The Chicago Tribune is one of Chicago's two main newspapers, the other being the tabloid Sun-Times. The newspaper, once a wildly Republican and idiosyncratically conservative production under Col. Robert McCormick in the old days, has over the past thirty years morphed from a solidly and stolidly Republican into a reliably centrist to left-of-center politically correct rag that offended my sensibilities so much that I finally canceled my subscription.

I don't mind prejudices in a newspaper. In fact, I expect them. That's why I read the Wall Street Journal and not the New York Times. But I'd like to have a reliable daily local paper that sometimes actually prints views that I can agree with. No more in the Trib.

The paper comes in five or six sections, depending on the day. The front section is major national and local news. International reporting is barely average, local reporting competent. Biases are slightly to the right on national politics, mildly pro-Daley administration locally. It is highly critical of the local Roman Catholic Archdiocese (a very big part of life in Chicago) to the point of occasionally being anti-Catholic. Editorial page is moderately conservative on economics and foriegn policy (that's good), quite liberal on social policies (homosexual rights and marriage, etc.), moderately anti-life.

The late Mike Royko had a daily column on page 2. That space has been taken by John Kass, a South Sider who has got some good horse sense. Personal note: Kass actually wrote a column about one of my son's and my wife when we getting horsed around by the idiots in the Lake Forest grade school district. He's a good guy.

Op-ed page is a disaster, consistently leftist. Charles Krauthammer and Kathleen Turner are outweighed by local leftist nitwits Clarence Page and Don Wycliff, along with that horse's *ss Molly Ivins.

I have a personal gripe with Wycliff, who is on the editorial board and the Trib's so-called ombudsman. I caught him on a really BS factual error he made, claiming that both Dubya and Hitler were elected to office so hey they must be the same, right?, and basing a column off that stupid error. Wycliff admits to the error in a private note to me, publishes a little correction that's buried on page 2 in the Saturday edition, and never bothers to take the time to correct the vapid mistake to his readers at large. Talk about integrity. I would have fired that clown in a minute.

Section 2 is the Metro pages, more focus on local news, obits, etc. There are three columnists who have columns two or three times weekly, Eric Zorn Ianother guy that I have had it out with, this time in print in the Trib), Mary Schmich, and Dawn Marie Trice. All three are extraordinarily and reliably politically correct, anti-life, pro-gay rights, NOW-tupe feminists and NCAAP affirmative action types. Zorn and Schmich occasionally have these little conversations in print that smack of high school narcissicism. Again, I don't mind seeing views published that are anti-thetical to mine, but I'd appreciate some balance here.

Wednesdays, a so-called "WomenNews" section is published, containing articles of interest to female professional members of the National Organization of Women and National Abortion Rights Action League. Forget about reading anything that might be of interest to women of other ilks, say for example, pro-life stay-at-home mothers who had the temerity to take their husbands' last names when they got married..

The Sports section is competent. It has the usual collection of self-impressed columnists. Given that the Trib owns the Chicago Cubs, there's more Cub coverage than of the White Sox, though the paper would deny it. Coverage of the Bulls and Black Hawks is highly critical, and deservedly so, given the incompetence that permeates the play and management of those teams. On colleges, Notre Dame football dominates in the fall, to the great detriment of local Northwestern and Illinois, both of which have many more local alums than the Domers but not nearly the number of "Subway alums" and assorted local travellers and ND wannabees. High school coverage is mediocre, with increasing attention to girls sports.

The daily Tempo section contains features, music and play reviews, etc. Again, very reliably liberal in politics and focus. There is a large "Friday" section with weekend stuff, reviews, Michael Wilmington's movie reviews (competent, but he's no Gene Siskel or Roger Ebert). The restaurant critic is a Northwestern fraternity brother of mine and I'll keep quiet on the stories I can tell about him.

Business section focuses largely on local news. It's competent, but it's no WSJ or NYT.

The Sunday edition is a waste of newsprint. The Book Review and Magazines are both disasters in terms of content and bias. The Perspective (opinion) section is barely above college-quality. I actually go through the NYT Sunday edition, holding my nose all the way, but at least there is some detailed coverage there.

Bottom-line: While the Chicago Tribune is supposed to be one of the ten best papers in the U.S., it has been in precipitous decline for the past fifteen years, not merely from a perspective of detectable bias (which permeates its content), but in terms of coverage and depth. It's a skeletal remnant of what it used to be. R.I.P.

buffoonery’s magazine and newspaper reviews:

Wall Street Journal
Commentary
The Economist
National Review
The Nation
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sun-Times
First Things



Recommended: No

Describe the newspaper's political views: It is moderate