Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

Here’s the only thing you need today:
The Beachwood Radio Hour #46: Explaining Chicago’s Black Site.
A guide to Homan for our comprehension-challenged local media.
Take the time, it’s worth it.
And if you can’t take the time, follow the links to the original Guardian story and the Tribune’s follow-up and tell me who got it right and who blew it.


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This “fact sheet” is filled with obvious deceits. Can you spot them?
I mean aside from the media quotes exonerating the police without ever asking the police a single question.
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Local media complains about CPD lies and evasions, then gets beat by a reporter from Brooklyn and sides with CPD lies and evasions. Without asking a single question.
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Victims come out of the woodwork – to non-Chicago outlets. Chicago journalists ask: Where are the victims?
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I’m confused. First the problem was that it couldn’t be happening or our local reporters – who had been told it was happening and passed on the story – would know. Now it’s that everyone knows it’s happening, but it’s not happening at Homan but all over the city. So it’s happening everywhere except where the Guardian reported! Therefore, not a story.
Except the corroborating evidence shows it is happening at Homan. And the Guardian did report in its original story – there have been four or five, none of which local reporters seem to have read – that it was also happening all over the city. The problem is particularly egregious, though, at Homan because it’s off-the-books. That’s the point.
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Listen to the podcast. It starts out a bit slow and it’s a bit rough but it really gets going. Or at the very least, follow the links. See for yourself what a bunch of sniveling cowards we have in this town.
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If I was writing an old-fashioned column and not something quickly in the morning, I’d probably create a clever dialogue between, oh, me and, say, Rats Slobnik about when something is a story, depending on what “everyone” knows and who breaks the story and when the CPD is lying and when they are conveniently telling the truth and all the other ingredients of the media mindset. Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury, so this is what you get.
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When a newsroom gets beat, it’s like the five stages of grief. First, denial. That’s not a story! Then, anger. How dare someone from a British newspaper come in here and try to tell a story about our town! Then, bargaining. Well, some of it might be true but I’m uncomfortable with some of the terms being used, so it’s not a story. The newsroom never gets to depression and acceptance – the last two stages – because it never really accepts that it got beat.
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See also: @BeachwoodReport, which you can scroll through to find real-time tweets from lawyers in 2012 complaining about Homan as well as quotes from victims and excerpts from recent court rulings about Chicago police abuses.
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RahmBlows.com
The Tribune editorial board pines for the Rahm of 2011, who told the truth. Really? That’s not what the record shows.
Including:


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The Mesmerizing Minnie Miñoso
Baseball could have been better to him.
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The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #40: West Side Stories
Soap opera switches teams: Bulls Window Re-Opened! Blackhawks Window Slams Shut! Plus: Post-Combine Bears; What Kris Bryant’s Status Will Tell Us; White Sox Infield By Committee; Dismembering Ricky Renteria; and The Legend Of Theo.
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BeachBook
* How The Government Outsourced Intelligence To Silicon Valley.
* The Bureau Of Investigative Journalism Launches New Investigation Into Afghanistan Drone Strikes.
* All Snowflakes Look The Same.
“The first time someone called me a nigger was in 2012, during my first winter in the Midwest. I walked into a women’s restroom at Chicago’s O’Hare airport . . . “
* Homeless Newspaper Not Allowed Into Press Conference About Cop Who Slapped Homeless Man.
Seems quaint now, given what’s going on in Los Angeles.
* Food Waste Grows With The Middle Class.
* Pico Iyer Loves McDonald’s.
* Journalists Can’t Get Basic Facts Right Parts 3,246,973/4/5.
* The Devil’s Tool: Slot Machines Have A Long History In McHenry County.
* Chicago Business Files Lawsuit Over Negative Yelp! Review.
* Des Plaines Alderman Accused Of Trespassing In Home.
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TweetWood


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Rats.

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Posted on March 2, 2015