Friday, May 31, 2013

Memo from the Chicago Scum-Times Newspaper

MEMO

Chicago Sun-Times
Friday May 31, 2013

To ALL SURVIVING STAFF MEMBERS

First, congratulations. Your time has not yet come. But it will.

Second, I wanted to post the new rules for our reporters. As you know, photography became obsolete on Thursday morning as a result of the Internet -- it had nothing to do with incompetent business management at the newspaper at all. In light of the demise of photography, the Chicago Sun-Times decided to eliminate all of its obsolete photographers.

Anyway, photography was so precise. Accurate. We can't have any of that at The Bright One. (We're Fair and Balanced. Just ask FOX News.)

So beginning Monday, every reporter now must share their responsibility to capture graphic images. In deference to the mass firing of 28 obsolete editorial employees formerly known as "photographers" -- the word is being removed from our already limited lexicon -- we will just ignore them, so as not to make our newspaper look bad.

Next, the burden is no on your pencils to use your cell phone to capture images and send them to the editor, or to his wife who was laid-off and then rehired when he was promoted. Her job is to review all images, edit them to make them look good and place them in the newspaper. (We're paying her $72,000, not because of nepotism but because her husband is such a warm dude.)

Additionally, all reporters, really the three of you who are left, will have more duties and assignments. Not beat assignments. We need newspaper delivery boys. So, beginning on Monday, you will be responsible for delivering your newspaper to your suburban community and the four suburbs surrounding your community. Don't worry. That sounds like a lot of deliveries but our circulation is so down these days, it will probably mean no more than two bicycle trips or four burlap bags (two bags per trip).

Just a cautionary note. We have discovered that in the past when our under-aged newspaper delivery kids deliver papers throwing them onto driveways, some of the homeowners are throwing them back at the delivery boys and causing injuries to the face, teeth and head. You're on your own, pals. Make sure you get supplemental insurance to cover the donut hole in our Chicago Sun-Times Health Insurance plan. It's pretty weak. I suggest if you can't afford to buy the supplemental insurance, that you practice ducking. It happens a lot.

Please, also, we insist that you stop bullying the prima donnas in our office. Yes, Carol Marin has five jobs and is collecting five paychecks including one from the Chicago Sun-Times, one from WTTW Channel 11 and one from WMAQ TV, plus two more from her speeches and her private company that has government contracts. But that doesn't mean her pay has anything to do with the cut in pay you are experiencing or the excuse that we had to dump those veteran photographers because "we didn't have the money."

We don't have the money.

We would if we didn't pay triple-dippers like Carol Marin so much. But she is getting old and baggy and, well, she has friends at Emerald Casino that she made when she turned her back on their problems and refused to do exposes on them and their owners. She's taken care of. Plus the booze king likes her and well, we can't upset the booze king, not while the Black Hawks are trying to kick ass and win the Stanley Cup.

Oh, that reminds me, make sure to get lots of pictures of the Black Hawks and the booze king. You are REQUIRED to write five extra features in addition to your everyday work, on your own time, on our owners. PR Fluff is bullshit. It's not. The booze king deserves as the press he can get.

Got to make this short because the Booze King invited the editors to a swaray -- oops, no copy editors any more. Soiree! It's by invitation only. Don't expect an invitation. Get to work.

And we are closing the child day care center and putting your kids to work on a union scale reflecting their age. Kids under 5 years of age will be paid $1.25 an hour plus Kool Aid. Kids 5 -16 will be paid $2.50 an hour, plus coupons for Big Macs.

Good night everyone. And have a pleasant tomorrow. If you are still employed.

The Chicago Scum-Times Management

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Newspaper dumps 28 employees including its entire photo staff

The Chicago Sun-Times fired 28 of its fulltime editorial employees, gutting the newspaper's entire photography staff.

The Photographers were dumped because they rely less on opinion and hallucination and more on accurately depicting events. A photograph doesn't lie, just some of the reporters at the newspaper.

