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.
A lighter than usual issue this week as I’m off to the October Old Time Retreat in central West Virginia — “fiddle camp,” as I call it.
Crain’s steps away from newspaper endorsements, but the former editor of the Daily Herald rises in dissent
“Times have changed,” wrote Crain's Chicago Business group publisher and executive editor Jim Kirk in an editorial Monday explaining why his paper is “backing away from the practice of endorsing candidates for office.”
At this point in, say, the governor’s race, we are fairly confident most of our readers have already made up their minds. In fact, early voting has already begun. An endorsement, in that context, can do one of two things: either affirm for readers that their previously formed preference is correct, or give those who disagree a reason to think our coverage of the campaign and, unfortunately, everything else, is biased in favor of the endorsed candidate. … And given the plethora of political information that’s readily available now, continuing an endorsement tradition rooted in the days when such information was scarce is unnecessary.
Kirk wrote that Crain’s will “continue to provide a platform for people with diverse points of view to raise concerns and propose solutions to our region’s most pressing problems” in its pages. As any responsible publication should.
In 2004 Daily Herald endorsed John Kerry for president arguing that George W. Bush ceded his claim on the White House when he led the United States into the Iraq war under false pretenses. A significant number of subscribers cancelled to protest that endorsement (In a spirit of damned-if-you-do; damned-if-you-don’t, the Tribune, I seem to recall, lost substantially more for endorsing Bush).
That sounds like it could be an argument for abandoning presidential endorsements. It is only if you think newspapers should never offend anyone.
The cancellations caused concern, to be sure. But the experience taught us how to better present controversial viewpoints in a way that enables critics to respond as part of a debate rather than as part of a protest. We aimed to be respectful without pulling punches. We highlighted opportunities to respond. Beyond the obvious business sense that inspired this approach, it more importantly, if coincidentally, created an inclusive atmosphere the Fourth Estate ought to foster as part of its role in a free society.
I am proud of that 2004 endorsement not simply for the position it took but also in the way we all take pride in acts that require some degree of well-reasoned courage, in the way I am proud of other editorial positions the paper has taken when it would have been easier to look the other way. Combined with the journalism we do, editorials and endorsements are an integral part of saying who we are.
They say who we are to our readers, to our community, to those with influence, to those who pass and enforce laws, to those who need a hand, to those who wish to prosper, to those who would subvert, to those who would seek our endorsement. Combined with the journalism we do, these positions say who we are.
As importantly, they say it also to ourselves. Not just to the editorial writers or to the newsroom, but to every corner of the newspaper. It is not just a source of pride, but a reminder to all of us including the business side that there is a greater good, that this is who we are.
It is hard to pinpoint the cause of our era’s trend toward abandonment of endorsements and of editorials and opinion pages in general. Some of it, no doubt, is loss of resources. Some of it, no doubt, a fear of offending readers. Just this week, Crain's Chicago Business announced it too will no longer provide endorsements for major offices -- presumably because in this age, those endorsements are no longer relevant.
I view it mainly and sadly as the latest slope in the long, terrible decline of mattering.
I suspect conglomerates -- by nature of remote direction, Wall Street and perhaps-unavoidable cost-cutting – can lose sight of the communities where they publish. And if so, they lose sight of what newspapers really are and of the interconnectedness they always had with the communities they served.
We grew up hearing that the press is The Fourth Estate, perhaps without contemplating what that meant. Here’s what it meant: We were not just a business. We were a part of what makes self-government work. We had access to the powerful and also had their ear. We were part of what knits a community together.
We were an institution.
As an institution, a newspaper has both a relationship with its community and a stake in its health. We don’t just publish in it. We don’t just report on it. We live in it. We are part of the community and we care about it and the people in it. That is the point of the journalism a newspaper does. That is the point of engaging with the audience. That also is the point, even the obligation, to offer a forum for public debate, and the point, even the obligation, to offer thoughtful editorials and endorsements.
And while our readers may sometimes or even always disagree with our positions, most value our caring enough to offer them. One of the wonderful (and awful) things about the Web is we can measure readership and we can measure the path to subscriptions. Endorsements routinely measure high in both. Readers value them. But beyond that, the reception they garner is a reflection of the trust a newspaper has built with its readership and the relationship between them. They appreciate that while our editorials and endorsements come with a point of view, they will not come packed with the misinformation so heavily traveled by social media, ideological sites and political messaging.
