FORGET THE ARGUMENT about how keeping up with the news is a civic duty. If you live in Chicago and don’t read the papers you’re missing out on one of the joys of life. Most cities have one daily paper, and it probably thinks of itself as a utility like the water works, bland and inoffensive. In Chicago there are two metropolitan dailies (and others in the suburbs). Reporters here compete by oneupping each other. They can’t afford to be second, and they can’t afford to be dull.
Again some folks converted, causing yet another schism. The King said, ‘Relocate the Serbs,’ to where the grass was greener, The Croatian-Bosnian border, which is now troubled Krajina.
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Stephen Colbert polished his skills at Second City, where he performed that ditty, and though other giants claim more orthodox backgrounds and greater fidelity to the facts, the outlook that prevails among them is roughly as skeptical as Colbert’s. Chicago is not a place where reporters acquire a lofty view of human nature.
apres moi, le deluge. The excitement builds as federal investigators, who in July convicted Daley’s patronage chief on fraud charges, now have senior Daley aides in their sights. It’s taken for granted they’re looking at the mayor—oh, and the governor too.
Without anything like theTribune’s depth of talent, the Sun-Times rides its stars. The name over the title, so to speak, is movie critic and TV host Roger Ebert, but he’s been missing since June, recovering from surgery. That same month sports columnist Jay Mariotti was
Sun-Times thanks to Radler, who patched together a local empire and undermined the editorial independence of the lot. Some are operated by dreamers, idealists, opportunists, or lunatics. And let me add that the foreign-language press is rich. If not reading a newspaper is a habit you’re into, wait until you leave town to indulge it.
