One of a reporter’s most painful duties is to contact the grieving survivors of victims of crime or disaster. No matter how many times you have made that call, knocked on that door or approached a person at a disaster scene, starting the conversation is always difficult. You don’t want to intrude on someone’s most-private, Read More …
Tag: Newspapers
Objectivity, division and the challenge of trust in the media
Our Opinion page concluded 2016 with a series of editorials focusing on what we see as the state of the free press in America today and worrisome threats it faces. Criticism of the series has come from opposing camps, exemplifying some of the problems we wanted to describe and representing the polarized approaches to political Read More …
Making a direct connection with local election candidates
With their impact on your property taxes and leadership in your community, local elections can be the most direct opportunity for you to shape your schools and your quality of life. Yet, too often, we’re all distracted by the glare of state and national issues, so that when it comes time to select our town Read More …
Wishes of peace in a year of anger
In the midst of news reports that suggest the world is growing madder by the day, it feels a bit hollow as a news person to wish readers the peace of the season. But I do. Time magazine declared Donald Trump its Person of the Year, but the real story of 2016 was Anger. It Read More …
Requiem for a gadfly, patriot
If you’re in the news business for any length of time, sooner or later, you get to know someone like Rob Sherman. They’re people who delight in working their way under the skin of officialdom and want to make sure you — the writer, the camera, the headline, the link to legitimate public attention — Read More …
Flint, water quality and the duty to identify danger before it becomes a crisis
We don’t mean for you to be alarmed by the results of our reporting on the safety of our water in the suburbs. But it seems pretty clear you ought to be concerned. Whenever disaster or tragedy strikes somewhere in the country, it is natural to ask, “Could it happen here?” Often, we at the Read More …
Every day brings some news to soften the hardest heart
It does seem, doesn’t it?, that until some period of calamity, we humans are disinclined to step back and recall that, as poet Max Ehrmann famously declared, “with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.” Our own modern day of thanksgiving was born out of the nation’s most horrendous Read More …
Why, even in an age of negativity, kids can have reason to be hopeful
If you were to ask some of the suburbs’ most politically engaged young people to describe the state of Illinois in a single word, what do you suppose it would be? I attended a program Wednesday at Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich at which individual groups from about 30 such high school students Read More …
It bears repeating: Beware the polls
Read at Daily Herald website Some random thoughts, briefly stated: I read a poll yesterday showing Donald Trump holds a slight lead over Hillary Clinton. Over the weekend, I read one saying Clinton was clinging to a slight lead over Trump. A week ago, nearly every political commentator, even the Trump supporters and sympathizers, was Read More …
On this, the Trump watchers have gone too far
Read at Daily Herald website I am a strong believer in free speech, and I am not easily offended by words or ideas, especially from nationally syndicated pundits. But I spiked a syndicated column this week that I thought was an insult to, of all people, Donald Trump. It’s not that the tone was rude. Read More …