Why not a byline? While this probably is not true at every newspaper, at the one where I worked, the members of the Editorial Board are listed on the editorial page and on the website. Why can’t the same thing be accomplished by columnists? Some of those things are. The more, as they say, the merrier. That said, the Tribune e-blasts opinion pieces at me seemingly all day. I see the headlines, pick them up assuming they represent the institution’s point of view, but frequently find many are op-ed pieces traveling under cover of Tribune darkness. Perhaps it is only me, but when I discover that, the weight of what they have to say matters less. They can engage, they can be provocative, they can make me think – all wonderful things. But they carry less weight.
I understand that some may give ground on this for local endorsements. There, they concede, the reader may be seeking advice. But what about the race for the White House? The top of ticket races for governor or the Senate? I agree that when it comes to those races, most voters do not need an editorial to help them decide. But well researched and well crafted (as with anything, the devil is in the details), these endorsements do succeed in elevating perspectives. And once elected, the performance of those in high office still will be subject to review. The endorsements add to the body of that review.
And of course, they help readers better understand the newspaper that has gained their loyalty.
Beyond that, I am reminded of my long ago days of running the marathon. If you are giving that race your best, inevitably toward the end, you hit The Wall. When I first started running the marathon, I would hit The Wall and wonder, “What am I doing out here?” But over time, I came to understand that The Wall is the point. It is the reason a runner races 26.2 miles. It is the test. Every runner needs to know: When you hit that Wall, do you respond as a repentant warrior or as a heroic champion?
The same is true of endorsements. We are not here for the morning jog. — John Lampinen
Don’t make up your mind yet about the sexual abuse accusations against the Rev. Michael Pfleger
Many news outlets have used the sports term “benched” in telling the story of how the Archdiocese of Chicago has at least temporarily removed the Rev. Michael Pfleger from the pulpit at St. Sabina Church as they investigate another old claim of sexual abuse against him. (Details here and here.)
In the latest allegation, a man in his late 40s has filed a claim with the archdiocese alleging the long-tenured activist South Side priest sexually abused him at St. Sabina Church in the late 1980s.
It’s reminiscent of early 2021 when three men came forward to accuse Pfleger of abusing them many decades ago. And, just like in early 2021, parishioners are now rallying around Pfleger to amplify his claims of innocence. (After a four-month investigation, the archdiocese concluded there was “insufficient reason to suspect” the allegations were true and reinstated Pfleger.)
And I’d like to reiterate what I wrote in early 2021 under the headline above. Nobody but Pfleger and his accusers yet know if there is truth to the allegations. Supporters who wear “We stand with Father Pfleger ” T-shirts say the man they have long known and respected could not possibly be guilty .
That’s not evidence, of course. Abusers are often good at covering their tracks. They almost have to be.
When it comes to sexual abuse of minors, “there are usually no witnesses, and oftentimes no forensic evidence, even in more recent cases,” Zach Hiner, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told me at the time.
David F. Pierre Jr., author of “Catholic Priests Falsely Accused” and other books highly skeptical of many allegations against the clergy, told me then, “There is a reason that statutes of limitations exist. It becomes almost impossible after so many years to prove a negative.”
Pierre referenced a May 2017 report from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that reviewed nearly 500 investigations into clerical sexual abuse in which church officials had reached a conclusion. That report categorized 40% of the allegations as substantiated, 8% as unsubstantiated and 52% as “unable to be proven,” a category that leaves wreckage in the lives of both accusers and the accused.
The reflexive public displays of support for Pfleger are making it harder for others who have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes to come forward. As it is, the average age that a victim-survivor discloses child sex abuse is 52. And reporting on Pfleger’s supporters’ aghast responses without providing adequate counterbalance only contributes to the message that victim-survivors of all types of sexual violence are getting loud and clear: telling our truths is not safe; we will not be believed. Stay silent.
In other words, once again we need to cool the understandable urge to have a hot take on Pfleger and wait for the investigation to run its course.
