It almost sounds like a writer’s dream – living off past rounds of copy

A part of me wonders if Mike Royko, the late columnist for just about every newspaper that existed in Chicago, has the ultimate fantasy assignment.

He hasn’t had the pressure of meeting a deadline in just over two decades – yet the two remaining metro papers in this city seem eager to dredge up his old columns (some 30-plus years worth of copy) and use them to fill the space they’re so desperately eager to create around the declining number of advertisements.

IT KIND OF threw me off for a second when I saw the editorial pages of the Chicago Tribune on Sunday included a Royko column amongst their choice commentary.

They dredged up a column from the 1980s (back in the days when George Bush, the elder was president) where Royko used his aging Slats Grobnik persona to mock Republicans for trying to be holier than thou and make it appear as though God himself is the ultimate member of the Grand Old Party.

I’d say they were trying to make Jesus out to be the ultimate Republican. But in today’s day, there are many Jesuses of a Latino ethnic persuasion whom the hard core of the Republican Party are looking for excuses to deport.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun-Times continued its trend of the past couple of months and published an old Royko column on Monday – but only online.

PEOPLE READING SUNTIMES.com could see an even older column from the 1960s where Royko told the tale of how big, corporate-minded businesses were squeezing the little guy out of work.

Specifically, he told of a one-time neighborhood cleaners where the woman who owned and operated it all by herself had to work extra-long hours, but eagerly did so to meet the desires of her customers.

Which, Royko claimed, was something that the new, modern cleaners in the neighborhood would never bother to do.

But they were able to justify charging a slightly cheaper price (you save perhaps a nickel) for their services, gambling that people would be so eager to save any money that they’d accept the lesser personal service and lack of a personal touch.

MUCH HAS BEEN made by the Sun-Times of how they’re dredging through their archives for Royko copy (both from when he wrote for the Sun-Times proper and also when he was a focal point of the old Chicago Daily News) out of the concept that what he said about issues way back when has an eerie relevance to modern times.

I’m sure the Tribune thinks the same thing. Although I also noticed that the Royko column published in the Sunday paper included a tag at the end informing the reader how the Tribune’s book publishing wing is coming out with a new book soon – one that compiles several of the Royko columns he wrote during the 17 years he was with the Chicago Tribune.

That book will be available for purchase come mid-August, and I’m sure somebody thinks (or at least desperately hopes) that somebody reading the column in the paper will choose to buy the book.

Personally, I don’t know that I feel the need to rush right out and buy a copy – largely because I actually own all six of the compilations of newspaper columns that Royko had published when he was actually alive.

I ALSO HAVE a hard-cover first edition of “Boss,” the biography he wrote of Richard J. Daley back when “Hizzoner” himself was still alive.

That book is one I have quoted from on occasion in this very weblog when trying to tell the history of Chicago politics. It may be the best piece of writing ever about our city’s political scene (although Milton J. Rakove’s “We Don’t Want Nobody Nobody Sent” has the best title ever).

You’ve got to admit, for a guy who hasn’t written a word since 1997 (he died a month after writing his final column for the Tribune), it’s impressive the staying power that the man’s copy has. Although I’m sure there are some snot-nosed brats out there reading this who are going to be taking a sense of pride in saying, “Royko? Never heard of him!”

All I know is that I seriously doubt anybody will be dredging up anything I (or 99 percent of the rest of the populace that tries to claim themselves to be writers for a living) ever wrote some two decades after my own eventual demise.

  -30-

EXTRA: A 'rap' about the news?

Is this a “first” in the history of the assorted outlets that attempt to report the news in Chicago – a transaction reported in a rap song?

CHANCE: New 'media' baron?

For it seems that Chancellor Bennett, the entertainer known as Chance the Rapper, has bought the rights to resume publication of the one-time website The Chicagoist – which died last year when its owner closed down partially in response to attempts to organize his web site labor with a union.

IT SEEMS THAT New York Public Radio had acquired the rights to the web site, along with similar sites in other cities. They have since been selling them off to local entities with an interest in resuming publication.

In the case of chicagoist.com, they sold the rights to Social Media LLC, a company created by Bennett to try to promote representation of more non-white people within the local media. He actually released (via the Internet) a rap song with lyrics about his new purchase ("I bought the Chicagoist just to run you racist bitches outta business," he sang, along with, "Rahm you done, I expect a resignation"), then a formal statement about his desires to have control over a media voice.

