Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times's Mitchell: 'Things That Only Oprah and God Can Make Happen'
By Mike Bates | November 24, 2009 | 11:35 AM EST
In today's Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Mary Mitchell elevates talk show host Oprah Winfrey to a new level:
You might not think you're going to miss Oprah, but you are. There are stories that only Oprah can do, and there are things that only Oprah and God can make happen.
Mitchell's adulation for Oprah is shared by many in the mainstream media.  From early shows devoted to male-bashing through attacks on free enterprise and limited government to her campaigning for Barack Obama's election, Winfrey has burnished her liberal credentials.

In bracketing Oprah with God, however, I wonder why Mitchell didn't include Obama, as in "There are things that only Oprah and God and the Federal government under the unparalleled leadership of Barack Hussein Obama can make happen."
Bill Clinton Laments Poor Treatment of Women on AMC's 'Mad Men'
By Mike Sargent | November 12, 2009 | 4:31 PM EST

Former President Bill Clinton was in Chicago yesterday, speaking at a fundraiser on the subject of the current health insurance overhaul.Somehow, some way, Clinton wound up talking about ethnic diversity, the Fort Hood murders, and – most bizarrely – the AMC network’s “Mad Men.”Clinton began his descent with the following, quoted from Lynn Sweet’s Chicago Sun-Times blog:

Chgo Sun-Times: 'Political Junkie Still 7 Years From Voting, Calls for Obama'
By Mike Bates | November 2, 2009 | 1:30 PM EST

Last month it was school children merrily singing the praises of Barack Hussein Obama.  Mmm. Mmm.  Mm!  Today it's a Chicago Sun-Times article by writer Mary Houlihan headlined, "Political junkie still 7 years from voting, calls for Obama: Lorenzo's calls for Obama land him on HBO."  Begins Houlihan:

Lorenzo Rivera may be only 11 years old, but he knows more about politics than many adults.

The Chicago fifth-grader proves just how much in the new documentary "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama," where he is filmed making campaign calls on Obama's behalf in 2008.In the movie, debuting at 8 p.m. Tuesday on HBO, filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams capture Lorenzo, only 9 at the time, handling a call to a confused voter with a calm and grace belying his young age.

Later in the article, Houlihan reports that the calm and graceful Lorenzo's father just happens to work for U. S. Senator Roland Burris (D-IL).  Quite a coincidence there.

Anita Dunn and Mao: Establishment Press Predictably Mostly Muzzled
By Tom Blumer | October 18, 2009 | 4:08 PM EDT
AnitaDunnThis won't surprise anyone who reads this blog regularly, but it needs to get on the record nonetheless: The airing of a June video showing interim White House Communications Director Anita Dunn praising Mao and Mother Teresa as "two of my favorite philosophers" to a group of high school students is barely news in the establishment press.

In an August 2008 report on the Obama campaign, Anne E. Kornblut of the Washington Post also described Dunn as "as senior adviser" who had joined the campaign "in the spring."

Roger Kimball at Pajamas Media has the video of Dunn's speech. NB's Jeff Poor (covering Glenn Beck's original broadcast that broke the story) and P.J. Gladnick (on Dunn's pathetic attempt to excuse herself) have previously dealt with Dunn's speech.

Here are the Mao-relevant portions of the speech excerpt:

Chicago Sun-Times Blames Olympics Loss On...Bush!
By Noel Sheppard | October 5, 2009 | 10:31 AM EDT

"President Obama could not undo in one year the resentment against America that President Bush and others built up for years."

So claim some famous and some notso famous Chicagoans is the reason the Windy City lost its bid for the 2016 Olympics Friday.

And the Chicago Sun-Times was more than willing to quote them all on Saturday:

Roger Ebert: Proof Positive Some People Should Never Quit Their Day Job
By Rusty Weiss | October 1, 2009 | 9:43 PM EDT

In his latest opinion piece, Roger Ebert proved that he is very skilled at one thing and one thing only - movie reviews. 

Ebert penned a piece in his Journal for the Chicago Sun-Times today; a scathing critique which detests the overt melodrama, the wretched dialogue, and the lack of a plot line.  What was he reviewing?  The Republican base.

Ebert hammers the party's base with such sensationalistic rhetoric that it is difficult to believe he withheld laughter while typing away on the keyboard.  And the work is wrought with such falsehoods, inaccuracies, and sweeping generalizations, that it is difficult to fathom that this work could have passed by the desk of anyone having the word ‘Editor' following their name.  Yet somehow, it did.

The list of vitriol and insults follows...

Chgo Sun-Times's Mitchell: Black Panther 'Will Always Be Remembered for Giving Hungry Children a Hot Breakfast'
By Mike Bates | September 7, 2009 | 2:05 PM EDT
In yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Mary Mitchell lauds Fred Hampton, a Black Panther leader killed 40 years ago by police.  In "Hampton's forgotten legacy:  Today's youth can learn something from Black Panther leader's humanitarian deeds," Mitchell soft-pedals the Panthers' extensive history of violence and radical politics in favor of citing some of Hampton's alleged good works:
He stood up for disadvantaged
People in Chicago are still so divided over Hampton that, a couple of years ago, efforts to erect a street sign in his honor caused an uproar.
Hampton will always be remembered by some for advocating violence.
But for many others -- those who benefitted from his courage -- he will always be remembered for giving hungry children a hot breakfast.
Or for opening a free walk-in health clinic on the West Side.
Or for trying to open a swimming pool, so poor black children could get relief from the heat.
Or for being a bold advocate for justice.