Steinberg’s latest book is a brilliant idea, brilliantly executed
Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg is my friend — we have lunch a couple of times a year and chatter via email fairly often — but in the beginning, I was just a fan. In the spring of 1995, headed to Florida on a family vacation, I packed a copy of “Complete and Utter Failure,” a compendium of commercial fiascos and boneheaded ideas. I found it such a great read, sentence for sentence, paragraph for paragraph, that I didn’t even wait to get home to reach out and leave a message on Steinberg’s work answering machine expressing my admiration.
Each day on the calendar gets its own entry, and, almanac style, Steinberg chooses one event from that day in local history and tells a tale. What emerges is the patchwork quilt of our stunning, infuriating, delightful city stitched together by Steinberg’s deft prose. He writes:
I have employed several organizing principles: first, what a resident or visitor should know about the city, the most significant parts. But also the most engaging, unexpected aspects. I cover subjects where Chicago affected the world, more than the world affecting Chicago. Thus, the first cell phone call is mentioned but Pearl Harbor is not. I explore transportation, industry, race, labor, finance, culture, architecture, science, sports, music, literature. I try to represent the broad spectrum of people who live in Chicago. … History needs a structure or it becomes too vast. I found the vignette to be a challenging, stylized form, like haiku, that focuses and concentrates.
If “EGD” isn’t the best of his nine books — and it might be simply for the informational value it imparts — it’s certainly the best conceived. Discount that assessment all you want knowing that Steinberg and I are friends, but you’ll be glad to own this book.
Land of Linkin’
I’ve got your “cancel culture” right here: "What happens when you put ideologues in charge of a university"describes how a conservative administration ousted liberal tenured faculty at Emporia State University in Kansas. “Faculty who were let go told Popular Information that they believe they were victims of an ideological purge, cast aside for failing to conform to the university's (right-wing) political agenda.”
“We have a murder problem in America — especially in red states.” “In 2020, homicide rates were a stunning 40 percent higher in the 25 states that former President Donald Trump won compared to the 25 won by current President Joe Biden. … Lexington, Kentucky, … has a homicide rate twice that of New York City and has a Republican mayor. Tulsa and Oklahoma City have Republican mayors, a Republican governor and murder rates that dwarf that of Los Angeles. Jacksonville was the murder capital of Florida in 2020 with its Republican mayor, governor and a stratospheric homicide rate that if it were matched in New York City would’ve added more than 1,000 murders that year.”
Mike Pesca, host of the lively daily podcast “The Gist with Mike Pesca,” is launching “Not Even Mad,” a “weekly one-hours podcast dedicated to joyful disagreement. He and co-hosts Virginia Heffernan, and Jamie Kirchick will address issues from different political perspectives, but they wear their ideologies loosely and are just as likely to disagree with established doctrine as they are with each other.”
I missed the recording of this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” because I was on the road to West Virginia, but you can find it here if for some weird reason it’s not already in your podcast feed. Host John Williams was joined by Austin Berg, Brandon Pope and Mark Guarino.
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.
Journalists against hedge fund vultures , an update
In case you didn’t get the email from the Tribune newsroom unions:
We’ve been fighting Alden Global Capital for dignified working conditions, equity in our workplaces and ultimately — news our communities deserve. … We need to dig deeper and go further against a company whose owners have a whole business model and way of life built on damaging publications and communities like ours.
That’s why we’re asking you to join us at our November 16 town hall, 6-7 p.m. Central Time. Register here.
You’ll hear from workers and affected community members about the choices we all face.
Tribune’s corporate ownership hikes rent on mobile home residents while shuttering newsrooms and driving out hardworking and underpaid staff, all while raising subscription rates to bolster their already deep pockets. Profiteers can’t be allowed to destroy our communities’ access to news.
Corporate bullies aren't used to people like us standing up to them. This campaign is opening even more opportunities to fight back and advance the cause of journalism.
The event is open to the public. Bring a friend. We truly hope to see you there.
Well said!
“If, in fact, Americans think Republicans could do a better job of the economy, then they have been successfully conned by a bunch of certified grifters, in large part because the national media has utterly failed to report the simple fact that the GOP has no actual plan to fight inflation. There is no legitimate reason to leave that utterly specious, self-defeating fantasy conclusion out there, unrebutted.” — Dan Froomkin in Presswatch
“The Trump Republican Party faces a strategic problem and a constitutional opportunity. The problem is that under Trump, the Republican Party is a minority force in American life. The opportunity is that an ever more unbalanced federal structure can enable a minority party based in many small states to control the majority population that lives in fewer big states.” — David Frum in The Atlantic
A conversation with Brandis Friedman and Paris Schutz
In August,2021, Charlie Meyerson and Sheila Solomon interviewed the two new anchors of WTTW-Ch. 11’s flagship news-talk program, “Chicago Tonight” for the occasional podcast series, “Chicago Media Talks.”
