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Chicago Sun-Times Editor Resigns Over "Wholesale Rewrites" of Obama, McCain Endorsements

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise at 6:38 AM on February 6, 2008.


"It devalues and patronizes the editorial board writers who wrote the original endorsements: an African-American, a Latino and two white women."
cherylreed101forblog
Reed

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Editorial page editor Cheryl L. Reed has resigned from the Chicago Sun Times, alleging that the editorial board's endorsements for Obama and McCain were rewritten by people outside the editorial board:

Meanwhile, check out what happened when the Chicago Sun-Times pulled the level for Obama and McCain, clearly the choices of America's newspapers:

The Chicago Sun-Times today named Tom McNamee its editorial page editor after Cheryl L. Reed resigned, saying in a note to her staff she was "deeply troubled" the paper's presidential primary endorsements of Barack Obama and John McCain were subjected to "wholesale rewrites" by people outside the editorial board.

Here's what Reed claims happened:

Reed's note said such the rewriting did more than undermine her. "It devalues and patronizes the editorial board writers who wrote the original endorsements: an African-American, a Latino and two white women," she wrote, alleging the rewritten endorsements "were rewritten by white men."

Attytood wrote last summer about Reed's plan to remake the Sun-Times with an appeal to the working class. This story notes:

In it, she vowed to return the paper to its "liberal, working-class roots" and to add "seats to our editorial board so that board members -- the paper's brain trust -- reflect the ethnic and social diversity" of Chicago.

"My goal is to make us more relevant and irreverent," Reed wrote. "There will be no sacred cows here."

Your liberal media -- not very liberal, is it?--[Will Bunch]

Good catch by Will.

Digg!

Tagged as: racism, chicago sun-times, obama, mccain, media, newspapers

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.


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View:
Who owns that paper?
Posted by: Lauren on Feb 6, 2008 8:07 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I confronted my paper again.

Hippies are a group of people. The paper discriminates against every aspect of our culture. It is because of the native American, Hippies LOVE Indians.

The dude who owns the paper just can't stand us, it is intolerable to him that we have any human rights at all.

The history of the United States and the invasion is that Indians are not human at all, we are animals. It was part of the structure of the argument for slavery, some people just are not human. Indians were legally considered animals, without human (voting) rights.

Notice our religions have been criminalized repeatedly. The argument is they are not religions, we are not people. This is why the owners of Borders Books are so resistant to including our religions in their religion section.

If they included our religion was religion, it would be admitting our people are human. They don't want to do that because then we would have legal protections we do not presently have. It is a very selfish attitude on their part so I imagine their real motives have very little to do with selling books, more like NOT selling books, IMO.

So I special ordered 420 Girls just to annoy them. I got a very terse call it was in last week. I am letting it marinate on their shelf so all the staff can enjoy them (the girls).

This time the call to the CCT reporter (and the editor's secretary) was about how "hippie" should be Hippie in the paper. They don't print "jewish" when Jewish people talk about their parents. The CCT reporter laughed at me, that gets him an upset call from me to his boss. It is not funny.

I don't believe if I were a 'christian', instead of a native American Indian, I would be being discriminated against this way by this business and it's various employees . I don't believe it. I asked the secretary if they wanted me to sue them?

I don't believe they would treat any other kind of religious leader this way. They save their garbage treatment for us.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

what happens to those 'Non-Conformist Hippies"
Posted by: BlueBerry PickN on Feb 6, 2008 9:03 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
.
.
.
You might be interested in this post: Compassion Club & Spiritual Centre raided in Canada


~~~~
Spread Love...
... but wear the Glove!


BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
"ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I'm so proud of that Editor.
Posted by: BlueBerry PickN on Feb 6, 2008 9:06 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Good for her:
If MORE PEOPLE were actually willing to stand for the ethics of their profession & conscience...

...much of what we endure wouldn't have happened in the first place.


I'm proud of her!

I hope she's offered a rocking opportunity to contribute with something significant.

Although, I think anything she ends up doing will become significant. That's how ethics work.

The Cream rises to the Top.


~~~

Spread Love...
... but wear the Glove!


BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
"ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

kirktc
Posted by: kirktc on Feb 6, 2008 9:35 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I feel she used the gender and race as an issue to make it seem like she is a victim of discrimnation. If she had stuck with the main argument that she was not allowed to perform the job she was hired for and that she and her colleagues work had been taken advantage of she would get more sympathy. I'm a woman, but I have never answered the question posed of what job I did by saying I am a female welder, I just said I am a welder, race and gender have nothing to do with qualifications. So I feel she is just as guilty of keeping the bias of race and gender alive as the people she is accusing of being biased. If we all worked at leaving label out of our vocabulary we might have a better chance at combating discrimination. Speak proudly of your heritage and gender, but don't limit yourself by allowing these to become a label when you describe yourself.

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» I see it differently... Posted by: buffeliscious
chicago crime-times?
Posted by: cwilsondrum on Feb 6, 2008 9:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
google the paper's name and what a surprise, conrad black,inflated numbers,old white men. hollinger international

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Thebigkate
Posted by: Thebigkate on Feb 6, 2008 12:37 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I for one would like to see the original editorials--side by side with the rewrites! Is this possible?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Of course this is about
Posted by: BlueBerry PickN on Feb 6, 2008 1:50 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the sorts of folks who like NAFTA & SPP
& media corporatization

...you're not supposing that we didn't already *know* that?

but then, not many people realize how small Canada's media market really is...

oddly enough, most Canadians think that because we can access BBC & American MainStream Media, that we have *diversity* of opinion.

Ever watched CNN International? those 'please open a company in our nation' ads are somewhere between heartbreaking & angst building...

~~~

Spread Love...

BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
"ThisCanadian
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The only real issue is WAR
Posted by: herbal on Feb 6, 2008 3:46 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Paul Krugman and other mainline press & media are trying to portray health insurance as the only perceptible difference between the corporatist Hillary and the conciliator Obama. Obama has accepted the ´peace branch´from Hillary when he desperately needs to be more agressive about the war issue that distinguishes him from WAR.

We must mount a grand effort to write letters to the editors of large and small newspapers in the upcoming primary states to warn people that Hillary is a warmonger Bush supporter. At this point we internet hacks are only preaching to the choir!

Write now to head off this disaster of a Clinton who will bring only more of Bill´s foreign policy and alliance with Bush=Cheney Empire.

Even Ron Paul says we can´t afford anything else but war. Write the Chicago Sun Times to endose the only chance for real change, an end to the perpetual wars.

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The New Journalistic Bush Administration Paradigm
Posted by: hadashito on Feb 9, 2008 2:31 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Sun Times editor who just resigned in protest is apparently missing the point. There's a new approach to editorial journalism at the Sun Times, as is true across the nation's corporate owned newspapers. Its corporate owners are simply adopting the new paradigm established by the Bush administration; namely, if any department, agency, or unit of any sort issues a report or pronounces a stand on any issue that is not totally consistent with the ideological viewpoint of the top bosses, those bosses simply have someone, inside or outside the organizational structure, rewrite the report, thus "improving" or "clarifying" it. In the case of the DC mob, they claim that national security demands it. But in this case, a favorable view of the journal by the new administration is imperative if the already waning fortunes of the newspaper are to be enhanced. And this approach has a precedent. The (Republican) publisher of The Cleveland Plain Dealer forbade his editorial board's endorsement of Al Gore in the 2004 election despite the fact that the entire northeastern quadrant of the state of Ohio is a Democratic stronghold and the Plain Dealer had endorsed Democratic Party candidates for generations. This trend is one of the major reasons our country's corporate print media are flushing themselves down the bowl.

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Good Girl, Ms Reed !
Posted by: Bruce Bartlett on Feb 10, 2008 10:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am so glad that Ms Reed is standing up for what is right and just, by leaving those hypocrites to wallow in their own politics and unfair bullying she is letting the world know that she will not stand for anyones bullshit, and that she backs her morals with action !
I Salute you, Cheryl Reed.
If many more people would follow your example, we would not have so many of this worlds troubles as we do now.
I.E. - If everyone from your neighborly CIA operatives to our Army's Sargent's, Commanders, and soldiers, not to mention the mercenaries our Gov't has overseas, in Iraq and elsewhere, would stand up for a moral higher ground, and refuse to casually shoot civilians and torture the people they catch, just because it seems to be OK by this administration, then we could still stand as a proud country who respects human rights and treats all people humanely in any situation.
Another example, the billions being spent in this oil war would instead be helping the thousands of victims of Katrina who are still waiting for the help they were told would be coming.

I nominate Cheryl Reed for the much needed Office of Morals in our government !!!
Anyone second the motion ?

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