etc — are done by people from areas of the city that are dominated by people of color. Crime is connected to lack of opportunities and historic segregation. But the fact is that the faces of crime are largely people of color from these neighborhoods. No different than any big urban metropolis.
Yet I sense that CWB writers and editors fear critics will "out" them as racists simply for publishing what are the basics in any daily police report: Who, what, where, when, how. The police blotter is not about contextualizing crime, or theorizing the reasons for crime. It's just the facts about what happened, which is the service of this kind of traditional reporting.
Everyone I talk to reads CWBChicago and they couldn’t care less about the lack of bylines.
While I’m all for transparency, I see this concern of yours as small beans. It's a new era, and critics driven by white guilt and a savior complex are primed and ready to twist things to make other writers look like they’re out of line.
But you’ve opened a great discussion about media literacy. In the beginning, the site seemed like it had kind of a "cop" voice, so I was suspicious. But then it got a bit more organized and professional, and now it just seems like the old-fashioned police blotter that newspapers used to have.
But because people no longer have media literacy,and social media is only too willing to call people racist for doing nothing but reporting facts, I suspect the folks at CWBChicago just don't want to deal with it. So they're not using bylines. But clearly, they've got momentum. Everyone reads it, the local stations use it, and putting all that information out there has clearly rattled the powers that be.
There’s a fairly long tradition in media of not identifying suspects by race unless there is a good reason to do so — describing a perp who is on the loose or raising the possibility that a hate crime has occurred.
Publishing booking photographs — mug shots — can certainly appear to be a workaround; a way to inject race into coverage without actually using racially identifying words.
Why do media outlets run booking photos anyway? They show people at their lowest moments, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, a set of mug shots is worth two thousand. And most of those words are synonyms for "guilty."
David L. — Complaints about racism in CWBChicago are meritless. Reporting that Black offenders commit violent crime in disportionate numbers is simply stating a fact. Discussion and debate over why this is true and how to best address it is totally valid, but it does not change the facts, no matter how uncomfortable they are or contrary to a desired political narrative.
Well, of course that’s one reason why an interview with those who write and edit CWBChicago could be enlightening. Is a stream of decontextualized crime reporting intended to imply or mean anything? To suggest any solutions?
Imagine if there were a site that simply reported on serious traffic accidents. Or deaths in hospitals. And only hinted at broader problems on the roads or in the healthcare system , without troubling ever to advert to solutions. Would fans be cheering that as “journalism?”
Steven Dahlman, Editor of Loop North — I definitely share your concerns about CWBChicago. Loop North used to utilize a lot of their reporting but we, unfortunately, had a falling out about a couple years ago. I was an early supporter of CWBChicago and tried to coax from them a more professional online presence. I made the case for using bylines and real names. They said they feared retribution. I've felt the quality of their writing has been less than professional ,but I think it has gotten a little better. I consider them crime writers and not so much journalists.
The last straw for me was when they put their own watermark on video obtained from the City of Chicago, a watermark so big it obscured some details. Here is that story/video and here is the follow-up where they admit the video came from “city of Chicago surveillance footage.”
I complained to the city but got no response. At some point I decided CWBChicago was not a good wagon to hitch to. The writing can get a little sloppy and opinionated, and yet there is no byline, no masthead, no taking responsibility for mistakes should they occur.
Yet outlets keep validating them, either oblivious or choosing to ignore the unprofessional tone of their writing.
I doubt they are racists. And I don't think they are connected with the police, though I keep hearing that. All I'm certain of is that their background is not in journalism.
I like what they are doing, in general, but they are rough around the edges and do not appear interested in practicing good, responsible journalism.
Watermarking police video to pass it off as your own is bad form. At the risk of being accused again of stalking I wrote to Hecke to see if he wanted to respond to this criticism. He offered to give me a comment off the record. I declined.
J.E. — Within your story on CWBChicago you embedded one of their tweets illustrating how the site features a running annual tally of the number of felony suspects out on bail who are rearrested for allegedly trying to kill or shoot someone else ( and sometimes succeeding).
But if you follow that tweet to the CWB story behind it you see only a glancing mention that the suspect in the brutal beating of carjacking victim Jin Lew was “on bail for a pending stolen motor vehicle case,” which has always been and probably always will be a bailable offense. In hindsight, should the judge have known that accused predator, Termaine Patterson, was capable of allegedly committing a heinous crime?
Why?
CWB doesn’t even attempt to say. It simply seems to want to get readers riled up. That’s not particularly illuminating journalism if you ask me.
The thumbtacks and yarn are simply implied. As it stands, the idea that a judge or prosecutor screwed up or that the system for pre-trial release ought to be different is simply innuendo. Should car-theft be a non-bailable offense? Was the initial crime violent? CWBChicago has the bandwidth to offer such details as well as serious policy recommendations but chooses not to.
John — Regarding your dialogue on the hijab with Ahmed Rehab, allow me to quote from the Quaran: "O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters, and the believing women, to put on their jalabeeb [when they go out]; this will make it more likely that they will be recognised [as chaste women] and will not be harassed. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." — Surah Al Ahzab, Verse 59
That is an inherently oppressive edict, which Rehab either does not understand or acknowledge. It is oppressive because it places the onus on women to regulate men's behavior. The responsibility for avoiding harassment is the responsibility of the men doing the harassing, not the women being harassed.
Margaret B. — I found myself ultimately agreeing with Mr. Rehab but I am and will always be uncomfortable with hijabs, with Catholic orders that veil nuns and with Orthodox Jewish law that mandates thencovering of the hair of married women. It seems to be a common theme of major religions that men are so weak they must be protected from women. That is silly and insulting.
