Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

The return of sports – baseball in particular – may be a much-needed salve to our wounded hearts, though it may also be a death race of sorts, but our very own David Rutter reminds us this morning that the return of sports brings with it the return of maddening sports media. His dispatch:

Monday a.m. sports takeaways.
CUBS/WHITE SOX: It’s been so long since baseball, some local media have forgotten how to cover the sport. First example: the ABC-Channel 7 web page coverage of the Sox/Cubs exhibition groundbreaking, courtesy of Dionne Miller and Alexis McAdams.
Good morning, Dionne and Alexis.
It took two of them – both together as a team – to announce that the White Sox won 6-3. Nope. It was 7-3.
Channel 7’s effort here was a full-team performance. The unnamed web editor not only didn’t fix the score, the anonymous she/he put it in the headline. Onward and upward, said the Hindenburg’s captain.
By 10 a..m., the score still was listed erroneously.

Editor’s Note: Still unfixed at 11:24 a.m.
Screen Shot 2020-07-20 at 11.24.29 AM.png
Back to Rutter:

CLICHÉS DON’T HEAL THEMSELVES: Based on first impressions, the delayed time frame and general pandemic discombobulation didn’t thwart the cliché mill. Participants seem to be in midseason form, or maybe it’s midseason hideous distortion.
Reported-for-actual-publication the Daily Herald’s Scot Gregor: “I’ve covered thousands of games for the Daily Herald through the years, and this one will be sitting pretty high on the most memorable list when it is time to take inventory.”
We have inserted that statement in the “who cares” file cabinet though it proves why now non-existent editors still are needed.
There was no one at the Daily Herald office who cell-phoned him the message: “Hey numbskull! Who cares?”
SAY WHAT: Point of order. When a player such as the Sox’s Luis Robert who speaks no English is asked a question by a reporter who speaks no Spanish, how does anyone know the interpreter is telling the truth?
Why doesn’t the reporter have her/his own interpreter who confirms: “Yep, that’s what he said?”

Editor’s Note: YES! There is a history of interpreters “cleaning things up” – or being blamed for controversial statements “lost in translation.” You might as well let a PR person translate a player’s statements into PR-ese.

THE LEAD: On the shaky theory that news organizations still report what they think is most important first, ESPN’s website led on Monday morning with . . . a major league soccer match between Miami and New York.
We all have too much time on our hands. New York-Miami soccer apparently is the real world, and you are not.
It was stirring and at least did not end nil-to-nil, which is the most symbolic score ever for an American pro soccer game.
ESPN supplies texted play-by-play: “Offside, New York City FC. Valentín Castellanos tries a through ball, but Ismael Tajouri-Shradi is caught offside.
“Substitution, Inter Miami CF. Julián Carranza replaces Matías Pellegrini.”
I was breathless and agog. But mostly agog.
In case you have missed it, thousands more are playing American soccer every day. So many play soccer, just so they don’t have to watch it.
Hurry. Seats on the Hindenburg are filling fast.

FYI: Rutter calls this perhaps sporadic feature “Pandemic Time On My Hands.”
–
Also by Rutter:
How Did An Indiana High School Get Named For A Slaveholding Serial Rapist?

