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Politics
Will Obama's Neighborhood Become an Election Issue?
The Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson had a clever cover story last week on Barack Obama's hometown of Hyde Park, Chicago, a neighborhood that functions almost entirely as the extended campus of the University of Chicago, where both Obamas once drew salaries. As a zip code, it's where black meets white (just dust off Allan Bloom's old social calendar) and sixties radicalism meets free-market conservatism (Bill Ayers wanders past the Milton Friedman Institute on his way to teach kids about the coming end of the bourgeoisie). However, the reputation for right-wingery, says Ferguson, is greatly exaggerated: "Of the tens of thousands of faculty who have taught at the University of Chicago over the past half-century, perhaps as many as 65 have, at some point in their lives, voted for a Republican." Is this just part of the new GOP strategy to scandalize Obama by refashioning the hothouse of conservative academia as "Berkeley with snow"? (The Google trend chart for "Hyde Park" shows no real change in searchability, so most of America isn't hip to the Democratic nominee's controversial hood yet. Also, press mentions of the locale don't seem to be spiking.) What's the Matter with Kansas? author Thomas Frank smells a rat: More »
Sam Zell Cleaning House
"Scott C. Smith is stepping down as publisher of The Chicago Tribune and president of Tribune Publishing as part of changes being made by Samuel Zell." [Times]
"Scott C. Smith is stepping down as publisher of The Chicago Tribune and president of Tribune Publishing as part of changes being made by Samuel Zell." [Times]
journalismism
Sam Zell To Chainsaw Tribune Papers
Tribune CEO Sam Zell famously cursed one of his journalists earlier this year when asked whether refocusing the company would undermine serious journalism. He called such thinking "classic... journalistic arrogance." But now Zell is struggling to service $12.8 billion in debt amid a weak economy, and he's planning what sounds like mass layoffs and newsprint reductions to meet the challenge. The cuts would fall hardest on the journalists who produce the least output — just the sort of emphasis on quantity over quality once-supportive reporters and editors at the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel are likely to abhor: More »
shut up, college
Midwestern College Students Disappointed With Midwestern Commencement Speaker
Students at Northwestern are apparently outraged that their school selected stupid Chicago mayor Richard Daley to speak at commencement. Boooring! They wanted John McCain, the Dalai Lama, or last year's speaker, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Some whiny Northwestern kid emailed the school's president, who actually responded with some amusing sniping: More »
pic of the day
Google Maps Catches Chicago Kid About To Shoot Someone
Spotted on Google Maps: a kid pointing a gun at a younger kid. (Okay, it's probably a toy gun.) What is it about Chicago? We've already seen a drug deal on the South Side and a girl flashing the camera in Homewood. More »
Dyslexia To Save Print
[Cover of today's Chicago Sun-Times, printed in reverse to promote a campaign fighting gun violence toward children.]
disasters
Walking Yourself Out Of The Subway: Awesome?
When a Chicago subway train got stopped for an hour in a tunnel yesterday morning, riders there did what many of us have thought of doing many times, but have not for fear of our lives: they got out and walked. That is just awesome. Less awesome: when officials heard people were walking along the tracks, they shut down power to the entire line as a safety precaution (for third rail zapping possibilities), which automatically stranded thousands more riders. It's a grassroots revolt ethical quandary! More »
memos
Sam Zell Can Laugh At Self, State of Journalism
Tribune Co. owner and noted asshole Sam Zell's most charming feature might be his sense of humor. Forget about all the cutbacks at the L.A. Times and how he's trying to drop Newsday: He enjoyed the video a Chicago Tribune intern did for the rival Chicago Sun-Times mocking Zell for selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field. That's leadership! Memo after the jump via L.A. Observed.More »
Religion and Politics
What Would Jesus Kill?
I tuned into "The McLaughlin Group" this morning all giddy about the prospect of panelist and Chicago Tribune writer Clarence Page (who is black) getting into a sweet shout-off with MSNBC talker Patrick Buchanan over Buchanan's recent column calling for blacks to show some "gratitude" for the way America has treated them. But moderator John McLaughlin threw me a Christian curveball for Easter, asking his guests, "Would Jesus support the death penalty?" More »
facebook
Crotchety Journo Has a Point
Former Chicago magazine media critic and founding editor of The Beachwood Reporter, Steve Rhodes, doesn't want to join your stupid Facebook fan page. He especially doesn't want to be notified every time some inky hack publishes another article, according to a ranty email he sent all his "friends" this week. Rhodes is doubly outraged by "You newspaper people who are ruining Facebook for everyone." Here's the rest: More »
dateline: chicago
Adorable Midwestern City Has Own Newspaper Feud
Everything I know about Chicago, I learned from This American Life. There was one episode where they said that bridges in Chicago smell like chocolate! (That may no longer the case.) Chicago, despite not being New York, still has its very own media intrigue. Their Sun-Times recently held a video contest to make fun of Sam Zell, who owns the rival Chicago Tribune, for selling the naming rights of Wrigley Field. The winning entry was made by a Tribune intern. Awkward! She'll donate her $1,000 prize to charity. Maybe she should consider the charity called Tribune Co., which earned $160 million less in the fourth quarter this year than it did last year during the same period. Attached, some second-city smack talk and her winning entry.
sex wars
Warring Couple Communicates Through Advice Columns
In late January, a widowed man asked Slate's "Dear Prudence" about his prudish gal-friend: he wanted to sleep "in the nude" with her, citing the "intimacy" of said experience. She, on the other hand, felt the exact opposite. Today, in the Chicago Tribune's "Ask Amy" column, the exact same question was posed — this time, from the woman's perspective! Is each half of this couple reaching out, through an advice column? Or is someone pulling a fast one on the Tribune? (Based on the nearly-identical wording, we think that's the case!) Click for matching his n' hers letters. More »
the theatre
Pay $100 To See Nicole Richie!
As Broadway producers continue to dance gleefully on the grave of Fred Ebb, it should not be surprising to find out that Nicole Richie, professional rich person's daughter and drug addict (and newly babied!), has been offered the lead role of Roxie in Chicago. Blargh. Many big fucking idiots have trotted through that show, like Ashlee Simpson (in the London production), so I guess it makes sense. Though whoever is playing Velma will probably mistake her for a cane and twirl her around during "Nowadays." That may be worth seeing. [Us]
My Kinda Town
According to well-placed sources, the entire internet in all of downtown Chicago has been out of service for two days now and no one has noticed.
According to well-placed sources, the entire internet in all of downtown Chicago has been out of service for two days now and no one has noticed.
ugh
Julia Allison Seeks Anonymous Advice From Sister Publication
Time Out has a Chicago edition and that edition has a sex columnist. A letter to that sex columnist this week bears a remarkable resemblance to the blog opera life of Time Out New York contributer Julia Allison! It's a sad letter about two bloggers in love who blogged about being bloggers in love (though their sites were read "mostly [by] just our friends, some of their friends read it, too"!), but the guy-blogger blogged about how the girl-blogger couldn't achieve orgasm. Then things got even worse!More »
trendsquatting
In Case You Thought About Growing A Beard, Watch This
To celebrate the return of the beard (I know), the Chicago Tribune interviewed the sketchiest bearded men they could find. "Meeting people and rubbing your fuzzies on them is an extra hello," according to one guy with a half-grown-in beard who'd just finished plucking phone numbers from a Help Wanted board. During the entire interview, the cameras center on the beards, presumably to protect the men's identities while the child molestation charges blow over. That cinematography choice takes this two-minute clip (shown below) from dumb to priceless. More »
race-baiting