I can’t think of any past media purchase that quite got the word out through such a means.

It will be interesting to see what plans, if any, Bennett has for use of the new website (and its archives) he has acquired. Will it change much? Will it be The Chicagoist of old?

Two North Side-focused media properties now owned …

IT’S JUST THAT it strikes me change will need to occur because the Chicagoist web site always struck me as one put together by people whose view of Chicago focused heavily on those North Side neighborhoods where white people are in abundance – and the idea of people of color usually referred to the assorted ethnic restaurants one could find up there.

I can’t see how that would continue under new ownership. Not that there’s anything wrong with such change – unless the old readers are determined to reject the notion.

… by entities fully aware of 'black' Chicago

I actually have similar thoughts about The Reader, which the Chicago Sun-Times recently sold to the owner of the Chicago Crusader and its sister newspaper, the Gary Crusader. Those publications most definitely try to cover the parts of Chicago where black people are in abundance and other news outlets often ignore.

Whereas the Reader has always been a publication focused extensively on the north lakefront and where many South and West side residents can’t find a copy anywhere near where they live. Change is in the air, and we’ll have to see if we get a better-informed Chicago populace as a result.

  -30-

Dueling thoughts on Blagojevich; how will they differ on Ill. Governor?

Call it one of the perks for people who enjoy the read of newspapers that compete with each other – we in Chicago now have rival thoughts for what should become of our state’s former governor who is half-way through serving a 14-year prison term.

Blagojevich, from back in the days when being governor was fun. Photo provided by state of Illinois

The fate of Rod Blagojevich, whose case has worked its way through the appeal process all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, is now in the hands of President Donald Trump – who implied earlier this week he’d be inclined to consider some form of clemency.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE – the newspaper that was so opposed to the concept of a “President Donald Trump” that they endorsed a Libertarian candidate for president – came out this week with an editorial stance saying (in essence) “Hell, No!”

They literally wrote in an editorial urging Trump to back off the issue, “We have…concluded that the sentence he earned not only is fair. It’s fair warning to other criminal pols in Illinois, the State of Corruption.”

Yet the Chicago Sun-Times, the newspaper that proclaims itself to be that of the workingman and was solidly behind Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential bid of 2016, came out with an editorial stance headlined, “Trump schemes aside, Blagojevich deserves shorter sentence.”

The newspaper that at one time called itself, “The Bright One” says that having Trump commute the Blagojevich sentence to time already served would essentially mean the one-time governor would have lost the past six-and-a-half years of his life to federal incarceration.

WHICH IT SAYS is fair in that it would mean Rod would have done about the same amount of prison time as former Gov. George Ryan got for his criminal convictions dating back to actions he committed as an Illinois secretary of state.

Each newspaper has managed to take an opposing stance on the same issue, which I’m sure is part of their efforts to differentiate themselves from each other – and from other newspapers in existence.

It’s part of what gives a publication its sense of personality, and what will be lost if those people all eager to dump the printed-on-paper word for ramblings published on the Internet (including this very weblog) wind up seeing their vision prevailing in the not-so-distant future.

And yes, it will stir up resentment among many. Since I don’t doubt there are people so unsympathetic to Rod Blagojevich that they want him to suffer – and don’t particularly care that the sentence he is now serving (scheduled for release sometime during 2024) might be a tad too long.

ALL I KNOW is that if the two remaining metro daily papers in Chicago can get this worked up over Blagojevich’s future, I’m anxious to see how they wind up weighing in on the upcoming gubernatorial elections coming Nov. 6.

Back during the primary, the Tribune was the paper that found its way to endorse Gov. Bruce Rauner in the Republican Party primary over Jeanne Ives, while picking Christopher Kennedy’s failed bid for governor over that of ultimate winner J.B. Pritzker.

Their editorials made it rather clear they didn’t think much of the idea of a “Governor Pritzker” and that they were buying into much of the line of logic that Rauner presents that he needs ideological allies to do what he wants (particularly on issues related to organized labor) if Illinois is to improve.

While the Sun-Times backed Pritzker’s primary bid in ways that made it clear they don’t have a problem with him being governor – particularly if it means that Rauner winds up out on his keister come Inauguration Day in January 2019.

