Chicago -
By Natasha Julius
We’ve been working so hard to keep you up-to-date we totally forgot to strike.
Market Update
You are about to get so much freakin’ richer. And you know what? If you use your rebate to buy a plasma TV with your Discover card that’s, like, another $160 in your pocket. What recession?
Posted on February 9, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
Tribune Op-Ed columnist John McCarron offers a mea culpa this morning for dismissing Anita Alvarez in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s race, but more importantly he reveals the media’s blind spots in ways that still shock – especially in contrast with what the political professionals knew.
“Hardly anybody saw Anita Alvarez coming,” McCarron writes. “A lot of us had her pegged fifth in a six-candidate race.”
Losing candidates Tom Allen and Howard Brookins, Jr., both Chicago aldermen, told a different story, captured by the Reader’s indispensable Mick Dumke.
Posted on February 8, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
Anita Alvarez is the star of the moment on the local political scene, but I’m not sure why her victory in the Democratic primary for Cook County State’s Attorney is such a surprise. She was the strongest debate performer (in the one debate I saw; I think there was at least one other), aired the best TV commercials, was the only woman and Hispanic in the race, and made an effective case that she would be an agent of change despite being the chief deputy of Dick Devine’s office.
I have to admit, I thought it would be between her and Larry Suffredin, whose showing was much weaker than I expected. The truth is, there just isn’t a large reform vote in Cook County. (Barack Obama certainly didn’t have any reform coattails, did he? Isn’t that interesting? Apparently “change” is a meme without legs.)
Posted on February 7, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
Super Tuesday notes.
* Without a doubt, the best story of the night was the story of the magic pens and their invisible ink on the Far North Side.
“[W]hen I got to the booth, my pen didn’t work – it was like a felt-tip marker with no ink,” Amy Carlton writes at Rubber Nun. “So I went back to the desk and was told – along with several other confused voters trying to swap out their nonfunctional pens – that these were ‘invisible ink’ pens that would not leave marks on the ballot but would absolutely be read by the scanners . . .
Posted on February 6, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
I would like to advise a certain portion of my readers to abstain from voting today. A journalist ought not participate in internal party activities, and that’s what a primary is. It isn’t your job to help a political party choose nominees for public office. You are supposed to stand outside the system.
And let me tell you, it’s a much clearer perspective from out here.
Cheerleaders in the Press Box
It’s also not the job of journalists to cheerlead, particularly for their hometown guy. If anything, a hometown candidate should get more scrutiny from the hometown media than from anywhere else. This is the first line of defense.
Posted on February 5, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
1. “Perfect Ending”
2. “18 AND UH-OH!”
3. “How could this possibly have happened?” our very own Jim Coffman asks in SportsMonday. “How could a Giants team that barely squeaked past a feeble bunch of Bears in a December regular-season game possibly have pulled it all together and capped off one of the great playoff runs of all time with yesterday’s 17-14 victory?”
Posted on February 4, 2008
By Natasha Julius
We’ll keep our eyes on the news. You just concentrate on getting that friggin’ Air Supply Burger ad out of your head once and for all.
Market Update
President Bush this week acknowledged some “troubling signs,” but refused to discuss an economic recession. So to clarify:
Economy = Troubled, but not recessed
Britney = Troubled, but not depressed
Amy = Troubled, but not a mess
Posted on February 2, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
1. “If we raise $10,000,000,000, we will give it to The City of Chicago if they will build a weather-shielding dome over our fair city.”
From The Chicago Winter Dome Project.
2. My Super Bowl prediction.
3. Do we now have to drink every time Barack Obama mentions Ted Kennedy?
And more, in Mystery Debate Theater 2008!
Posted on February 1, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
There will be no Papers today, but please avail yourself of fine material elsewhere on the site, including Eric Emery’s tips for hosting a Super Bowl party. See you in this space on Friday.
The [Wednesday] Papers
“As much as you tear down the Sun-Times, this extreme downsizing hurts journalism in Chicago,” an e-mailer wrote to me recently. Another correspondent imagined I was feeling “glee” over the plight of the Sun-Times.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The thinning of the Sun-Times is not only depressing to those of us who have loved newspapers, but is a disservice to the city by a mercenary management group that doesn’t understand its own newspaper, much less the market it operates in.
Posted on January 31, 2008
By Steve Rhodes
“As much as you tear down the Sun-Times, this extreme downsizing hurts journalism in Chicago,” an e-mailer wrote to me recently. Another correspondent imagined I was feeling “glee” over the plight of the Sun-Times.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The thinning of the Sun-Times is not only depressing to those of us who have loved newspapers, but is a disservice to the city by a mercenary management group that doesn’t understand its own newspaper, much less the market it operates in.
Posted on January 30, 2008
