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Taking The Next Step, part 2
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
No luck on getting the full story about St. Sabina.
Interestingly, while the Sun-Times screamed about it on the front page, the three newscasts I saw last night reported it several stories into the show. I didn't get any more facts from TV news except a mention by Paul Meincke on Channel 7 that a Gresham district police commander said the area wasn't as bad as it used to be.
Today's Tribune ran the story on the bottom of page 1, continued to page 2. No new news was found there-I guess there's no point in advancing a story the Sun-Times scooped them on.
Today's Sun-Times did go into more detail, even printing a map of where the other schools are located-but they left St. Sabina's off the map which gave me no extra perspective (I have no idea where the Auburn-Gresham district is). There was a comparison of the neighborhood to that around St. Ignatius, but no real comparisons to the neighborhoods where the other league schools are from.
I can't say if I'd want to hang around St. Sabina's neighborhood, but I do know that I wouldn't dare set foot in Palos Heights-I have acrophobia!
Continuing a recent trend of odd behavior (see below), the Sun-Times wrote two paragraphs on their editorial page stating that "Unfortunately, some inner-city neighborhoods such as Auburn-Gresham have serious crime problems, so it should not come as a surprise that parents--of any race--might balk at sending their children there." Huh? Based on the reporting, the paper's slant was that this is 100% race and a total travesty. Why did they soften that stance in the editorial?
I'm still wondering about those crime stats.
Has Dennis Byrne Cornered the Market on Coat Hangers?
By JOHN F. KUCZAJ
Last Monday, May 21st the Tribune published a column from Dennis Byrne about abortion. Byrne had been a columnist (on the editorial board, I believe) for the Sun-Times, but now his (opinion) bizarre views can be read regularly in the Tribune.
With that move, the Sun-Times gets better and the Tribune gets worse.
Like all columnists, Byrne is not shy and very opinionated. Like some columnists, he thinks his poop don't stink. As a regular Sun-Times reader, Byrne's columns always left me scratching my head wondering how someone so obtuse got a job as a columnist in the editorial section. It's not just that I disagree with most of what he strongly believes in, but that his beliefs sometimes made me wonder if he had Art Bell's phone number on speed dial. Plus the fact that I can not recall him ever admitting being wrong about something, or perhaps correcting an error. That alone is not enough for an indictment, but Byrne's fanatical views on abortion, among some of his other views make me thoroughly dislike him.
In the May 21 column titled "Why all the silence about abortion and breast cancer?", Byrne backs up his views that abortion should be illegal with "facts" taken from over 30 studies conducted throughout the world. If there's one thing I know about, it's research and how to twist numbers to fit your viewpoint.
Byrne writes that 27 of 34 independent studies conducted throughout the world (including 13 of 14 in the U.S.) have linked abortion and breast cancer. Then he proceeds to quote from only 2 studies (one British), a lawyer and a vague reference on the American Cancer Society Web Site.
Weak.
No mention of any of the other 32 studies. Had they really supported his argument, he could have lifted 27 concrete sentences from each one. He didn't, and I have to wonder why not? It surely would have hammered his point home.
He ends his column by listing a web site and proposing that readers "may not agree with everything there, but they'll be respected for their intellectual ability to make an informed choice." Note Byrne's odd wording so that he can include the word "choice". In his past anti-abortion columns, Byrne frequently included similar odd-phrases. Can it be coincidence that while spewing his inflexible views, he includes language and phraseology used often by the pro-choice movement? I think not.
My opinion? I think that the opinions of 48% of the population are totally invalid on abortion. That 48% is, of course, all men. Only a woman can have a complete handle on the issue because only a woman has perspective. Sure, men can have opinions, but in a serious debate they should be quickly brushed aside in favor of opinions that matter. Any decisions on the issue should be made by women-not a bunch of old white guys in Washington. Just like Christians shouldn't be telling Muslims how to dress, men shouldn't be telling women what to do with their bodies.