HOW VOCIFEROUS WILL the editorial rhetoric become?

Will we have to make the editorial pages a “must-read” in coming months? Will we have to snicker at those people who insist on saying they “don’t read” editorials, because it shows they don’t know what they’re missing?

Will the biggest loss to our city’s local news scene on that future date when there are no more dueling newspapers be that we have a lone editorial voice pompously trying to tell us what to think?

Because by reading the editorials these days, it’s quite clear there’s only one thought overwhelmingly held by all of us – nobody (and I mean nobody) wants Rod Blagojevich back in any form of electoral office!

  -30-

EXTRA: Tribune goes union! Or is this just the point where the “war” begins?

Call it a shock, if you will. But I was stunned (sort of) to learn that the Chicago Tribune management on Sunday conceded the right of their editorial staffers to organize themselves into a union.

What kind of content will fill news boxes of the future?

The typical process would have been for a National Labor Relations Board-overseen election, with management going out of its way to intimidate its reporter-type people into thinking they don’t need no stinkin’ union.

INSTEAD, MANAGEMENT CONCEDES a majority of their reporters are banded together, and they will have to work out some sort of contract with them to define terms of employment and conditions and other items of interest.

Which, of course, is the real significant point.

In these times where too many companies that have to deal with unions go out of their way to play hardball in negotiations, it is a tactic I would not be surprised to see take place with the Tribune – given its strong, anti-union history of existence.

How long will it take for contract talks to even begin. How quickly will things get stalled. How many months will it take before we have an impasse. Will we someday see Tribune-types picketing that new building they’re moving into this summer – what with the Tribune Tower having been sold off from out under the paper to provide the broadcast division additional revenue?

I’M OLD ENOUGH to remember the 1980s when the Tribune undermined the unions that represented their pressmen, and I also remember the creation of new positions that were union-exempt to deal with the striking workers -- who basically never recovered their former strength.

Is that what could be put forth for the editorial side? Perhaps create a new class of reporter-type people who would do significant amounts of work, while strictly limiting the job classifications that would be covered by the contract.

I don’t doubt there are many younger people with editorial aspirations who’d think nothing of taking such jobs. My own drawback on the job market these days is that I expect to be compensated fairly for my work – which I’m sure is perceived as a hostile act toward some corporate financial bottom line.

In short, I’m happy for those reporter-types who feel a sense of victory in gaining union recognition without much of a fight. But it also means management will be fully armed (and ammo’ed) for the contract negotiation “war” that is forthcoming.

  -30-

Blank pages = blank minds, but will that sway anybody to subscribe?

The Chicago Sun-Times on Monday tried to make a huge, sweeping statement – one of those “moments of awe” meant to inspire a deep thought within us.

Were you swayed?

They published a newspaper with a blank front page. It’s supposed to be symbolic of the quality of information we’d get if there were no newspapers being published at all.

AS IN THERE would be no stories whatsoever if we didn’t have newspapers with their staffs to actually report them. So, we’re supposed to conclude, we need to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continued survival of newspapers.

Of course, this grand statement is part of a larger gimmick. The Sun-Times’ website (at www.chicago.suntimes.com) wants to alter itself so that people can no longer just go there and expect to get the full content of the newspaper unless they have some sort of subscription.

They’d probably like it if people would take the full package that gives them a copy of the daily paper, along with full access to the website. Although they’ll also be happy if people take the digital access, by which people pay a lesser fee for the right to read anything on the website that they wish.

According to the Sun-Times’ own promotional copy, it is such a low subscription rate to do that. It amounts to “less than 25 cents a day.”

WHICH IS MY mind is a magic number of sorts – I’m old enough to remember back to when daily newspapers in Chicago cost a quarter each. That 25 cents would get you the whole paper back then, along with all the advertising supplements that were stuffed in it that supposedly had such value in-and-of-themselves that you’d save money far beyond the quarter you shelled out.

Did you "read all about it" on Waffle House?

Perhaps you can make an older generation feel like the price is returning to the golden days of old, rather than the current cost of $1 per day that a Sun-Times costs (or $2 on Sunday, but with the physical product scaled back to the point where it doesn’t have the “feel” of a traditional Sunday edition).

But a part of me is skeptical the message will take.

I have often wondered if it is going to take the outright demise of several newspapers and the loss of their content before people realize just how serious the loss will be.

