In reality, this is less about Andrzejewski, and more about the miserable state of the American news media.
Lech Walesa, a genuine world hero, a man who did as much as anybody (right up there with Reagan and John Paul II) to bring down the Soviet empire, a winner (and deservedly so) of the Nobel Peace Prize, came to Chicago this week. He came here to endorse Adam Andrzejewski for governor, but the reason is irrelevant — this is an important person coming to our city, worth a bit of attention.
How did our leading papers treat the event? They pretty much ignored it. The Tribune ran (get this) an article from AP – seven sentences, 113 words. At least that’s what’s on their website, I have no idea if they mentioned it in the paper at all.
The event took place in the Loop, within a mile or two of the Tribune Tower, and they couldn’t send an intern over to cover it — they let AP cover an event in their city?
The Sun-Times had no news coverage of it at all, just a brief mention on a columnist’s blog.
If they are wondering why newspapers are seen as increasing meaningless to people who actually want news, this is a good example.
With that rant out of the way, please treat this as a Saturday open thread (Richard Murray, please come home!)
January 30th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Bob,
It is important in these days to specify whether a Nobel Peace Prize winner actually deserved it. Lech Walesa is a true hero.
Our newspapers are in a death spiral. As they lose readership, they lose advertisers, so they cut their budget, and the papers get even crappier, and so they lose more readership, and more advertisers, and cut the budget more, etc……..
January 30th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
I wonder if the trib is not reporting on this because they have crooked ties, or are crooked them selves, and stand to lose a lot with Adam’s audit. If not that, daddy McKenna must be paying off some of his old board buddies. Either way the situation smells like Chicago politics.
The trib provided this back in May
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/may/30/local/chi-walesa-29-may30
So its clearly not Lech Walesa they are trying to ignore.
January 30th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Not all that surprised. After all, the Bolsheviks are in charge. That said, imagine for a moment that former President Reagan were still alive and went to the city in Poland with the largest English-speaking population outside of New York City. Then you you’d know how defunct our press is.
January 30th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
“… crooked ties …”
“… Bolsheviks are in charge …”
Corruption and ideology are both possible explanation, but I’m more inclined to ascribe it to incompetence.
January 30th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
[...] primaries, Adam Andrzejewski’s Tea Party-backed gubernatorial campaign — which the legacy media are trying to ignore — got an unexpected boost yesterday when Barack Obama made a joke about GOP [...]
January 30th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
“Corruption and ideology are both possible explanation, but I’m more inclined to ascribe it to incompetence”
The three are not mutally exclusive – I would say they are corrupt, ideological, AND incompetent.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:51 pm
[...] surge in the latest polling. And this is despite the fact that the mainstream Chicago news mostly ignored Walesa’s historic endorsement. I’ll post more video from the rally today later today. [...]
January 31st, 2010 at 9:18 pm
[...] surge in the latest polling. And this is despite the fact that the mainstream Chicago news mostly ignored Walesa’s historic [...]
February 1st, 2010 at 12:48 am
[...] surge in the latest polling. And this is despite the fact that the mainstream Chicago news mostly ignored Walesa’s historic [...]
February 1st, 2010 at 6:15 am
[...] surge in the latest polling. And this is despite the fact that the mainstream Chicago news mostly ignored Walesa’s historic [...]
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
[...] The only print coverage in local newspapers the event garnered was from the Tribune, which ran a 113-word AP story, and the Sun-Times, which mentioned Walesa in a 2-sentence caption, right below a blurb headlined "Family of boy found hanged sues schools" and above one headlined "New Schools Expo today". So the latter paper decided the death of a child in a local suburb was more important than a political endorsement from a man at least partially responsible for the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The former decided it couldn’t spare a reporter for such a monumental figure (h/t Founding Bloggers and Race 4 2012). [...]
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:45 pm
[...] The only print coverage in local newspapers the event garnered was from the Tribune, which ran a 113-word AP story, and the Sun-Times, which mentioned Walesa in a 2-sentence caption, right below a blurb headlined "Family of boy found hanged sues schools" and above one headlined "New Schools Expo today". So the latter paper decided the death of a child in a local suburb was more important than a political endorsement from a man at least partially responsible for the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The former decided it couldn’t spare a reporter for such a monumental figure (h/t Founding Bloggers and Race 4 2012). [...]