Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
Here’s a thread from this morning “unrolled” for you about the possible commutation of Rod Blagojevich’s sentence.
Even considering commuting #Blagojevich‘s sentence is privileging him over the tens of thousands of other prisoners – many of whom’s cases really are questionable at best and should be reconsidered – because he made himself into a celebrity in an attempt to taint the jury pool.
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) August 13, 2019
Posted on August 13, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
1. Chicago’s Favorite Library Books.
“In Chicago, millions of books and people pass through the Chicago Public Library’s 80 locations each year. In 2018 alone, 10.5 million books, DVDs and other materials were circulated throughout the city,” the Tribune reports.
“With so many books to choose from in the library system, what are Chicagoans reading the most?”
I’ll skip the fiction selections – you can click through to see those for yourself – and go right to the good stuff:
Posted on August 12, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
Let’s talk about the importance of language. It may seem like it goes without saying that journalists should choose their words carefully, but the evidence is before us every day that the news business is rampant with careless usage, and prone to the manipulations of others’ agenda-driven language choices to frame – and often constrain – public discourse. (See, for example, Frank Luntz).
Journalists also often lazily fall back on what I call journalese, the handy cliches, frames and narratives used to avoid the effort involved in more thoughtful coverage that more closely aligns with reality. Instead, we get political consultant-speak like “investments” for spending and “revenues” for taxing.
I bring this up today – well, I bring it up a lot, but I bring it up today in particular because of some of the posts featured on the site right now.
Posted on August 9, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
“Once upon a time in America, Toni Morrison wrote in Beloved, her masterpiece, the presence of a black face in a newspaper would induce something close to horror in certain readers,” Dwight Garner writes for the New York Times.
“That face wasn’t there for any happy or noble reason. It wasn’t even there because the black person had been killed or ‘maimed or caught or burned or jailed or whipped or evicted or stomped or raped or cheated,’ because those things didn’t qualify as news. The purpose of the photo had to be more unusual.
“Over the course of her long and exceptional literary career, which included the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, Morrison, who died on Monday at 88, brought a freight of news about black life in America (and about life, period) to millions of readers across the globe. Much of this news was of the sort that, in terms of its stark and sensitive awareness of the consequences of racism, opened an abyss at one’s feet and changed the taste of the saliva in one’s mouth.”
Posted on August 8, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
Wow.
Saturday . . .
Dentist No. 1: Stares at x-ray for a really long time. Finally says, you have a cracked tooth.
Me: Wary because he looked at the x-ray for so long, I ask, are you sure?
Dentist No. 1: There’s no question about it. If we can save the tooth, we’ll do a root canal. If we can’t we’ll extract it and replace it with an implant.
Ultimate cost: About $5,000.
Accept Medicaid: No.
I walk out in pain. Something, besides the cost, wasn’t right.
Posted on August 7, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
It’s always something.
Right now, it’s a tooth infection. I know – there are people out there dying of brain cancer at this very moment. I’m well aware. I have perspective.
But just fyi, I was in a great deal of pain at the end of last week and particularly on Saturday until I saw two dentists and made two trips to Walgreen’s before finally getting my hands on some painkillers.
Posted on August 6, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
“Three years after Illinois’ voter registration database was infiltrated by Russian hackers, Illinois and local officials are spending millions to upgrade the cyber defenses protecting voters and their ballots leading up to the 2020 election,” the Tribune reports.
Posted on August 5, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
From this morning’s Politico Playbook:
THIS PRIMARY HAS BECOME, in part, a referendum on BARACK OBAMA. See Booker, Cory, right here. And see Trump, Donald Jr., on Twitter: “It was nice to see Democrats finally go after Obama’s failed policies very aggressively. Wish they would have done that years ago.” Here’s Neera Tanden, retweeting DJT Jr.: “Good job everyone.” And Steve Israel — the New York Democrat who ran the DCCC for two cycles — went with this: “Democrats need to make this a referendum on Pres. Trump. Instead they’re making it a referendum on [Barack] Obama.”
I’m not one to defend politicians, but this popular mainstream media take is wholly disingenuous.
Posted on August 1, 2019
By Steve Rhodes
“Federal and state officials said Tuesday they want to close loopholes that allow families to get need-based financial aid they would not otherwise receive by giving up guardianship of their college-bound children,” ProPublica Illinois reports.
“The move, they said, could end ‘potential student aid fraud’ when parents turn over guardianship of their children in hopes of obtaining a tuition break.
“A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General said the office has recommended modifying the language on federal financial aid forms following disclosure of the tactic, first reported by ProPublica Illinois on Monday. The Wall Street Journal also published a story late Monday about the issue.”
I wonder how the Wall Street Journal came to work on the same story as ProPublica Illinois at the same time – or vice versa.
Posted on July 31, 2019