The employees were given their abrupt notice on Thursday morning. The editor reportedly said that the new owners of the fast declining tabloid scandal sheet that has a history of controversy and inaccuracy was "more concerned about profits" than on "good journalism."

The vast majority of people out there already know that the Chicago Sun-Times doesn't care about truth or working hard to dig up good stories.

One of the newspaper's favorite topics is government nepotism. But not laid off were the spouses of four Sun-Times editors, including one who had his wifey rehired after she was laid off in 2008.

Click to read more on this story.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Jesse Jackson and the Chicago Sun-Times

Jesse Jackson and the Chicago Sun-Times 
How the newspaper compromises its ethics and violates journalism principles

The Chicago Sun-Times in is trouble. The only thing keeping them alive is their investment in smaller newspapers. They just bought up the Chicago Reader. But it is like a pyramid scheme. Every knew acquisition brings in some financial reprieve and cash flow until they need to find something else.

Each small newspaper is like a new credit card bringing in fresh revenue.

A consequence of the Chicago Reader purchase is the compromising of the Reader's once fierce independence and ability to criticize other news media, especially the Chicago Sun-Times which was a frequent target.

But now, the Chicago Reader is hammering the Chicago Tribune. And the Chicago Sun-Times is free to act as irresponsible and as unethical as it has been since the felony conviction of its former boss, Conrad Black.
The latest ethical lapse is int he strange story of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who took a leave-of-absence from public life (not his congressional salary of healthcare benefits, mind you) claiming he was suffering from some form of exhaustion.

The truth is that the same week that he announced the sudden physical problems, his closest fundraiser, Raghuveer Nayak, was arrested recently on unrelated fraud charges. But Nayak played a prominent role during the trial of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, reportedly having promised to raise a $1 million for Blagojevich is Blagojevich would appoint Jackson to the vacated seat of then US Senator Barack Obama. Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years for trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder, and apparently the highest bidder was Nayak on behalf of Congressman Jackson. Now that Nayak is facing charges, there is the theory that he will turn state's evidence and testify against Jackson regarding to money offered to Blagojevich.

It's a complicated mess, one that the Chicago Sun-Times is very knowledgeable about. But the Sun-Times isn't writing much about it at all.

Instead, the Chicago Sun-Times is giving Jackson a pass. Why? Well, Jackson's father, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson writes for the Chicago Sun-Times. Yes he is a columnist there. And sure enough, Rev. Jackson hasn't been writing any columns urging his son to come clean about what the real cause of his mysterious disappearance from public life is.

In fact, none of the Sun-Times big gun columnists have been writing about Jackson in a critical manner. Just reporting the news. Vanilla. Bland. No controversy.

The newspaper played up a claim by Congressman Jackson's aid, Frank Watkins, that the congressman is worse than we all thought. Well, by "we" he means himself and his besieged staff. He doesn't mean the public because no one in the public believes he is really sick at all. Everyone believes Congressman Jackson is suffering anxiety over the fear that with Nayak's arrest on unrelated corruption charges, it may result in the Feds taking a closer look at his role with Blagojevich and trying to become a US Senator, for a measly $1 million bucks.

Instead of seeing columns by Carol Marin and Mark Brown or Steve Huntley, the newspaper ran an obscure column by Phil Kadner, a longtime editor at one of the Sun-Times community newspaper properties, the Southtown/Star newspapers. Kadner rightly demanded that Jackson owes the public an explanation.

Well, the Southtown doesn't circulate int he heart of the Sun-Times base, in the inner city of Chicagow here the population is predominantly African American. It circulates in the nearly all-White Southwest Suburbs.

Nice compromise to keep the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson happy. Whip up anger among Whites, play down the controversy among blacks. That eases the pressure of Congressman Jackson and undermines the critical speculation of what has been happening to him.

