Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Despite her self-congratulations and the national “debate” it touched off, Lynn Sweet’s question last July about the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was a low point in media coverage of the president in 2009.
Why?
Because it obscured the far more important question asked by Tribune reporter Christi Parsons, which went virtually unremarked upon as the media chased its new shiny object.
Posted on January 6, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Rod Blagojevich appearing on The Apprentice would make more sense if the show was hosted by Dick Mell, don’t you think?
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“Blagojevich’s charity: the Children’s Cancer Center in Tampa,” AP reports. “It got $10,000 from his wife Patti Blagojevich’s participation in the ABC reality show I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me out of Here! It took that money after two other charities passed.
“‘Being in Tampa, Florida, we’re not really aware of what’s going on in Chicago,’ spokeswoman Shannon Hannon Oliviero said.”
A) The Internet hasn’t gotten to Florida yet
B) It’s not like it’s been a huge national story or anything
C) Look, we want the money
Posted on January 5, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
1. Kot and DeRo’s mix tapes of the decade.
2. Australia in Review. By The Angry Aussie Of Humboldt Park.
3. “I don’t think Lovie’s job was ever in jeopardy.”
– Lou Canellis on Good Day Chicago this morning.
Please.
“If you’re not going to have Lovie Smith as your coach, who’s going to be the coach?” Canellis continued.
I know. There is absolutely no one else out there.
They beat Detroit, folks. The Beachwood bar staff could beat Detroit.
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Rosenbloom has it right.
Posted on January 4, 2010
By Steve Rhodes
Some highlights from Beachwood 2009. Are we not the most interesting publication on the planet?
* Huberman’s CPS. Slow zones and derailments come to Chicago schools.
* The Broom of Wicker Park. Why doesn’t a park in a purported artists’ neighborhood didn’t feature more works by its artists? Perhaps because that work does not conform to Official History, like the statue of Charles Wicker and his broom.
* Weep Not For The Newspaper Industry. Now is not the time for your tears.
Posted on December 31, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
“Six months after state health officials declared their investigation of cancer rates in south suburban Crestwood was almost complete, they have yet to release the results,” the Tribune reports.
“The Illinois Department of Public Health, which earlier had failed to notify Crestwood residents their municipal water supply was contaminated with toxic chemicals, declined to answer questions about the cancer study.”
Private citizens decline to comment. Public officials refuse.
“The agency also has rejected the Tribune’s requests for cancer data filed under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.”
Posted on December 30, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
“A city starving for the playoffs must demand to know, if the Bears can look this good against a quality team, why have they looked so bad so often the rest of the season?” Tribune columnist David Haugh writes in this morning’s best Bears commentary.
“The better the Bears played, the more they looked like a team with the most unrealized talent in the league. The more they relished how competitive they played, the more they must have regretted how badly their season went.
“Does beating a Super Bowl-caliber team create more faith in Smith’s coaching ability or doubt?
Posted on December 29, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
1. Our very own Jim Coffman on a “neat little microcosm of why the Bears are where they are and the Vikings are where they are heading into this evening’s 2009 Soldier Field finale.”
2. Bikers Meet Thomas Kinkade And It Ain’t Pretty.
Posted on December 28, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
UPDATES DEC. 26:
* Pay boxes freezing up again.
* Desert Island Jukebox Special on Sound Opinions this weekend.
UPDATES DEC. 25: Via Facebook.
Matt Farmer noticed that the woman who knocked down Pope Benedict XVI during Christmas Eve mass at St. Peter’s did so only after the Pope walked untouched through the Chicago Bears secondary.
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John Kuczaj tonight told all the young kids the story of Santa Claus battling Jesus to the death at the first Christmas.
The [Christmas] Papers
From the Beachwood holiday vault:
* Home for the Holidays: Our classic holiday series. Start from the bottom!
* 20 Carols. As fitting today as the year we wrote them.
* Barista! The Gift Card That Saved Christmas.
Posted on December 24, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
1. Holiday Gift Ideas For Your Favorite Parking Scofflaw.
2. A whistleblower who won.
3. I’m actually glad former streets and san man Al Sanchez is getting a new trial. Why? Because even if the witness in question gets dusted up, there’s plenty of other evidence to re-convict Sanchez. And now we get to hear all over again how Mayor Daley’s dirty operation worked, including testimony about how Bill Daley and Tim Degnan founded the now-infamous Hispanic Democratic Organization not to further Hispanics but to suit the mayor’s purposes.
Posted on December 23, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
This just in: Santa’s Got The Swine.
In Other Swine News
A lot of reaction to my column yesterday about NBC killing posts about Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels and the late Chicago school board chairman Michael Scott.
Among the local blog links: This interview with Justin Kaufmann of WBEZ/Vocalo.
We’ll provide a full round-up of links at week’s end in This Week In The Beachwood, our free e-mail newsletter that goes out every Friday morning. You can subscribe to it by entering your e-mail address in the appropriate box over there on the right rail, under the search bar.
And for the curious, I haven’t heard a word – nor seen a comment – from NBC or Tribune Company, even as the story as spread through the blogosphere.
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UPDATE 9:50 A.M.: I spoke too soon. Michael Miner has this from Toni Falvo, vice president for research, programming, and the press. “This was an internal editorial decision made by the local team in Chicago.”
If Falvo is referring to the decision to kill the Michael Scott post in question, Falvo is right as far as I know. But if Falvo is referring to the Randy Michaels post which is the crux of the whole drama, it’s blatantly false. I was told the decision was ultimately made by the president of NBC Universal’s local media division, John Wallace.
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Finally, thanks to everyone who has sent notes of support. It means a lot.
Posted on December 22, 2009