–
E-mail exchange . . .
Rutter: My plan eventually was to write about Harrison for my blog as a result of my original research on Chief Blackhawk. But my thinking accelerated after watching Hamilton again a few times. The Thomas Jefferson in that show was buffoonish and prancing. He was cool. But the Broadway theater is not reality.
That was not who he was. Jefferson was Harrison’s mentor and guide, Harrison was called Jefferson’s “Hammer” for their joint planning to purge Native Americans from the entire Midwest . . . which they did. It was brutal.
In fact, Blackhawk fought for the British in the War of 1812 precisely because he knew who Jefferson and Harrison were and that they were not to be trusted.
Harrison and Jefferson had common habits. Just as Harrison had his coerced companion, Jefferson had Sally Hemings who traded her sexual slavery for the future freedom of her children. Jefferson never did free her. Though I admired Jefferson’s intellect, I never understood why he was beloved.
It took a court-ordered DNA Y-chromosome haplotype study 200 years after Jefferson’s death to prove Sally Hemings’ children were his. Nobody who studied the issue much had ever doubted that. I knew that when I was 20.
It is always a moment of disappointment for me when people believe they know historical characters without knowing the truth. I expect the Harrison piece to draw anger and denial in Evansville though the facts are clearly visible.
So I hold up a very small flashlight and hope people can see how much they never knew. After that, it’s up to them.
Me: History, man. We don’t know much about it. Maybe people are finally figuring out that they’ve been sold fairy tales. That we are deeply misinformed. That they’ve essentially been indoctrinated into a cult – the cult of Americanism. That, in part, is what drives Trumpism – it’s the anger of being confronted with a world different than they one they were taught. It’s the adolescent anger upon learning that Mom and Dad are not only deeply flawed, but pretty horrible people. They – and a lot of others, frankly – loved the story. They want to believe. They loved the America they were sold with all their heart and know their worldview is under attack and at risk of shattering. This is not the America we knew, Laura Ingraham says. Ah, but it’s the America that is. Never meet your heroes – and in this case, that means never learn the truth about your country!
–
ABC 123
As long as I’ve opened the ABC7 website, a rare occurrence indeed, let’s use that as a starting point to review some of today’s news.
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she had ‘great concerns’ about the possibility President Donald Trump could send federal agents to Chicago given what has occurred in the city of Portland,” the station reports.
Here’s the tweet that, along with other comments coming out of the White House, spurred Lightfoot’s response:


Back to the story:
“I have great concerns about that, particularly given the track record in the city of Portland,” Lightfoot said. “I spent a lot of time yesterday talking with the mayor of Portland to get a sense of what’s happened there. We don’t need federal agents without any insignia taking people off the streets and holding them, I think, unlawfully. That’s not what we need.”
I’m not picking on Lightfoot when I say my concerns are grave; nor when I say we don’t need federal agents with insignias taking people off the streets, either.
*
The Tribune has more:
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities.
“The Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, agents are set to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts, according to sources familiar with the matter, though a specific plan on what the agents will be doing had not been made public.”
Who the fuck are Homeland Security Investigations agents?
“One Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Chicago, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, confirmed the deployment was expected to take place. The official noted that the HSI agents, who are part of ICE, would not be involved in immigration or deportation matters.”
I’ll interpret: Trump’s secret police.
*
Chicago Moms, activate.
*
P.S.: We live in a time in America when we have to wonder who has the military – and if the military can prevail over the border patrol.


+


–
Bar Burrs
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago public health officials have announced that they will reimpose COVID-19 restrictions on bars, restaurants, gyms and other businesses as a precautionary due to a recent increase in COVID-19,” ABC7 reports.
“The reinstated restrictions will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 24, to give businesses time to comply.”
If only the feds were sending troops to American cities to enforce a mask mandate.
*
Block Club Chicago notes:
“For weeks, the city was in a ‘moderate’ incidence category by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but Chicago has since been seeing more than 200 new cases per day, placing the city back in the “high-incidence state” category, according to the mayor’s office.
“On Sunday, the city saw 233 new cases and officials said this increase is coming from 18-29 year olds in bars, restaurants, parks and the lakefront.”
If we give you free college will you behave? Win-win.
–
I’d bring you more from ABC7 but there isn’t much more to bring, unless I wander into the clickbait from Louisville, Philadelphia and elsewhere.
–
ABC BTW
“[‘One Bad Apple‘] was written by George Jackson, who originally had the Jackson 5 in mind when he wrote it. According to Donny Osmond, Michael Jackson later told him that the Jackson 5 almost recorded this song first, but chose to record ‘ABC’ instead.”
–
Sick And Tired Of Being Tired And Mad?


See also: Black People Are Tired Of Explaining Racism.
–
New on the Beachwood today . . .
Jesus Was Not White
Stop erasing history.
*
EU Court (Again): NSA Spying Makes U.S. Companies Privacy-Deficient
Knock it off, America.
*
Muscled Up
Perhaps the only thing that will stop the White Sox this short season is the damn virus.
*
Dolly Parton Is Right
Free books work.
–
ChicagoReddit

Filling out the Census can help our community get funding for critical infrastructure, safer roads, and a better commute. from u/ILCensus


–
ChicagoGram

View this post on Instagram

drop forge

A post shared by Dan (@sbstrtr) on


–
ChicagoTube
Meet the Artist – Mark Yonally from Chicago Tap Theatre

–
TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


+


*


*


*


*


–
The Beachwood Rip Line: Rip it good.

Permalink

Posted on July 20, 2020