The Tribune staff may have legitimate concerns that they would like to address with management. But they also need to accept the fact that no one except Alden wanted the Trib, including the majority of the non-Alden shareholders. Whining that other profitable businesses of Alden should subsidize the Trib is just nonsense. I am not sure what they hope to accomplish in the 'Town Hall', but I will register to attend to find out. I assume that they are trying to develop some broader public support for their concerns. But arguing that management should spend more money and make less profit is probably a losing proposition.
And for local interest. The Illinois murder rate in 2020 was 9.2 per 100,000 as compared to Florida's 5.9. Chicago's murder rate was 28 and Jacksonville was 10.8. Also interesting is that the 2020, murder rate for Illinois, excluding Chicago, is 3.3. There were 200,000 FOID card holders in Chicago and 2,000,000 in the rest of the state in 2020. That is10 times more legal gun owners and about 1/10th the murder rate. I surmise that there is an urban crime problem that has little or no relationship to legal gun owners.
Marc, I always find your comments intelligent, civil, and well supported. Not a cherry picking of data. I remember doing research when I was surprised by a similar article on murder rates a while back. I looked at the top 20 cities ranked by murders per 100,000 people and found only Tulsa (14th) had a republican mayor. Las Vegas (6th) elected a democratic mayor who switched to republican in 2021. Obviously that is not the only reason that those cities are the top 20, but let's take all the data in when making accusations.
Froomkin also said the probelm is the "failure of the national media to fully explain the positive economic news and inflation’s roots in intractable international conditions and the extraordinary pricing power of monopolistic corporations." This is complete nonsense, unsupported by any facts or economic theory. Monetary Theory posits that the excessive increase in the money supply causes economy wide inflation. There are only four ways to reduce the money supply.
The Federal Reserve is doing what it can with quantitative tightening (selling bonds on its balance sheet) and interest rate increases which both reduce the money supply.
The only thing that the Federal government can do to reduce inflation is to cut spending or increase taxes (or both) with the net effect of reducing the deficit, which reduces the money supply. Biden's tax and spending policy continue to increase the deficit. And his proposed investments, which are not paid for by his tax proposals would further increase the deficit. The Republicans have said they want to cut spending, although this is vague and unspecific.
Neither gives me any confidence but if Froomkin wants to rant about the media failing to rebut obvious nonsense then we need to include the nonsense that corporations or supply chains or commodity prices or foreign governments or price gouging have anything to do with inflation. Likewise, the absurdity that subsidizing or capping any consumer price (like drugs or gas or day care) has any effect on inflation.
spot on, MM. at the risk of oversimplifying, inflation is caused/perpetuated by 2 things: 1) too much $ chasing too few goods &/or services, and 2) consumer expectations of inflation. the feds - in both the biden and trump administrations - poured trillions of $ into an economy facing and struggling with gummed up supply chains - voila! 2% inflation goes to 8-9% inflation. i would also add the incompetence of the Fed, in misreading the strength of inflationary forces, and acting without due urgency to arrest the pent up inflation.
Instead of criticising Pfleger’s supporters for rallying to his side, maybe it would be better if the media refrained from publicising accusations until there are charges. I don’t know if that was ever the standard, but it seems more than reasonable to me. Reporting this kind of stuff is mainly done because it’s salacious and titillating, and thus, makes for easy click bait, and as you point out, half the time both the accuser and the accused are left in a kind of limbo when the accusations go unsubstantiated (I would have thought “unable to prove” and “unsubstantiated “ meant the same thing).
I disagree that the Sun Times’ letter writer’s point was sobering; I think it’s balderdash. The idea that someone who has been a victim of sexual abuse might be hesitant to come forward just because they wouldn’t be able to take the trauma of hearing a few voices expressing doubt about their allegations seems like a stretch to me, and even if it isn’t, so what ? Is that really an argument for what amounts to disavowing the presumption of innocence? I’m sure the writer thinks that it is, which is why she characterises anyone that makes an accusation as a “victim-survivor” and why she describes the mere casting of doubt as making an accuser “unsafe”. This isn’t an expression of rational concern, but rather, an appeal to emotional hemophilia.
re the john lampinen letter - he had important things to say - he just took way too long to say it. not that he was trying to be funny, but brevity continues to be the soul of wit.
Agree completely with Lampinen. Thanks for sharing his view.
Also thanks for the recommendation, just ordered my first Christmas present, Neil Steinberg's book.
