Free Republic

Which candidate would you endorse? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-endorsement-vote,0,6443477,post.poll The editorial board is debating its endorsement for president. As we think about that choice, we want to hear from you. Which candidate would you endorse?

Mark Cuban’s Funding of Movies Criticizing U.S. Armed Forces Make Cuban a Poor Suitor for Chicago Cubs On April 2nd, 2007 the Tribune Company announced their intention to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team following the 2007 season. This decision was made because shareholders compelled the newspaper (TRB: NYSE) to market itself for sale as well as divest certain component parts--including their baseball team. Like any smart seller in a buyer's market, they spruced up the old ballpark (the second oldest in the major leagues) to make it more saleable. The long overdue rebuilding of the playing surface at Wrigley...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Chicago Tribune Media Group said Monday that Ann Marie Lipinski would step down as the editor of its flagship newspaper, with the publication preparing to go through another round of layoffs and shrink the number of its printed pages. Lipinski had been editor of the Tribune since 2001 and had been with the paper since 1978. Her resignation will take effect on Thursday. In a statement, Lipinski said that "the position is not the fit it once was." The Tribune said that Gerould Kern, the paper's vice president of editorials since 2003, will serve as...

RFFM.org's Executive Director, Dan Zanoza, writes a monthly column for the Illinois Family Institute, titled, Media Watch. Recently, Illinois Family Institute's Executive Director Dave Smith pointed out how Chicago Tribune "columnist" Eric Zorn apparently claimed the state of California was divinely rewarded for its high court ruling that the ban on same-sex "marriage" was unconstitutional. Smith had referred to a recent piece by Zorn where the Tribune writer asserted California was experiencing nice weather because of the court's ruling on homosexual "marriage"...

The Chicago Tribune, which once employed Barack Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod, is refusing to publish the truth about a Weather Underground terrorist bombing that killed a policeman. The paper apparently does not want to tarnish the image of Obama friends Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were allegedly part of or had direct knowledge of the bombing plot that also injured several other police officers. The Tribune considers Ayers an education expert and has published various articles by him. Please help Accuracy in Media expose the Tribune's cover-up. I sent a copy of the following email message to Tribune...

On Friday afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama sat down to talk with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune. It was a 92-minute discussion in which he talked at length about his relationship with now-indicted businessman Tony Rezko. And the Tribune editors believe that he "offered a lengthy and, to us, plausible explanation for the presence of [Rezko] in his personal and political lives." "The most remarkable facet of Obama's 92-minute discussion was that, at the outset, he pledged to answer every question the three dozen Tribune journalists crammed into the room would put to him," writes The Tibune in an...

Chicago (AP) -- Real estate magnate Sam Zell took control of newly private Tribune Co. on Thursday and began shaking up the newspaper and TV company the moment the $8.2 billion buyout he led closed, reshuffling the board, naming two top executives and promising more action ahead. Taking on the CEO's role as well as chairman, Zell made clear he won't hesitate to make sweeping changes at the media conglomerate even though he has no previous experience in the industry. He signaled he has no immediate asset sales in mind at the company that owns 23 television stations and nine...

"Activist arrested in L.A.: Deported to Tijuana, pastor says." That's the headline for an August 20 Chicago Tribune story on convicted Social Security fraudster and serial border-jumper Elvira Arellano. Reporter Antonio Olivo mentioned the conviction, but deep in the article in the 14th paragraph: Much of the anger from across the political spectrum surrounding illegal immigration has been crystallized by Arellano's story. After entering the country illegally twice, she became an activist shortly after she was arrested in 2002 during a federal sweep at O'Hare International Airport, where Arellano cleaned airplanes. She was later convicted of using a fake Social...

Multiple studies have demonstrated that our press exhibits a liberal bias.  But worse, a very disturbing phenomenon has now emerged: American newspaper editors advocating on behalf of terrorist organizations. FSM Contributing Editor Steve Emerson has the facts on one such case.Many have noted the fairly recent trend of Hamas leaders taking to the op-ed pages of major American newspapers. (Side note: Hamas is not the only terrorist group with access to the op-ed pages of American newspapers. Just this morning, the Washington Post, in its Muslims Speak Out section, has a piece from Hizballah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, extolling...

That shrill sound you're hearing isn't coming from the cicadas. It's the cackle of conservatives reveling in war protester Cindy Sheehan's abrupt decision to leave the anti-war movement and return home to California. Typical liberal, they're saying. Cut and run.