Friedman is the daughter of two medical doctors and hails from Mississippi. She studied mass communications at Dillard University in New Orleans before getting a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York City. Her husband, Jason Friedman, a former TV journalist, is CEO of The Cradle, where the couple adopted their son Miles in 2019. He is now 3, and his older brother, Blake, is 9.
Schutz, who is an accomplished pianist and singer, grew up in west suburban River Forest and went to St. Ignatius College Prep and then Syracuse University. As a child actor, he appeared at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Drury Lane and Candlelight Dinner Playhouse (as the lead in “Oliver!”) and the Lyric Opera.
Here’s a portion of the interview:
Meyerson: Paris, you started at WTTW as an intern in 2005. Back then, what was your dream job?
Schutz: I actually intended to do documentaries, be a filmmaker. I’m also a musician and thought maybe I’d do that as a career. I really was kind of all over the place. … I applied to intern with “Chicago Stories,” which was a documentary unit that WTTW had at the time. But they didn’t need an intern, so they sent me to “Chicago Tonight,” which did need an intern.
I was like, “Okay, I guess I’ll do that.” And that’s where I caught the bug of local news on live television. And just as an intern, being part of these stories that I remember as a kid that shaped the city of Chicago and the region and meeting some of these players, the political players, and the local newsmakers, that I had read about and watched, that was pretty exciting.
And I did sign on as a production assistant. I still didn’t know what my long-term goal was. I started to inch my way on the air only because I’d had a background as a kid and as a teenager naively thinking I could do it. And I was terrible for a long time. And the more I did it, the more I realized this was exactly what I wanted to be doing the kind of journalism that we were doing, it’s pretty much the only kind of journalism I feel like I can do.
Reporting was a thrill, chasing down the story. And the performance aspect of it is really exciting, it’s performing nonfiction, basically. So when I was an actor and a performer as a kid, something wasn’t quite right. I didn’t want to be doing fiction. I wanted to be doing nonfiction. Because I just felt more connected to that.
So this has been a dream job. But when I started off, I had no idea. I was just trying to figure out a way to get paid.
Solomon: Brandis, unlike Paris, you didn’t grow up in the Chicago area. So what brought you here about a decade ago? And what was your career goal at that time?
Friedman: It’s funny, you should mention that. But just because, you know, in college, I came to visit Chicago once and I don’t know why I hadn’t come before college, I’ve got family here. I just hadn’t done it. So on a visit, I did not have a very good trip. I just didn’t see the parts of Chicago that I know I love today.
I got sick on that trip. It got 70-something degrees in July, and I’m from Mississippi, and I thought that was ridiculous and abnormal. And so the truth is, I never would have chosen Chicago for myself until I did.
My husband is from the area. He grew up in Morton Grove. He’s a former TV news reporter. And both of us had done the market hop. I started in Wichita Falls, Texas, and then in Little Rock. And then I got out of the business briefly when I was in Kansas City and worked on Capitol Hill a little bit in Washington, D.C. And then that’s where I got back into TV, after being out for about a year and a half and started producing at the ABC affiliate there, because it was where I wanted to be— being out of it was not right for me.
And so I came to Chicago because we knew we wanted to be closer to family and his family was here and I wasn’t moving back to Mississippi. That’s when I got hired at WBBM News Radio as a freelance reporter and anchor because I thought it was a really great opportunity to get into the market and learn my way around.
And then I got lucky when the correspondent position opened at “Chicago Tonight” and just kind of applied. I was like, who knows, we’ll see what happens.
The executive producer at the time, Mary Field, called for an interview while I was walking my dog. And that very day, I was very disappointed because I learned I hadn’t gotten some other job that I thought I wanted, and looking back would have been all wrong for. So it worked out the way it was supposed to. I feel like I’m lucky to have this job because I really love and respect and appreciate the kinds of news that we tell and the way we tell those stories. And no disrespect to our colleagues at commercial stations. It’s just that some of that is not for me. I’ve done it before and I don’t want to do that now. I wouldn’t be where I am. So I recognize my job is a bit of a unicorn. But I’m thankful to have it.