The Panthers' breakfast program for children has long been applauded, even by some conservatives, as a worthwhile endeavor.  Ignored are the severe problems associated with that program across the country.  Chicago was hardly an exception.

Sun-Times Columnist: ObamaCare Opponents a 'Fifth Column,' Rural America Rife with Birthers
By Ken Shepherd | August 10, 2009 | 6:08 PM EDT

Neil Steinberg file photo from Chicago Sun-TimesThe liberal media meme on conservative protesters at health care town halls is that they are full of vitriol, but lacking in substance. So how does Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg take on critics of ObamaCare?

You guessed it.

"At any given moment, 40 percent of Americans are dead wrong," Steinberg insisted in the lead sentence of his August 10 column, "Scary how a lot of bitter McCain backers oppose Obama at every turn."

But not only are opponents of ObamaCare "dead wrong," argues Steinberg, they're an un-American, if not outright traitorous "fifth column" dedicated to stopping President Obama's agenda at any cost (emphasis mine):

Sun Times Group Publishes 'Varied' Versions of Rise of Islam Conference
By Terry Trippany | July 20, 2009 | 4:34 PM EDT

Little has been made about yesterday's "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" conference that was held at the Hilton Hotel Grand Ballroom in Oak Lawn, IL. The conference was held by the group Hizb Ut Tahrir; a group that has been banned in Germany, Russia, Pakistan and several other Middle Eastern countries. Yet most mainstream media organizations in the United States didn't even bother to mention the event.

Indeed. Although the story did appear in Chicago's suburban Southtown Star, the paper's sister publication, the Chicago Sun Times penned it as an "ecomonic session" and homogenized the coverage as follows.

The estimated 800 attending the conference discussed issues related to the global capitalist economic system and Islamic alternatives to that system, said spokesman Mohammad Malkawi. Opinions about Hizb ut-Tahrir varied widely. Outside the hotel, protesters said the organization is simply another terrorist group. - Chicago Sun Times, Muslim group's economic session draws opponents

You have to dig pretty deep into the book of varied reality to classify this event as an economic session. The video accompanying this article is a direct promotional video for the event. If the video alone doesn't convince you of the group's aim then perhaps the reasons other countries have banned the group will.

UK Paper Exposes US Proposal For Mass Bulldozing Urban Neighborhoods, And Replacing Them With .... Nothing
By Tom Blumer | June 14, 2009 | 11:52 PM EDT
http://www.bizzyblog.com/wp-images/FlintBulldozedHousePic0609.jpg

Leave it to the British press to once again do the job of real reporting that U.S. journalists apparently won't do.

This time, it's Tom Leonard at the UK Telegraph. From Flint, Michigan, he tells us of a "pioneering scheme" that involves tearing down entire neighborhoods and simply abandoning them -- oops, I'm sorry, I meant to say, "returning them to nature."

This is apparently what passes for sophisticated urban planning these days.

Here are key paragraphs from Leonard's story. Especially note the breathtaking anti-progress hostility of the idea's champion (bolds are mine; Getty picture at top right is from that story):

Name That Party: Blago’s, Burris’s Party IDs Largely MIA in Latest Revelations
By Tom Blumer | May 27, 2009 | 4:02 PM EDT

Burriss0509Maybe it should be put to music:

Blago and Burris,
Sitting in a tree,
But they'd rather we not know their political party.

There has been yet another revelation about contacts between Democratic President Barack Obama's U.S. Senate successor, Democrat Roland Burris and former Illinois Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich over Blago's pre-Senate appointment, uh, deliberations. A released FBI audio recording reveals that Burris offered to make a campaign contribution to Blago as he lobbied to be selected.

This news has brought on yet another wave of stories that fail to tell us what party Blago and Burris belong to.

The Washington Post is the only publication that identified the party of both men in the course of reporting their story. The Post's Peter Slevin and Perry Bacon Jr. also identified the Democratic Party affiliation of the Senate Ethics Committee's Barbara Boxer:

Newspaper Circs: Another Serious Drop; NYT's Small Decline a Short-Term Obama Strategy Vindication
By Tom Blumer | April 28, 2009 | 4:54 PM EDT
NYThistoryObama0109

From Editor & Publisher yesterday (bold is mine):

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released this morning the spring figures for the six months ending March 31, 2009, showing that the largest metros continue to shed daily and Sunday circulation -- now at a record rate.

According to ABC, for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation fell 7% to 34,439,713 copies, compared with the same March period in 2008. On Sunday, for 557 newspapers, circulation was down 5.3% to 42,082,707. These averages do not include 84 newspapers with circulations below 50,000 due to a change in publishing frequency.

Below is a chart showing the specifics for the top 25, including percentage losses for the past four years and during the past year (current year source: Editor & Publisher):