The Tribune staff may have legitimate concerns that they would like to address with management. But they also need to accept the fact that no one except Alden wanted the Trib, including the majority of the non-Alden shareholders. Whining that other profitable businesses of Alden should subsidize the Trib is just nonsense. I am not sure what they hope to accomplish in the 'Town Hall', but I will register to attend to find out. I assume that they are trying to develop some broader public support for their concerns. But arguing that management should spend more money and make less profit is probably a losing proposition.
Fun with numbers! Here are a couple of different takes on the red state murder stats: https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/12/the-lefts-funny-new-lie-its-the-red-states-with-more-crime/
https://nypost.com/2022/10/11/dems-shameless-ploy-to-blame-crime-rise-on-red-states/
And for local interest. The Illinois murder rate in 2020 was 9.2 per 100,000 as compared to Florida's 5.9. Chicago's murder rate was 28 and Jacksonville was 10.8. Also interesting is that the 2020, murder rate for Illinois, excluding Chicago, is 3.3. There were 200,000 FOID card holders in Chicago and 2,000,000 in the rest of the state in 2020. That is10 times more legal gun owners and about 1/10th the murder rate. I surmise that there is an urban crime problem that has little or no relationship to legal gun owners.
Marc, I always find your comments intelligent, civil, and well supported. Not a cherry picking of data. I remember doing research when I was surprised by a similar article on murder rates a while back. I looked at the top 20 cities ranked by murders per 100,000 people and found only Tulsa (14th) had a republican mayor. Las Vegas (6th) elected a democratic mayor who switched to republican in 2021. Obviously that is not the only reason that those cities are the top 20, but let's take all the data in when making accusations.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-city-rankings/cities-with-most-murders
Froomkin also said the probelm is the "failure of the national media to fully explain the positive economic news and inflation’s roots in intractable international conditions and the extraordinary pricing power of monopolistic corporations." This is complete nonsense, unsupported by any facts or economic theory. Monetary Theory posits that the excessive increase in the money supply causes economy wide inflation. There are only four ways to reduce the money supply.
The Federal Reserve is doing what it can with quantitative tightening (selling bonds on its balance sheet) and interest rate increases which both reduce the money supply.
The only thing that the Federal government can do to reduce inflation is to cut spending or increase taxes (or both) with the net effect of reducing the deficit, which reduces the money supply. Biden's tax and spending policy continue to increase the deficit. And his proposed investments, which are not paid for by his tax proposals would further increase the deficit. The Republicans have said they want to cut spending, although this is vague and unspecific.
Neither gives me any confidence but if Froomkin wants to rant about the media failing to rebut obvious nonsense then we need to include the nonsense that corporations or supply chains or commodity prices or foreign governments or price gouging have anything to do with inflation. Likewise, the absurdity that subsidizing or capping any consumer price (like drugs or gas or day care) has any effect on inflation.
spot on, MM. at the risk of oversimplifying, inflation is caused/perpetuated by 2 things: 1) too much $ chasing too few goods &/or services, and 2) consumer expectations of inflation. the feds - in both the biden and trump administrations - poured trillions of $ into an economy facing and struggling with gummed up supply chains - voila! 2% inflation goes to 8-9% inflation. i would also add the incompetence of the Fed, in misreading the strength of inflationary forces, and acting without due urgency to arrest the pent up inflation.
Instead of criticising Pfleger’s supporters for rallying to his side, maybe it would be better if the media refrained from publicising accusations until there are charges. I don’t know if that was ever the standard, but it seems more than reasonable to me. Reporting this kind of stuff is mainly done because it’s salacious and titillating, and thus, makes for easy click bait, and as you point out, half the time both the accuser and the accused are left in a kind of limbo when the accusations go unsubstantiated (I would have thought “unable to prove” and “unsubstantiated “ meant the same thing).
I disagree that the Sun Times’ letter writer’s point was sobering; I think it’s balderdash. The idea that someone who has been a victim of sexual abuse might be hesitant to come forward just because they wouldn’t be able to take the trauma of hearing a few voices expressing doubt about their allegations seems like a stretch to me, and even if it isn’t, so what ? Is that really an argument for what amounts to disavowing the presumption of innocence? I’m sure the writer thinks that it is, which is why she characterises anyone that makes an accusation as a “victim-survivor” and why she describes the mere casting of doubt as making an accuser “unsafe”. This isn’t an expression of rational concern, but rather, an appeal to emotional hemophilia.
re the john lampinen letter - he had important things to say - he just took way too long to say it. not that he was trying to be funny, but brevity continues to be the soul of wit.