"World's Greatest Newspaper," the Chicago Tribune used to bill itself with P.T. Barnumesque modesty. World's Greatest it never was, but, viewed from my neighborhood in Chicago, it always seemed the world's least Jewish newspaper. Which makes the fact that the paper is now owned by Sam Zell, son of immigrant Jewish parents from Poland, the first of the ironies associated with Mr. Zell's much-publicized recent acquisition of the Tribune Company, the crown jewel of which is of course the Trib...

Just in time for the 2008 presidential race, a certified "Friend of Bill" is bidding to acquire the Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. As reported in this New York Times article , FOB Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad sumbitted their bid yesterday to Tribune management. According to his Wikipedia entry: Burkle is a well-known political contributor and longtime Democratic fundraiser. He supported the Black Panthers in the Sixties. Burkle has supported California State Treasurer Phil Angelides and employed former San Francisco Mayor Willie BrownBurkle is a close friend of former President Bill...

APART FROM THE DEATH of a journalist, the saddest story for anyone in the news business--and the one most likely to waste expensive newsprint--is the martyrdom of an editor at the hands of his proprietor. There have been quite a few lately, and with the crisis of the newspaper business, there will be more. The most recent episode involves Dean Baquet, editor of the Los Angeles Times for the past year. Since 2000, the Times has been owned by the Tribune Company of Chicago; and while that merger/acquisition was widely hailed at the time, it came at the height of...

When a reporter for The New York Times Magazine recently asked White House political adviser Karl Rove if President Bush is too closely identified with big business at a time of corporate scandal, Rove began reciting the latest poll findings. "Forty-five percent of the people think Bush's proposals for reforming accounting go too far or are about right," he noted, "versus 39 percent who say they do not go far enough. Now that's compared to 39 percent who said they go too far or are about right a month ago, and 43 who said they do not go far enough."...

Groups of private-equity firms are beginning to wade into the auction for media concern Tribune Co., and likely stand the best hope for a company trying to sell itself amid weak financial results, an uncertain future and a divided board of directors. The company -- with a market capitalization of $8.3 billion -- has asked that bidders submit nonbinding indications of interest by the end of the month, say people familiar with the matter. So far, three main contenders have emerged, these people say. One group consists of Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Apollo Management. A second is...

LA MISION, Mexico -- Every weekend, Carmen Tetelboin joins the Baja boom. After work on Fridays, the Los Angeles resident drives four hours across the border to Baja California, where life is so good and living so cheap, it beats the other California, she contends. Owning a condo on the coast, she and her husband are part of an American colony exploding during the past five years along 75 miles of pristine beaches, cliffs and towns south of Tijuana. What's drawing them are oceanfront homes at a fraction of the multimillion-dollar prices on the U.S. side. A native of Chile...

Last Tuesday, Bill O'Reilly was indignant -- as were we all -- over the loss of our two soldiers who were captured and brutally murdered by terrorists in Iraq. So incensed was he that on his Tuesday show he called for stricter and stronger action against these thugs in Iraq. Etc., etc. On Thursday, the Chicago Tribune published a guest commentary by Don Wycliff, associate vice president for news and information for Notre Dame University. Wycliff also teaches "media criticism" for the University, or so his bio line reads. Wycliff took O'Reilly to task for his "intellectual dishonesty" with his...

"Al-Zarqawi was a small-timer who hit the big time in February 2003 when Powell made the case for war in Iraq to the United Nations. Powell identified al-Zarqawi incorrectly, we now know, as a major link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden"

Illinois voters are blessed with an excellent candidate for state treasurer. No, not Alexi Giannoulias, the Democrat on the ballot. He has some serious issues to explain. They first surfaced March 15 in a Tribune scoop with a striking headline: "Loans to crime figure haunt state treasurer hopeful." Six weeks later, Giannoulias has only made matters worse. The more he tries to wriggle out of fully discussing the millions of dollars in loans his family's Broadway Bank of Chicago gave to a convicted felon, the more questions he raises. Giannoulias, 30, is the senior loan officer and vice president of...

NEW YORK The conservative Chicago Tribune editorial board apparently is fed up with Bush administration's explanations of its involvement in the ever-expanding CIA leak case. In an editorial on Tuesday it declared that Vice President Dick Cheney had "been in his bunker long enough. It's time for him to answer some questions--and not in the friendly venue of Fox News." Instead, he should appear at "an unscripted news conference" where he would take all questions from reporters.

Tribune directly impacted by prohibitions against owning newspapers, broadcasting outlets in same city Addressing a matter of crucial importance to Tribune Co., the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission called on newspaper publishers Tuesday to help his agency revive a push to lift a ban on the ownership of both newspapers and broadcasting outlets in the same city. Chairman Kevin Martin, addressing a gathering of publishers at an annual industry convention in Chicago, said newspaper owners should do more to educate the public about the vast changes that have occurred in the nation's media marketplace since 1975, when the ban...