I was visiting my parents in Ann Arbor over the weekend and texting with my sister who lives in town, dictating into my phone trying to arrange dinner at the house. Early? On the late side? She had some gardening to do and wondered about the schedule.
"Sex would be a good time," I texted her.
My own sister!
"Voice-to-text fail!" she texted back.
And an epic one.
Here are two more submitted when I posted this story to Facebook:
My hubby was stuck in traffic and texted me that he’d be 20 minutes late. I voice texted him that I’d hold off on starting the risotto for a bit and we’d just have “wine and nipples” when he got home. He was enthused.
Wine and NIBBLES Siri. NIBBLES.
Now for the last 12 years it’s been his favorite appetizer request. — Christina H.
A guy who does some work for us is named “Amel.” Text thread between me, him, and another of his colleagues, I was thanking him for his efforts and noted that…”anal was great!” — Karen J.
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:
[handing out candy to a kid with a really attractive father] So do you have one Christmas or two? — @colleen_eileen
Have any other songs been a graveyard smash, or just that one? — @chrisdowning
A haunted house but for awkward interactions. Someone pops out at you and you're like "nice to meet you" and they're like "haha actually we've already met.” — @ronnui_
I was shaken by my brush with death, but co-worker's, “no way, that's crazy” helped put things in perspective. — @kipconlon
Meat isn't always murder. If the cow holds a position of some renown, then meat is assassination. — @PopeAwesomeXIII
The fifth dentist that hates every toothpaste lives here in Redpine. He waits with heavy stones behind your medicine cabinet for a moment of shocking violence. — @RedPineHospital
A lot of childhood characters weren't so much beloved as there wasn't anything else on on TV. — @bestestname
Trying to imagine what it'd take for me to yell at a server. Like if I ordered an omelette and they brought me a bowl of rats? But I'd probably still just be like "I'm sorry, you seem to have brought me someone else's bowl of rats." — @TheThomason
If I was in a kids’ adventure movie, I'd be the "I don't know, guys..." guy. —@Bazecraze
THE WINNER: It’s important to teach your children moderation by only eating a couple pieces of Halloween candy when they’re around and eating the rest after they go to bed. — @reallifemommy3
I always get "Star Wars" and "Infowars" confused. Which is the one with made up stories that awful white men get riled up about because they believe they’re real? —@OhNoSheTwitnt
Ah ha! The Republicans are showing their hypocrisy and speaking in bad faith! Surely this will be their undoing! — @gknauss
If someone like Stephen Miller can find love, then maybe love is not worth finding — @bornmiserable
·Voting for Republicans is like throwing rocks at a hornet’s nest and hoping they only sting your enemies. — @bazecraze
Don’t you think that somebody could have just torn 12 pages out of a 3rd Grade science textbook and told him they were the “nuclear weapon secrets”? — @RickAaron
Every Trump official statement sounds like something he’d yell while being dragged out of a restaurant — @bazecraze
Don’t you think that somebody could have just torn 12 pages out of a 3rd Grade science textbook and told him they were the “nuclear weapon secrets”? — @RickAaron
Those willing to trade democracy for cheaper gas will get neither. — @KathyinBburg
Only God and a massively misinformed TV audience can judge me now. — @wilethingy
THE WINNER: Ever notice how Democrats threaten to take to the streets if there is injustice, whereas Republicans threaten to take to the streets if there is justice? —@BettyBowers
Vote here in the poll. And for the bonus, all-politics tweet poll, click here. For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.
“Are You Happy Now” by Richard Shindell is by far the best Halloween song I know — a terrific chorus around an amusingly grim story of a bad romantic breakup on the 31st of October:
A hobo waited in the street
An angel whispered, trick-or-treat
But what was I supposed to do
But to sit there in the dark?
I was amazed to think that you
Could take the candy with you too
The Picayune Sentinel is a reader-supported publication. Simply subscribe to receive new posts each Thursday. To support my work, receive bonus issues on Tuesdays and join the zesty commenting community, become a paid subscriber. Thanks for reading!
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.
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.