I KNOW TOO many people who are foolish enough to think that television broadcasts or the Internet have somehow replaced newspapers in terms of providing information. They really haven’t.

Because if you take a serious look at the content those entities are providing, all too often they remain nothing more than retransmissions of what was first in the local paper.

The local TV news is just following up on the stories that were already in the paper, and the assorted websites are merely publishing the newspaper stories – or more accurately rewriting them in ways to try to make them appear to be their own content.

The original source

I got a subtle reminder of that fact in a story I wrote last week for the Post-Tribune newspaper of Northwest Indiana. Improvements that the Gary South Shore RailCats baseball team will have made to their stadium. Or, to be more honest, improvements that Gary municipal government will make for the ball club.

A WEBSITE, BALLPARK Digest, which covers the professional sports industry, did its own story. Which, if you read it realistically, was just a cheap rewrite of what I had did. At least they were honest enough to attribute the work to the Post-Tribune.

This kind of rewrite is all-too-common. Which is why I find it laughable when people say they don’t read the Sun-Times or Tribune anymore. But then you learn they’re getting those papers’ stories off assorted websites.

I don’t know what the future of the news-gathering business is, to tell you the truth. Only that I fear many of us are going to be a lot-less-well-informed because of the changes.

And by then, it will be far too late to do anything about it.

  -30-

EXTRA: Does the 'power of the press’ extend to endorsements any longer?

I couldn’t help but be amused by the Chicago Tribune editorial page on Tuesday.

FAIRLEY: Will 2 Tribune endorsements help?

The newspaper, which already has endorsed Sharon Fairley for the Democratic nomination for Illinois attorney general, felt compelled to write another editorial about the merits of the woman who helped create the current panel that oversees Chicago Police activity and investigates the doings of bad cops, and also is a former federal prosecutor in Chicago.

FAIRLEY IS ONE of eight people wishing to be the Democrat who succeeds Lisa Madigan, but the most recent poll by the We Ask America group (conducted for the Capitol Fax newsletter) shows her running fourth.

With only 3.5 percent support. This remains a political brawl between former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s comeback desires and the dreams of state Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, to become something other than a Hyde Park neighborhood pol.

Fairley appears to be part of the anonymous pack, no matter what her credentials. Which led the Tribune to take another crack at influencing its readership on how to vote this week, or a week from Tuesday on Election Day.

It will be odd if Fairley is the candidate who had the official endorsements of both the Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times (along with a few other publications, including the State Journal-Register of Springfield) but couldn’t rise above the pack. Probably more evidence of the declining influence that newspaper endorsements carry, although I still think they serve a purpose in helping to clarify a publication’s perspective and judging the honesty and objectivity of its reporting.

  -30-

Vulgar? What the f@#% else is new!

When I first learned that President Donald J. Trump went about spewing obscene trash talk about select African nations, I can’t say I was surprised.

'Da winnah' among front pages

Heck, when I first heard he was using a phrase related to caca to describe them, my first thought was that Trump was on another one of his nonsensical rants about Mexico. It would have been totally in character with his line of stupid talk.

SO I DO find it a little interesting to learn that Trump, in talking with Congress members earlier this week about various issues related to immigration policy, let his inner potty mouth run rampant.

Seriously, I’ve lost count of the number of newspapers on Friday that felt compelled to put Trump’s vulgar rant on their front pages. If you question use of the word “vulgar” to describe the president, it was in the front page headlines of the Chicago Tribune and the State Journal-Register of Springfield, Ill. – just to name a couple.

Which makes me wonder why people feel compelled to make an issue out of political use of profane terms. Such as the New York Daily News putting “S**t” on its front page Friday to describe what it was Trump felt compelled to say.

Trump 'vulgar' in both Chicago ...

But very few would dream of going that far in expressing what it was Trump said.

IT’S THE OLD-SCHOOL attitude toward profanity in the newspaper – all that talk of a “family newspaper” that we’re supposed to pretend people don’t speak crudely – even when they happen to have crude thoughts and behave in a crude manner.

Which causes us to dance around with the English language when describing what happened. It may be the one time reporter-types think it appropriate to fudge with the facts.

... and in Springfield, Ill.

Personally, I’m of the belief (I’ve argued with editors about this many a time) that if a profane word is really essential to a story, you ought to just spell it out. Otherwise, just delete it altogether. Find other quotes to flesh out copy.

