CapitolFax.com - Latest Comments in Question of the day

Re: Question of the day

BlueGirl — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:29:50 -0000

The Aurora Beacon News (Be Confused) has Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner looking like a saint. Reporter Andre Salles you would think is related to the Mayor.

Re: Question of the day

Another Ex-State Employee — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:26:00 -0000

They are all bias'ed to some extent, if not in the actual reporting, then in the choice of adjectives they use. Even the NYT has let slanting adjectives slip in the last few years. The only solution is to read news sources from as many "sides" as possible and you might get a true picture somewhere in the middle. No guarentees.

Re: Question of the day

The_Commish — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 22:26:42 -0000

The Naperville SUN Fawns over the two City Council members running for the 96th & 48th House races - they ran a story with photo's how krause & singer car-pooled to file their petitions. Yet the other FIVE (5) 96th & 48th candidates - Bowler, Carlin, Wisniewski & Connoley (R's) were not even mentioned nor was the Dem. candidate McGuire. Way to go SUN.

Re: Question of the day

Man Who Grew Up Reading Chicag — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:48:05 -0000

The Sun-Times is more pro-Obama than Obama himself is, if that is even posssible.

Re: Question of the day

Scott — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:14:06 -0000

Before he left office, Congressman Evans was bashed by the Quad City Disgrace (Dispatch) nearly every day. They still slant to the right.

Re: Question of the day

Glad to be out of Rockford — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:13:31 -0000

The Rockford Register Star will do what ever it takes to protect Mayor Larry Morrissey. It is truly sickening. Political Editor Chuck "I don't even live in Rockford" Sweeney makes friends with politicians and protects them in his writing. This is one of the main reasons that I left Rockford!!!!

Re: Question of the day

Lefty — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:48:52 -0000

The local papers here in the Fox Valley region of Hastertland rarely have anything bad to say about anyone in office. A minor exception are some past columnists (google "bob thomas chronicle") who had fun dissing the local mini-combine. There are too many non-profit fundraisers and school "issues" to write about for the Sun, Republican, and Chronicle.

Re: Question of the day

chief — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:26:13 -0000

Without overlooking the sins of newspaper, and they are many, I think it's equally fair to say that most readers are clueless about whether newspapers are intentionally biased for or against anyone. They just see coverage that's not hostile to someone they don't like and instictively label its boosterism. So as far as all these testimonials go, some may have merits but many are sour grapes.

Re: Question of the day

Secondhand Bookworm — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:45:55 -0000

Deep Fried, see my 10:56 post.

Re: Question of the day

DeepFriedOnAStick — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:01:52 -0000

Does the Peoria Journal-Star even have a political reporter?

Re: Question of the day

Angry Chicagoan — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:36:32 -0000

I used to edit a weekly paper (not in Illinois) that was, thankfully, not part of a large chain. We were tough but fair. Occasionally politicians would pout and not return calls (at the state rep/state senate level; US Congress and local had thicker skins), but that's part of the game. Coming to Illinois, and no longer in the newspaper industry, I was shocked at how superficial and incomplete the coverage was. I'm very thankful that Capitol Fax is here to fill a large part of the void.

One of the journalism trade magazines a while back had a good feature on resources devoted to state government coverage. The winner, by a significant margin, was Florida, where one paper alone, the St. Petersburg Times, had nine reporters in Tallahassee. As I recall the total across all papers was something like 40-50.

Re: Question of the day

rockford man — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:21:53 -0000

The Rockford Register Star is as big an offender as the Peoria paper.

Re: Question of the day

heet101 — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:07:22 -0000

Every newspaper in the 107th State Rep. district skews its coverage in favor of Rep. Kurt Granberg...most notably, the Mt. Vernon Register-News and the Centralia Sentinel really had their lips planted firmly on his backside during his heated race with John Cavaletto last year.

Re: Question of the day

Old Irish — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:06:59 -0000

The Quincy media drools over its pols. It's a joke.

The Quincy Whig endorsed George Ryan and Blago. You'll never see any negative Blago stories as long as they think he will help them build another road.

Re: Question of the day

Underdog — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:36:08 -0000

When Versace decides he wants answer questions maybe they should ask him about it... Is he still on his bus tour?

Re: Question of the day

Dan Vock — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:05:14 -0000

L.S., David Broder worked at the Pantagraph once upon a time, a long, long time ago...

Re: Question of the day

phocion — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:00:35 -0000

The family of Wednesday Journal newspapers (downtown Chicagoand near west suburbs) clearly favorite non-machine types, "independents" and "reformers." But, so what? The Sun-Times is essentially Daley's mouthpiece. Most papers have a point of view. And most reporters tend to give more favorable coverage to accessible, intelligent, quotable, and clean politicians.

Re: Question of the day

Sango Dem — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:48:45 -0000

I'd sure like the Peoria paper to take over Schoenburg's duties covering Sangamon County Clerk Joe Aeillo and Sangamon County government in general. Their coverage of county government is a joke.

Re: Question of the day

L.S. — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:37:56 -0000

point taken, true observer. but some more effort would be nice. real deal major paper reporters had to start somewhere.

Re: Question of the day

plutocrat03 — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:26:45 -0000

Our local papers do have a bias for the status quo. Does not matter how incompetent or corrupt the politician is, as long as he/she is an incumbent they are for them.

This can be verified by the 'endorsements' made by the papers during the election cycle. It takes something extraordinary for them to oppose an incumbent. Additionally we also have a gender bias going as well. Females are looked at with far less scrutiny/scepticism than the males and they are frequently allowed the excuse as Hillary tried to use recently that the 'boys' are being mean to me.

Re: Question of the day

Smitty Irving — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:25:22 -0000

The favoritism isn't restricted to just politics. The sports pages of the State Journal Register have always skewed towards private schools / away from Springfield Public Schools. Want to get an eyeful about crime reporting? Read secondcitycop.blogspot.com - the "underground" blog for Chicago Police Department officers. Favoritism is everywhere, not just newspaper political coverage ... .

Re: Question of the day

The Welshman — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:22:43 -0000

ooops..(there will be people...)

Re: Question of the day

The Welshman — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:21:33 -0000

Secondhand Bookworm, my thoughts completely. Yes, their will be people who will attempt to post inappropriate and offensive material, given the sensitive nature of underlying themes in the stories. But to completely bar all dialogue? Yes, pay someone to screen the comments!

Re: Question of the day

LouisGAtsaves — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:04:33 -0000

Our local Waukegan News-Sun has basically abandoned all in depth coverage of local politicians elected to Springfield and Washington or even County Board. They have replaced such coverage with doggie pet photos, a full page of anonymous talk of the county postings, and an over abundance of crime stories. From newspaper to tabloid.

Wasn't like that "back in the day" (just a few years ago).

Their plunging circulation numbers should be telling them what a mistake they've made. It now looks like a minature Sun-Times without any substance concerning Lake County.

Re: Question of the day

Secondhand Bookworm — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:03:56 -0000

Welshman, it's probably out of fear that any comments about her will degenerate into race-baiting, which happens with frequency in other Central Illinois newspapers; but keeping that from happening is what an online editor/moderator gets paid to do (I assume).