March 7, 2006 Expect Journalistic Tongues to Loosen By Jack Kelly Journalists will be paying rapt attention when Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman go on trial next month for violation of the Espionage Act of 1917. Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were officials of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. They received classified information from Lawrence Franklin, an analyst at the Department of Defense, which they passed on to an Israeli diplomat, and to journalists. They are the first private citizens ever to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Mr. Franklin pled guilty Jan. 20th and was sentenced to more than...

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Media group Tribune Co. (TRB) said fourth-quarter net income fell 38% to $134.4 million, or 43 cents a share, as revenue dipped 4.7% to $1.41 billion. Tribune's profit figures included net charges of 10 cents a share for eliminating 900 positions and closing a printing facility and a net non-operating loss of 4 cents a share. The company said the plant closure and job cuts will result in up to $60 million of annual savings from 2006. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting earnings of 56 cents a share on revenue of $1.42 billion.

A picture similar to the one below attracted to me to an op-ed by Jon Margolis, who used to write about politics regularly for the Chicago Tribune. Jon's moved on and out-- he lives in Vermont. An author, he wrote this book, The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964 : The Beginning of the "Sixties." Yes, another book about "the Sixties." If it wasn't for a picture of Republican rocker Ted Nugent, would've skipped the article, Tribal America defends right to ignore facts. Free registration may be required. It's a typical, "Man, most Americans (but not me) are dumb" piece....

Sure enough, the holidays brought only a temporary reprieve from the mainstream media's strange and endless fascination with Al Franken, where fluffy coverage is routine. Isn't it more of an affliction for these reporters, like a Frankenflu? And what an especially astounding example of Frankenfluff we have today, coming from the Chicago Tribune's Nina Metz. Get a load of these brutal, probing questions on the contents of his soon-to-be-vacated New York City flat, from "The Truth (and a Joke) About Al Franken's Apartment": .......snip........

CHICAGO The story has ended for Chicago's venerable City News Service. Saturday was the final day of business at the agency that trained generations of journalists and writers and inspired "The Front Page." "I'm sad," said City News Editor Paul Zimbrakos. "What can one say?" The Chicago Tribune, which owned City News since 1999, announced Dec. 1 that it would eliminate the service and its 19 jobs at the end of the year to cut costs and to stop serving up news to the Tribune's online and broadcast competitors. The newspaper said it will replace City News with a 24-hour...

To say that the Chicago Tribune’s front page is coordinated with its editorial page is such a gross understatement. One need only remember the hatchet job of GOP Senatorial candidate Jack Ryan last year. Today, the Tribune’s front page signals an editorial rejection of Justice Samuel Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion is the theme of both of the stories in the right-hand two stories.

No, this isn’t about Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman. That’s too easy. It’s about a story on flooding in New Orleans today (1 September). Here’s the lead: “The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years.” The second and third paragraphs say: “Often leading the chorus was Alfred C. Naomi, a senior project manager for the corps... [who] grew particularly frustrated this...

ASSOCIATED PRESS CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Kodee Kennings' story was pure gold. For nearly two years, the motherless 8-year-old spoke and wrote movingly of her struggle to deal with her soldier father being shipped off to fight in Iraq, and Southern Illinois University's student newspaper chronicled her thoughts in its pages. But there was no Kodee Kennings, and the elaborate hoax exposed Friday left The Daily Egyptian embarrassed. "Certainly for us it's a sad day," said Eric Fidler, Daily Egyptian faculty adviser for the past year. "Some good can come from this, but it doesn't help our reputation. All we can...

Published August 17, 2005 Some distant day, when students curl up with their history books to learn about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, they will read about the moment when the tide of public opinion turned. That's the cliche the history book will use: "The tide of public opinion turned." And I'm guessing that the rest of the phrase will be "around August 2005." It's hard to detect a turning tide, even a tide that laps at your shoes. "Is the tide coming in or going out?" a friend said not long ago as we walked along an ocean. We...

To devout Muslims around the world, the Koran deserves great care and reverence, and preserving it is a lifelong responsibility By Manya A. Brachear Tribune staff reporter Published May 27, 2005 Before Ahsan Arozullah touches his fingers to the spine of his Koran and slides it off the topmost bookshelf in his office, he cleanses his body--just as the verses of Islam's holy book cleanse his soul. In a centuries-old ritual performed and prescribed by Islam's founder, the Prophet Muhammad, Arozullah washes his hands up to his elbows, rinses his mouth and sprinkles water on his bare feet and head--washing...