Now, back to the point. Dennis Byrne has no perspective. His facts are twisted and his logic is faulty. Like myself, his opinion on this matter is invalid.
Attention all men: we ARE the weakest link. Goodbye.
Sun-Times = New York Post?
By: JOHN F. KUCZAJ
Things have been happening with the Sun-Times of late that concern me deeply. I was raised reading the Sun-Times and grew to love the paper's scrappy underdog / blue collar image-if not it's editorial stances. There was no better example of that image than Mike Royko, who quickly jumped to the Tribune when Rupert Murdoch purchased the paper in the 80's and everyone feared it would be changed into a New York Post-like rag. Luckily, Rupert realized that his brand of newspaper journalism wasn't going to play in Chicago and the Sun-Times retained its scrappiness under independent leadership.
Enter: Hollinger, the current owners of the Sun-Times. A Canadian company with newspapers in Jerusalem and Vancouver among other far-flung places, Hollinger may not embody the classic definition of a scrappy company, but they are quite small compared to the Tribune Company. At first, it had seemed like business as usual at the Sun-Times, but I am getting the distinct impression that some hoseheads from the great white north are screwing with my beloved paper.
I'm none too pleased.
I'm sure I've missed some less-obvious things, but my list of questionable moves includes:
- Canning Jeff Zaslow as a cost-savings
- Hanging a tacky banner ad for Sears on the side of their building
- Sensational / Screaming headlines and front-page stories written with a flowery / smart-ass style ("Daley Fires Spitball at Schools Chief")
- Ratcheting up the T & A content enough to make Aaron Spelling blush
- Forming an alliance with the #5 ranked newscast in the city???
- Overexposing Richard Roeper (did they REALLY have to use him in a front page photo of Suite Home Chicago?)
- Recent editorials ordering us to "bow to your Canadian masters because resistance is futile, eh?"
Okay, I made that last one up. But it could happen.
Oh, and I predict a price increase this year. Page count is down and they can't shrink the newshole any more than it is now. I think the Canadians will push the price to at least 40 cents by the end of the year, but I wouldn't doubt a move to match the Trib and go for 50. A higher price may convince the big-ticket advertisers who don't touch the Sun-Times that the paper's movin' on up, but I bet they'd just see the circ plummet.
I fear that we will gradually lose "the bright one" and the Sun-Times will turn into another New York Post.
Oreos Redux
By: JOHN F. KUCZAJ
On May 17th, I ranted about the Oreo non-news story / ad that some TV news shows covered last week, yet praised the newspapers for having the dignity to avoid it.
On Monday, the Sun-Times had a staff reporter write about the Oreos and put the new chocolate ones to a taste test. It was on page 10-in the metro section.
D'OH!!!!
A Few Thoughts...
ANON. SUBMISSION
I guess I just had a somewhat obvious statement. Isn't it funny how bad the Sun Times sucks compared to the Tribune? What the Sun Times does isn't so much reporting as much as shock journalism, sports score gathering, and classified herding.
The Tribune, shock horror, actually has stories on it! What a novelty! Granted, they can be slanted to the right a bit, but I have never, ever heard someone preface a serious conversation with "I read in the Sun-Times today...."
For in-depth news in Chicago, you can't really afford to read the NY Times, Wall Street Journal or Washington Post which is a shame. So, if you're not a fan of the slight or sometimes far right, but are stuck with wanting actual news, you are stuck with the Tribune.
Don't even get me started on the crap factory called Chicago TV/radio news. My favorite is CLTV or Children Learning Television.
Maybe later on I'll give some thoughts on NPR and News Radio 78. For starters, why does WBEZ rely so much on a national feed? Granted, there are national programs that have their place, but damn, we're the second/third largest city in the US! There must be a plethora of stories in this naked city. As for News Radio 78, why do they not bother to tell the listeners more than three sentences of anything? It's kind of like a liberal arts degree, something that gives you a little bit of everything but in the end, a whole lot of nothing.
Take a look at the previous issue: Thursday, May 31
Published weekly...or so--usually on Friday.
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