Robin B. — My father was an engineer who minored in English. He never cursed and told me it was a sign of a deficient lexicon. I'm sorry, Dad, but sometimes “fuck” is the only word to use. Especially after having Trump and his sideshow torture us for 6 years (so far).
I’m tired of that old saw that says using curse words is a sign of a limited vocabulary. Some of the smartest, wittiest, best educated and most eloquent people I know unfurl vulgarities at times with an amusing to breathtaking deftness. I’ve never noticed any correlation between a fondness for profanity and a vocabulary size.
Robert P. — The "Indian Boundary" — as in the name of the Chicago park and the Cook County golf course referenced in a letter last week — is a part of this area's local history. The line was a bone of contention between Chief Black Hawk and the early settlers in Illinois. The Black Hawk War in northern Illinois was a defining conflict, where after the Native Americans were defeated, they were forced to move out of northern Illinois, notably all of DuPage County.
So I think it is kind of neat that the golf course name serves as a memory of this. Here is what the 2022 edition of DuPage Roots says:
"The first European settlers in DuPage County found the Potawatomi a cooperative people who did not heed the call to join the Sauks during the 1832 Black Hawk War. Chief Black Hawk himself bore resentments as far back as 1803 because of the Treaty of St. Louis. Later, when the Indian Boundary Treaty was established in 1816, tensions were further heightened. The boundary was a ten-mile-wide stretch of land, dedicated to a future canal, starting from the shore of Lake Michigan and extending southwest through the southeast section of what is now Downers Grove Township and part of Lisle."
Jay G. — Chicago’s "Museum" of Ice Cream is an utter joke. There is one small room that has some very pedestrian historical artifacts/photos of old-timey ice cream paraphernalia. It's nothing but a very expensive Instagram site for people to take photos of their (little) kids in colorful (pink) backgrounds. There are a few rooms of "activities" that are geared towards the 10-and-under crowd (a couple of holes of miniature golf, etc.). It's a huge waste of money (tickets up to $57 for adults), and I am shocked that it has lasted as long as it has (it opened in mid-July).
At this writing, Trip Advisor gives the Museum of Ice Cream in Tribune Tower a three star rating out of five and features an equal number of reviews calling it “terrible” —
If I could leave a review with a negative number, I would. This is a waste of money — and not inexpensive — unless you are maybe 4 years old. No history of ice cream. Just silly stuff like whack a mole and games for really young.
— and reviews deeming it “excellent” —
This place is the BOMB! All the ice cream you want to eat!!! Cute rooms with ice cream history. Interactive rooms for kids, water gun race, basketball, whack-a-mole, and the sprinkle pit is BETTER than one thinks! I went with two kids. They LOVED it! Would do again and bring friends and have a birthday party too. Fabulous.
Steven K. — The winning politically themed tweet of the week —
— makes some interesting points, but allow me to offer few amendments: “I’m not a gun enthusiast, but I would never interfere with anyone else’s choice to own a firearm”, or “I’m not a conservative, but I would never approve of mob action to stop conservatives from speaking on college campuses or anywhere else.” She could also more accurately phrase the first item in her diatribe by saying “I’m not wealthy or privileged, but I believe I should work extra hard to help cover the debts of those who are.” Welcome to It Really Isn’t Always About You 101.
OK, but please stop with the smug assertion that the far left is singularly engaged in suppression of speech and ideas. Try the McCarthy-era blacklists. Try Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell’s 1999 effort to take “The Teletubbies” off public TV because he felt the character Tinky-Winky was gay Try the 2003 country radio boycott of the band then known as the Dixie Chicks for criticizing President George W. Bush.
Try the efforts of conservatives to ban from the curriculum such books as “Catcher in the Rye,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Slaughterhouse Five”, the Harry Potter novels, and “Beloved,” to name just a few titles.
Try the efforts of former President Donald Trump to get fired Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, Katy Tur, Paul Krugman, Chuck Todd, Kathleen Sebelius, Donna Brazile and others.
Try Trump’s futile calls for boycotts of companies he felt had crossed or disrespected him, including Apple, Harley Davidson, Nabisco, Rolling Stone, Univision and Macy’s.
Think of how Trump tried in 2017 to have San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick fired or suspended for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence against Black people. And think of how NFL owners went along with that effort by keeping Kaepernick out of the league.
Or just take a look at the demands on the right these days that teachers not be allowed to dwell on America’s ugly history with race but instead be forced to inculcate students with something called “patriotic history” that glosses over the unsavory elements in our collective past and promotes shallow jingoism.
Jim S. — I believe our governor prefers "JB Pritzker” to "J.B. Pritzker.” He apparently thinks of “JB” as his name rather than his initials. His political website and the office of the governor's website as well as his Facebook page all use JB. Do you have a reason to use the periods?
It’s clearly newspaper/Associated Press style, though I checked with Pritzker's press secretary, Jordan Abudayyeh, and she replied "We use JB without the periods!"
Given that it’s customary for publications to defer to people on the spelling, punctuations and even capitalization of their names, it’s unclear to me why “JB” hasn’t caught on. I plan to start using it.
Ya gotta see these tweets!
I often run across tweets that rely on visual humor and so can’t be included in the Tweet of the Week contest (the template for the poll does not allow the use of images). Here are a few good ones I’ve come across recently:
In fairness to those happenin’ dudes from the `70s, here’s my high school yearbook photo from 1976:
My mouth is open because I am saying “Don’t judge me!” And no, you can’t vote for it as the funniest image.
I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition.
There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!
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