May 3, 2005 — Shareholders have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Tribune Co. and some of its officers, alleging circulation fraud that affected the Chicago-based media company's financial results, attorneys announced Tuesday. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, contends Tribune violated the Securities and Exchange Act by intentionally overstating circulation at "numerous" newspapers, including Newsday and Tribune's Spanish-language newspaper Hoy, which meant the papers could charge more for advertising. Also named as defendants were Tribune chairman Dennis J. FitzSimons, senior vice president for finance Donald C. Grenesko and retired president of Tribune Publishing Jack Fuller, according...

The Chicago Tribune apologized Thursday for publishing a photo caption that misidentified a man as a high-ranking mobster, a day after a second man sued the newspaper over a picture wrongly identifying him as a mobster. In an article in Thursday's editions, Editor Ann Marie Lipinski said the newspaper regretted publishing the photograph on Wednesday's front pages. The caption said the photo showed 76-year-old Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, a reputed mob boss who is on the lam after being indicted along with others on charges of plotting at least 18 murders. A man identified as 69-year-old Stanley Swieton told reporters...

Over the years, this page and other critics have tried every way possible to get Mayor Richard Daley to deal forcefully and honestly and openly with the culture of corruption that has enveloped Chicago. A culture, by the way, that long predates his tenure as mayor. We've needled him, badgered him, criticized him, pressed, pushed, you name it. Four years ago, we ran a list of his most quotable denials of responsibility for that culture. It was a long list. Today, no needling, no badgering, no criticism, no pressing, no pushing, no lists. Just a compliment.

For despondent Democrats there's a new treatment, if not a cure, for their lingering Election Day blues. Think retail therapy. A Web site called Choose the Blue is offering shopping advice this holiday season, providing information about which companies' employees give to Democrats and which prefer Republicans.

Chicago, IL (LifeNews.com) -- A Chicago Tribune columnist is catching fire for recommending that a mother take her 22-year-old daughter to an office of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion operation. Advice guru Amy Dickinson went so far as to suggest that the mother drive her adult daughter to Planned Parenthood and stay in the waiting room during her consultation. The daughter has a two-year-old son and recently miscarried another child. Dickinson wrote, “I think that a young woman who at 22 has already had at least one unplanned pregnancy needs to reassess her behavior -- and her birth-control method."...

The release of the six-month circulation figures for U.S. daily newspapers showed big declines at Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. The newspaper industry's twice-yearly circulation report showed modest circulation declines at many dailies, continuing a two-decade-long trend. The latest report, released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, is being studied especially closely by advertisers and Wall Street. It marks the first industry circulation data since several major newspapers reported overstatements this year, beginning with scandals in June at Tribune's Newsday and Spanish-language Hoy. Subsequently, Hollinger International Inc.'s Chicago Sun-Times and Belo Corp.'s Dallas Morning News also admitted...

Tribune Co.'s two largest papers, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, disclosed steep circulation declines the same day the company reported lackluster quarterly results. Tribune executives said internal audits conducted at the company's six largest papers found no evidence of problems similar to those at Newsday and Hoy. Both papers have admitted to falsely boosting their figures, triggering advertiser lawsuits and a federal investigation. At The Times, daily circulation fell 5.6 percent and 6.3 percent on Sunday for the six-month period ended September. The paper blamed the decline on the national Do-Not-Call list and a "deliberate decision" to...

NEW YORK The Tribune Co. announced this morning that circulation at its two largest papers, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, experienced steep declines. During a conference call to investors, Jack Fuller, president of Tribune's publishing division, who announced his retirement late yesterday, said that at the Times, daily circulation for the six-month period ending September 2004 stood at 902,164 and that Sunday circ was 1,292,274, or roughly "a range of" 6% drop. The Tribune reported daily circulation of 591,504 and a Sunday circ of 963,926, or a 2.5% and 4% decline, respectively. Also noted: The Audit Bureau...

Published October 24, 2004 New York -- As a New Yorker who witnessed the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, I want to thank you for endorsing President Bush. I am a registered Democrat who will be voting for a Republican president for the first time in my life. I am doing this because terrorism is the No. 1 issue in my mind. Again, thank you for giving your readers a clear and concise, point-by-point case for re-electing the president Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune

I have not written much in this column about the Editorial and Commentary pages of the Tribune--the opinion pages. There is such a thing as being too close to your subject and, after having been in charge of those pages for more than nine years, I was too close. But after the furious response by so many readers this week to Sunday's presidential endorsement editorial--there easily were at least 2,400 communications to editors, reporters, customer service representatives and the letters editor--it clearly is time to end that self-imposed moratorium. -snip- Besides the seasoned judgments of its members, the editorial board...