That wouldn’t work in this case, because there’d be no story to report IF NOT for the profanity. The idea that Trump thinks in derogatory ways toward nations that aren’t of a white racial mix is so in character with our president.

I WOULDN’T BE surprised to learn that Trump backers are totally supportive of their political idol for further reiterating he has the same crude way of viewing the outside world as they do.

Which is why the rest of our society is thinking these days what a rube Trump is. The man who thinks his garish casinos, hotels and other overbuilt structures around the world somehow equate with class and sophistication.

The lede story in D.C.

The Daily News, with its cartoonish pile of poo emoji on its front page, may wind up becoming the “collectible” image from this particular moment. Although perhaps it should be noted that the Washington Times and New York Post – a pair of newspapers that pride themselves on providing a conservative spin to the world’s happenings rather than straight reporting – managed to ignore this issue for their own front pages.

Down in the corner in Gary, Ind.

I’m sure they’re spouting high-minded rhetoric about not peddling trash by reporting news based on profanity. Although I’m sure they’d eagerly report the story if it reflected their news biases.

SO WHAT SHOULD we think of Trump’s trash talk – the one that has inspired Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to name a couple, to respond critically?

Like I’ve already written, he’s made so many hostile comments about foreign lands that my original suspicion was to think this was another Mexico rant. I’m sure he’ll find an excuse to add our neighbor nation to the south to his list – which does include El Salvador and Haiti along with parts of the African continent.

It reiterated his belief that is shared by many of his ideological allies that certain types of people have no business thinking they have a place in our country. A part of me wonders if Emanuel has a point when he compared Trump’s talk to the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler during Germany’s Nazi era when it came to Jewish people.

Because Trump talk certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the “American Way” of viewing life.

  -30-

Ever-changing scene that is Chicago

This is most definitely a scene from Chicago’s past.

Chicago's appearance is ever-changing. Photograph by Chuckman's Chicago Nostalgia

This particular photograph depicts what used to be in terms of the proximity of our city’s newspapers being published so close to each other.

THE PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS the old Field Enterprises building that housed the Chicago Sun-Times until they sold it off about a decade ago to Donald Trump – who erected that ugly tower that looms over downtown Chicago in an ominous fashion.

Which is particularly notable because people used to become amateur architectural critics in bashing about the old Sun-Times building (it looked like a barge or garbage scowl, they’d say).

It seems Trump has come up with something even more despised in appearance than the old Sun-Times building.

To the right, just the other side of the Wrigley Building that Frank Sinatra made reference to in his unofficial city anthem, “My Kind of Town, Chicago Is,” is the Tribune Tower.

THAT EDIFICE ERECTED back in the mid-1920s from which Col. Robert R. McCormick ruled his newspaper empire and his vision that “Chicagoland” (stretching from Detroit to Kansas City) was a unique version of our nation that made far more sense than anything occurring on any coastal point of the United States.

Tribune's new home come '18. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

It used to be from these points about one block apart along the Chicago River that our city’s two major newspapers (and as you can see from this particular photograph, the Chicago Daily News was part of the mix as well) did their part to help create the character of our city – for better or for worse.

Soon, it’s only going to be a memory that either newspaper was ever in such a prominent place along the riverfront.

The Sun-Times, of course, moved a few blocks west along the river several years ago to the building that was the annex to the Merchandise Mart. Even that building is becoming history.

THIS WEEKEND IS when the newspaper is leaving the location for a site in the West Loop. At 30. N. Racine Ave., they’ll be out of downtown altogether.

What will become of Alamo, Comiskey Park bricks?

While the Chicago Tribune reported Friday that they, too, are leaving a riverfront site. As part of the many actions of corporate restructuring, they sold their nearly century-old building to a Los Angeles developer who envisions turning the tower on Michigan Avenue into retail and luxury residences.

The newspaper confirmed they’ll be moving sometime early in 2018.

They will be relocating to the Prudential Building – which may be just a few blocks south of the Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue. Which could give their newsroom a prime site overlooking the Millennium Park.

BUT I CAN’T help but think that the Chicago River is going to be a little less active with two such prominent residents moving away from their riverfront locations. Even though I understand that riverfront land is so precious and valued from a real estate standing that it probably makes more sense to sell it off and take the money – rather than use it for newsroom space.