The public is not stupid. They know. The Chicago Sun-Times isn't writing as an ethical, moral journalism venture but rather as a cigar smoking, clout-heavy political lobbying organization for its business interests, and for the interests of its friends, like Rev. Jackson.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Sun-Times guts suburban newsrooms but has cash to build lavish cafeteria

The Chicago Sun-Times, which has spent the past five years gutting the newsrooms at a dozen or more once great suburban community newspapers, is spending lavishly to build a new cafeteria for its offices on the South Side. The robber barons need a place to roll in their dough that they are bleeding from a dozen or more once great community newspapers.

The Sun-Times has gutted and fired writers and reporters at several newspapers including the Southtown/Star and the Joliet Herald News so that their owners can increase their profits.News staff at many of these suburban newspapers have been cut 75 percent compared to when they were leading news coverage in their communities.

The Sun-Times has acted like the old Soviet Union, occupying suburban newspapers, acquiring their advertising accounts and profits, cutting back on spending and support, and firing and laying off employees.

Despite these efforts, the Sun-Times' daily circulation continues to drop and is reportedly below 200,000 newspapers. To mislead advertisers, and in an ironic twist, the Sun-Times is merging the circulation of their occupied satellite newspapers to artificially boost their total circulation figures, claiming they publish more than 400,000 newspapers each day.

In the old days, before the Sun-Times acquired and then cannibalized the smaller community newspapers, the Sun-Times had a circulation on its own that was in excess of 750,000.

That's why the fat pigs who run the Sun-Times need an expensive cafeteria that some estimate could cost as much as $400,000 to design and build (the salaries of six reporters), so they can sit around and wallow in their financial obesity and laugh and enjoy their cash flow.

BT

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Scandal from Sun-Times Reporters who made things up

From the Chicago Tribune

Fired Sun-Times critic Paige Wiser 'ashamed' for made-up details in review
'Glee Live' review mentioned song not performed
described another she didn't see 
June 10, 2011
By Phil Rosenthal Media

Paige Wiser is out at the Chicago Sun-Times after 17 years, the last three as its television critic, because her "Glee Live!" concert review in Sunday's newspaper mentioned one song that wasn't performed and described another she did not see.

"I'm at fault," Wiser said. "I do understand what a big deal this was. I am ashamed, and it's just a matter of making bad decisions when you're exhausted."

Wiser, 40, said she brought her two young children to the show Friday at Rosemont's Allstate Arena with the approval of an editor who told her "cute kids' reaction would be more than welcome" in the story. Her son fell off a chair during the show. Her daughter vomited into a cotton candy bag.

They left three songs later, only 13 numbers into the concert, but her report included commentary on the encore based on information from previous "Glee Live!" shows.

The Sun-Times on Thursday posted an editor's note about the lapse and Wiser's dismissal, and it withdrew the review from its website.

"Accuracy and honesty in reporting are essential parts of the promise we make to our readers," Don Hayner, the Sun-Times editor, said in the note. "We regret the incident and apologize."

Last month, at the last minute, Wiser had to ask out of a deadline writing assignment covering taping of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" farewell extravaganza at the United Center. Upon arriving in the hockey press box, high above the arena floor, she was afflicted with vertigo. Colleague Kara Spak, who had been assigned to watch from a seat in the stands below, changed places with Wiser and wound up writing the story.

[NOTE: Kara Spak is the wife of Sun-Times reporter Steve Warmbir]

Wiser's published "Glee" review noted that cast member Lea Michele "made Barbra Streisand proud — and probably a little jealous — with 'Don't Rain on My Parade,'" a song Wiser said Thursday that she liked on one of the show's cast albums. The review was capped with a reference to an encore cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday" that Wiser wrote was "irresistible" and "infused ... with joy."

"I'd like to think it wouldn't have been part of my thought process if it hadn't been 1 a.m. and I was just trying to get the story done," Wiser said. "I just wanted it to be a complete review after the Oprah travesty."
The incident recalls an infamous 1986 Sun-Times review of an Elton John concert by Patricia Smith, who reported John wore an outfit he didn't wear and sang two songs he didn't sing. John's representative also said Smith never picked up her press ticket.

