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You still don't have to pay to read the Chicago Sun-Times online, but doing so may save you from 15 seconds of ads a pop. Two years after eliminating its paywall and giving people access to articles with just an email registration, readers today were met with a message inviting them to sign up for recurring donations or watch a video with advertisements.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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It really is a shame what has happened to the two formerly great Chicago papers– the Trib and the Suntimes. Through the 70s, 80s and 90s, both were pretty respectable publications. The Trib started to slip first when Sam Zell, who had zero publishing experience- screwed it up. It has never recovered. Look at it now and all you see is 90% NYT and AP bylines. And who even knows who the Suntimes is run by any longer. Used to be labor unions. Now it is a NFP? But you know it has reached an unrecoverable decline when you read… Read more »
A recent piece by Trib foreign affairs columnist is one that really set me off. She praises Brazil’s new tyranny for shutting Twitter down across the country: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/09/06/column-brazil-x-elon-musk-disinformation-shackelford/
Uh…Kass was with the Trib. :-O
Your right Bud, That is what happens in old age, but its true for all of the Chicago newspapers.
Obituary: The Chicago Sun-Times Born: 1948 | Died: When John Kass Left Today, we gather to mourn the once-proud Chicago Sun-Times, a paper that served its readers faithfully for decades before succumbing to an untimely death by political propaganda. I remember the good old days—back when I’d eagerly grab my morning paper, coffee in hand, and devour John Kass’s sharp commentary. It was a ritual, a joy. But as time passed, the Sun-Times seemed to forget that news was supposed to be, you know, news—unbiased, factual, and independent. Instead, it transformed itself into a mouthpiece, cheerleading for the party in… Read more »
You are correct in your observations except that John Kass never wrote for the Sun Times. If it weren’t for its sports pages I would never read the paper. It’s run by wet behind the ears progressives who believe that if you cater to minorities with biased reporting they will subscribe in droves. If that were true they wouldn’t be that charity they are today
Your right Ken, its what happens with age. And yes, they are all biased.
I think you mean Mike Royko. Royko left the Sun Times in 1984 because Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun-Times. Royko commented “No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper.” Mike Royko then worked for the rival Chicago Tribune.