One other thing does amuse me about this particular photograph. Notice off in the background that the Hancock Center building is under construction. Which means if one had turned around and looked to the south, the Sears Tower would be non-existent. Chicago’s “twin” towers (only Trump thinks Chicago has three towers, with his building completing the trio) were not yet to be.

Lake St. location won't be the same as Lower Michigan Ave.

I do have one question, though. That is the main site of the famed Billy Goat Tavern, which used to draw a significant share of its business from reporter-type people (I myself have had too many drinks there throughout the years, although it has been a couple since I last ventured to Lower Michigan Avenue) for a “cheezbugga” and a beer) from its proximity between the two newspaper buildings.

Now, that clientele will be gone. Where will they move to, to ensure their future in 21^st Century Chicago?

  -30-

DNAinfo.com ‘death’ in Chgo, NY shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone

As a reporter-type person who has experienced unemployment on several occasions, I sympathize with the DNAInfo.com website in Chicago and the individuals who earlier this week abruptly learned they were out of work.

RICKETTS: Owned Cubs/media pair less than Tribune Co.

Although there’s nothing at all surprising about the fact that the company operating websites in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington – along with Chicago – decided to suddenly ‘pack it in’ after eight years of trying to cover news in those cities.

JOE RICKETTS, THE head of the wealthy family that owns the no-longer-defending World Champion Chicago Cubs and also was a significant financial backer of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential bid (the family nearly got a member appointed to a Cabinet post), let it be known he was giving up because the business end was failing.

The company wasn’t generating enough revenue to cover the expenses of actually having people on the payroll to cover the news – which is an essential expense if one is going to cover the news properly.

Various reports have pointed out the fact that the employees connected to the websites in New York voted last week to organize themselves as a labor union. Some would have us believe that Ricketts’ decision to shut down was purely a response to not wanting to deal with organized labor.

Which may be true. But the idea that management would rather not have their employees sticking together to negotiate benefits for all is nothing new. The idea of an owner hating organized labor shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody!

Two local websites that are now ...

SO I’M NOT about to join the parade of Ricketts bashers, some of whom are even insisting that we boycott Chicago Cubs games in response to his anti-labor actions. I would never expect him to be sympathetic, and I personally certainly don’t need this as a reason to ignore the Cubs – a ballclub I have never much cared for.

What I take personally from the DNAInfo.com closings is evidence of how costly it can be to professionally report the news. And how those people who are eager to see newspapers and their centuries of experience in doing so (the Chicago Sun-Times is a baby, tracing its origins back to the days just before Pearl Harbor) wither away are truly ridiculous in their attitudes.

There are those people deluded enough to believe there is no loss to society from fewer newspapers because the Internet and websites are capable of replacing them.

... a part of Chicago's media history

Yet most websites I have seen that are news-oriented are way too reliant on having newspapers to generate stories and content in general that they can appropriate for their own use.

A SITE LIKE DNAInfo.com, which actually had reporters looking for stories in the neighborhoods of Chicago (some neighborhoods were covered more thoroughly than others) that was generating its own content is running into the same problems as those who historically were disseminating their content on printed pages of pulp.

Which means most of these sites wind up becoming the medium of choice for benefactors with the finances to not care about their financial bottom line.

Even then, there comes a point when many of them have to cut off the funding and shut down. Remember the ProgressIllinois.com website, which had reporter-type people out-and-about covering stories – with the bills being paid by the Service Employees International Union?

Even they had to give in – with the website remaining in place, but un-updated since that final date. AP: Donald Trump Wins Presidential Election (UPDATED) is the final headline, as though determined to perpetually remind us all of the annoyance our society brought upon itself just over a year ago.

Sun-Times still reporting news, despite death predictions.

THERE IS ONE significant difference between the two closings – DNAInfo.com and its sister websites suddenly found all their content erased from the Internet. A letter from Ricketts explaining his decision to suddenly shut down (and make the four months of vacation pay and severance his reporters will receive seem overly generous) is all that remains of the sites.

There is some speculation Ricketts may try to archive some of the content – for those who care to see what once was of this particular attempt at covering the news.

Although as anyone who follows the “news” is fully aware, yesterday’s stories are ancient history. It’s the ongoing developments that provide for an overall report that has relevance to people’s lives.