Smith told her editors at the time she was distracted during the show by a boyfriend she brought with her and that they had bought their own lawn tickets. She was let off with a lecture and respite from writing for several months, according to a 1998 American Journalism Review report written after Smith lost her job at the Boston Globe for fabrications in her work.

Wiser said that, with the workload employees at the Sun-Times must carry in the wake of recent cutbacks, "for me to have even taken up their time because they had to deal with this, I feel bad."

[NOTE: Another fired reporter was Ray Hanania when he was accused of dating City Treasurer Miriam Santos in 1991 while covering Cook County.]

END

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Chicago Sun-Times sold: Union busters bought it, circulation continues to drop

Put whatever fake spin on it you want but the news that the Chicago Sun-Times has been bought, YET AGAIN, is not good news.

The new owners are former administrators at the union busting Chicago Tribune and you wait. When they take over, it will be a massacre. That's the word in the desolate newsroom at the Sun-Times "offices."

Where will they move them next? And circulation at the Chicago Sun-Times continues to fall. The newspaper continues to falsely claim that their circulation is double what it really is using a slate of hand manipulation of data that includes the circulations of all the little community newspapers that the former publishers cannibalized.

Here's the truth, again, spun in typical newsroom mumbo jumbo (Reporters love to exaggerate the problems of others and pretend their own do not exist):

Circulation has been dropping this year at the Sun-Times and its seven suburban daily papers, according to the latest six-month report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Through September, average weekday circulation fell more than 30,000, to 389,353, a 7.2 percent decline, while average Sunday circulation was down nearly 21,000, to 400,506, a 5 percent decline.Excluding its branded suburban papers, the Sun-Times' average daily circulation was 236,371, a 5.9 percent decline from its March totals. The combined Sun-Times group ranks 12th overall in average weekday circulation among U.S. newspapers. The Chicago Tribune, which has seen circulation declines slow this year, ranks ninth. 

 And to get the truth about the Chicago Sun-Times, you of course have to go to the Chicago Tribune to get what little truth the media industry is willing to provide, which is not much.

You can CLICK HERE to read the Tribune story. And what about the MOBSTERS and the robber barons and exploiters who have weaseled their way into the Chicago Sun-Times management? Of course, the Tribune won't say much. But you can bet they are still there.

Watch for MORE layoffs once the new management takes hold. The word is they will begin at their primary community newspaper holdings like the Southtown/Star and do their best to preserve the few union jobs at the Sun-Times to avoid an immediate union fight -- although the union is a weak ghost of what it used to be.

-- BT

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

We reported it first: Sun-Times planning more layoffs, to break the union

As we reported in November, the Chicago Sun-Times announced it is planning more lay-offs to dismiss union employees in an effort to break the back of the union.

Crains Chicago Business has the story, again.

Click here to read out November 28th story.

Click here to read the full Crain's Story.


(Crain's) — Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and other suburban newspapers, is cutting workers in another round of reductions aimed at slashing costs as the company finishes its move to a centralized editorial and billing system.

Sun-Times CEO Jeremy Halbreich confirmed that some editorial workers and possibly other employees are losing their jobs, but he declined to say how many. This is the "final piece" of the 18 months of reductions, he said. He declined to say whether all employees had been notified at this point.

...

"It has been very stressful," said Jean Lachat, who lost her job as a full-time photographer after 22 years at the company. "Part of me is really relieved to not have to worry about it anymore."
Ms. Lachat said she's not sure if she feels more sorry for those who lost their jobs or those who remain at the company and have to pick up the slack.

The Chicago-based company has cut hundreds of employees in the past two years at its flagship Chicago paper and at its suburban daily and weekly newspapers in centralizing the editorial and customer billing systems, shuttering some suburban weekly papers and outsourcing its printing and delivery to rival Tribune Co.
The company is still in the process of shifting the printing of the Sun-Times to rival Tribune, and those workers involved will be dismissed through January.

- BT