One by one, Americans typically settle on a presidential candidate after weighing his, and his rival's, views on the mosaic of issues that each of us finds important. Some years, though, force vectors we didn't anticipate turn some of our usual priorities--our pet causes, our own economic interest--into narcissistic luxuries. As Election Day nears, the new force vectors drive our decision-making. This is one of those years--distinct in ways best framed by Sen. John McCain, perhaps this country's most broadly respected politician. Seven weeks ago, McCain looked with chilling calm into TV cameras and told Americans, with our rich diversity...

Newspaper endorsements in the 2004 presidential campaign between President Bush (news - web sites), a Republican, and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), a Democrat.Bush:The Chicago Tribune endorsed Bush on Oct. 17."There is much the current president could have done differently over the last four years. ... But for his resoluteness on the defining challenge of our age — a resoluteness John Kerry has not been able to demonstrate — the Chicago Tribune urges the re-election of George W. Bush as president of the United States." The Carlsbad Current-Argus, Carlsbad, N.M., endorsed Bush on Oct. 17."We believe President Bush should...

...Terry McAuliffe called the program "an illegal in-kind contribution" to the Bush campaign and said the Democratic National Committee is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Over at the FCC, Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps interrupted his Columbus Day holiday to dub the broadcast "an abuse of the public trust." More ominously, Kerry adviser Chad Clanton told Fox News yesterday that "I think they (Sinclair) are going to regret doing this, and they better hope we don't win." ...It wasn't the intention of the Founders to give elected officials veto power over press reports.... The excuse for such broadcast...

Blogs' power demands responsibility ....It's not an extraordinary act when a news organization admits a mistake, but what CBS and Dan Rather did on Monday was extraordinary. They admitted that they no longer can vouch for the authenticity of documents used to support a story about President Bush's Vietnam War-era National Guard service, a topic that could swing a close election. It largely happened because of bloggers...... .... The blogging community, which calls itself the blogosphere, is riding high because a few bloggers are deservedly taking credit for shining a spotlight on the documents CBS used in its "60 Minutes...

Declaring that his campaign strategy is dependent on controversy, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes told the state's top GOP donors at a recent closed-door meeting that he plans to make "inflammatory" comments "every day, every week" until the election, according to several sources at the session. The sources said Keyes explained that his campaign has been unfolding according to plan and likened it to a war in which lighting the "match" of controversy was needed to ignite grass-roots voters. "This is a war we're in," one source recounted Keyes as saying. "The way you win wars is that you...

Queer Eye for the Media Guy Friday, September 10, 2004 OPINION -- O-k, tell me. Last week, when you were told Alan Keyes “lashed out” against Mary Cheney, “attacking” the vice president’s daughter as a selfish hedonist, did you believe it?Come on, be straight with me. Did you believe that?Now, would you like to hear the actual interview? Here is an mp3 audio file of it. So have a listen. If you failed the bumper sticker test, “Don’t believe the liberal media,” and really thought he attacked poor Mary, come out of the closet.By the way, as unfortunate as it...

OPINION -- There was something almost quaint about the Chicago Tribune’s editorial assertion August 24 declaring that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth controversy surrounding John Kerry’s war record was over. Forgetting that we are in the midst of a “new media” revolution that allows everyday Americans to investigate truth claims on their own - without the clouded filter of biased journalists - the Tribune editors wrote, “That should be the end of the debate about John Kerry's experience in Vietnam.” Days before, the Tribune had injected itself prominently into the presidential campaign and the Swift Boat controversy by giving...

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Tribune has refused to make public sampling data from its poll released August 22 that showed Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama leading Republican Alan Keyes by 41 points.The Tribune article describing the Tribune/WGN-TV poll, which was conducted August 13-16 by Market Shares Corporation of Mt. Prospect, would only say the poll was of "700 Illinois likely voters conducted August 13-16."One glimpse into the make-up of poll respondents: "Voters who described themselves as very conservative... accounted for only 13 percent of those surveyed," said the Tribune article.Results, according to the Tribune, showed Obama in a...

Kerry's Silver Star incident is supposed to be told with such bravado you'd think Rood could come up with something more colorful to justify its awarding. An ambush without much action and a couple-few if any more fleeing, if even that's to be believed, or even minor activity described as being from the other side of the river aside ... Here is how Kerry's citation describes the incident (Unfit for Command pages 81-82): On a request from U.S. Army advisors ashore, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY ordered PCFs 94 and 23 further up river to suppress enemy sniper fire. After proceeding...