And without it, we as a society may have to get used to a condition in which our attempts at public “education” may wind up being fulfilled with cutesy pictures of kitty cats, quirky pictures of people doing something stupid, and all the porn, porn, porn we could ever desire.

  -30-

EXTRA: How many people saw 'Extras'

One of the memories I have of this date 16 years ago was from the afternoon hours, probably about 4 p.m., when I was passing through the Loop on my way home from work.
 

Collectable? Or fish wrap?

I was with United Press International at the time, and like many other downtown businesses on that day, we closed up shop and evacuated the downtown area.

THAT DIDN’T MEAN we got the day off. We wound up reconvening at an editor’s home and spent our workday there – mostly writing react to what had occurred in Manhattan and suburban D.C. that day what with jets being hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon as a vicious political statement.

Not that I was the only reporter-type person who kept working at a time of crisis.

For when I returned to the Loop to shift over to another commuter train that would actually get me back home, I found a newsboy (actually, a little older than a boy) peddling newspapers at Wabash and Randolph streets.

Specifically, he had the “Extra” editions that both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times had put together during the past few hours to try to provide a same-day report of what had happened “out East.”

I REMEMBER THAT guy was relieved to see me, and also excited that I promptly bought copies of both papers – which I wound up reading on my commuter train ride the rest of the way home.

What makes that so unusual is that city officials had given the evacuation order of downtown Chicago, just in case there was some sort of other incident that was meant to target the Sears Tower or some other structure in the Second City.

Yes, the paranoia of that day was intense enough that nobody knew for sure what could happen.

It also means that by late afternoon, the streets of Chicago were deserted in a way I have never seen them since. The people for whom those papers were published were long gone from the Loop by the time they were available for sale. Even at 4 a.m., there is still life in downtown Chicago. But not that day. There might as well have been tumbleweeds blowing through the streets of Chicago 16 years ago today.

WHICH MEANS THAT newsboy literally had stacks of papers, and nobody to sell them to. I recall that newsboy was the only other individual I encountered in the Loop in the time I transferred from one train to another (different stations).

I still have those newspapers, tucked away in a drawer along with a few other dates of some significance that I felt compelled to keep. Not that I think I have some sort of treasure to become of great value some day.

I see on e-Bay somebody with the same Tribune “Extra” edition that I have asking $30 – and nobody posting bids for it as of yet.

I wonder how many people who wound up getting out of work early that day who merely went home just waited for the next day’s paper to come out – which gave them an overview of the previous day’s happenings?

  -30-

EXTRA: Postponing the inevitable?

It’s kind of pleasing to see that the Chicago Sun-Times will continue to exist as a separate entity – and not just some division of the company that gives us the Chicago Tribune.
 

Union paper gives good play to union corruption story?

No matter how much corporate types said they would maintain a separate staff to continue publishing a second newspaper, the reality is that corporate types would ultimately realize that they are better off putting the resources of the company into a single publication.

MEANING IT COULD have meant the death of the Sun-Times in a year or two.

Then again, there’s always the chance that the Chicago Sun-Times will remain an underfunded and understaffed publication that will meet its professional maker in that year or two anyway.

Could this move by which a group of investors led by former Alderman Edwin Eisendrath and which will get much of its funding from organized labor be merely postponing the Sun-Times’ eventual demise? And yes, I find it cute that another financial investor is now-retired Channel 7 news anchor Linda Yu,

Could it be that the only real difference  between this ownership and the proposed tronc, Inc. ownership will be a slightly feistier competing paper to go against the Chicago Tribune in the next couple of years? In which case, maybe it is a good thing in that we’ll get to enjoy a couple more years of a sense of competition in the newsgathering process before the sense of inevitable occurs.

AT THE VERY least, it will be interesting to see the editorial processes of the competing papers as we go through the electoral cycles leading to the Nov. 6, 2018 general election for governor.

 

Tribune downplays failure to buy competition

For the Tribune is making it clear they’re backing the actions of Gov. Bruce Rauner and would be overjoyed if all his “Dump Madigan!” trash talk were to have an impact.

Could the Sun-Times become the Voice of Labor, of sorts, against an official who has made it clear his priority is to undermine organized labor’s impact on our government? The anti-Rauner, which is humorous considering that Rauner himself was once a financial investor in the Wrapports company that no longer owns the newspaper.

Or will the real impact be that there will continue to be a place for comic strips that the Chicago Tribune has deemed unworthy of its own pages. “Sally Forth” and “Arlo and Janis” live on!

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Is anyone big-enough to handle the ego-trip that is one-time Bright One?

It seems there are people whose egos are bloated enough that they’re willing to come up with cash to take on the financial obligations of publishing the Chicago Sun-Times.

Will Sun-Times columnists become 21st Century take on the "Men from 10" of one-tine Voice of Labor?

The cost is the price of being able to say one is a big-shot and a publisher of a “Major Metro Daily” newspaper in the Second City.

BECAUSE LOOKING AT the various reports about groups and individuals wishing to make a bid to purchase the newspaper, the ego factor seems to be the unifying point.

There’s that old cliché about, “Never Argue With A Man Who Buys Ink By The Barrel.” It seems there are those who think that being “that man” will mean everybody will be forced to listen to their perspectives on issues.

That’s about the only way from a purely objective sense that buying the Chicago Sun-Times makes any sense.

Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the family of billionaire Neil Bluhm is interested in making a bid for the newspaper. Bluhm is one of the wealthiest men in this country, and ranks third most wealthy in Illinois. Which would be interesting considering that the number one most wealthy in this state is Ken Griffin – the man who has been a significant financial backer of Gov. Bruce Rauner.

COULD IT BE Bluhm think he can use the pages of the city’s Number Two paper to challenge the governor? Could he think this is the cheaper route to gain influence rather than running for governor – as is billionaire J.B. Pritzker?

There also was the report by long-time local media writer Robert Feder who said that hedge fund manager Thane Ritchie (who has made past bids for publications such as Newsweek and also was a political supporter of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot’s third-party political fantasies) is interested in the Sun-Times – along with former 43^rd Ward Alderman Edwin Eisendrath.

Once an alderman, Eisendrath now a publisher?

The one-time Lincoln Park neighborhood representative in the City Council who later served as a Chicago-based administrator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development back during the Bill Clinton presidency thinks that being the boss at the one-time Bright One is the way to get public influence.

Although what catches my eye about his alleged bid is that it’s not his money being put forth. He’s putting together a group that would gain the bulk of its funding from the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Bluth ego big enough for Sun-Times?

CONSIDERING HOW MUCH organized labor opposed Rauner’s bid for governor in 2014 and has been disgusted with how apathetic in its opposition to the governor the Sun-Times has become, I don’t doubt they would want to turn it into a hard-core voice in opposition to the Rauner vision of “reform” for Illinois.

Yes, I could see a younger generation ranting about the “bias” that such a pairing would result in. Although considering how many conservative ideologues are trying to buy their own newsgathering organizations so as to spread their take on issues, perhaps this is merely the other side engaging in similar tactics.

As for the older generations, it could be seen as a return to the world of local media. Since the Chicago Federation of Labor was the one-time, long-time owner of WCFL-AM – which used to openly boast of itself as the “Voice of Labor” just as WGN-AM was the broadcast partner of the alleged “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”

tronc Tower types watching ego maneuvers

Of course, WCFL turned rock ‘n’ roll back in the 1960s and was once a heavy-hitter on the local radio scene. “Super-CFL,” it used to call itself, which inspired Capitol Fax newsletter publisher Rich Miller to joke Monday about the Sun-Times becoming, “Super CS-T, the Voice of Labor!”

BUT THE CHICAGO Federation of Labor has been out of the local media scene since 1978 when they sold the radio station, which has gone through a few changes and has evolved into WMVP, the all-sports talk station at AM 1000.

Is this the return of local labor and its “voice” to the Chicago scene? Or are they likely to get out-bid by one of the other rich guys with egos run amok?

Although I did notice one report hinting that it might not be enough for someone to offer more money, and that the Justice Department’s anti-trust division may well decide to stay with the offer made last month for the Chicago Tribune to take over control of the Sun-Times – considering that Sun-Times management already relies on Tribune resources to print and distribute the physical product.

That might be the “nightmare” scenario for news consumers AND for the Chicago News Guild, both of which want to see a Sun-Times that remains separate of the Chicago Tribune. But whether anyone has a big-enough ego to take on the potential nightmare scenario of actually trying to run the Sun-Times remains to be seen.

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