I’m troubled by the Chicago Tribune’s recent batch of articles and editorials about influence peddling at the University of Illinois. Clout is the term used to describe politicians and other powerful, well positioned individuals that try to help students enroll at U of I, even though they may not qualify. This isn’t to say that the students are dolts or idiots, only that they were not accepted for enrollment based on their application and now some well meaning person, most likely a pol, wants to help them. A little push, as it were.
The “help” usually is self serving. Most Pols help people that are in a position to help them sooner or later. There is always an election on the horizon. From what I read in the Trib, the trustees and others able to nudge the final decision have been unfairly portrayed as despicable sewer dwellers, selling their position for money and jobs. The dean of the law school and others have tried to set the record straight, but no one has given them a forum equal to the daily newspaper. And the Trib, God bless em, isn’t telling that side of the story.
There were two articles in the paper this morning that caught my attention. The first was the headline that the Chancellor of the school had agreed that the system needed to be fixed. The second item was an open letter to the editor by several faculty members giving their side of the story (see below for a link).
What strikes me about all of this is that the very same politicians who are holding hearings (call them a lynching), and bleating about the miss-use of influence are the same people who trade earmarks and support daily without nary a blush. Our political system is based on mutual reward. What does O’Bama expect to get by getting a missile agreement with Moscow during his trip? Certainly there is something the Russians expect to gain from the agreement, just as America will gain something too.
What annoys me most is the style of writing that in the past has been called “Yellow Journalism”. Here is how Wikipedia defines the term. Yellow journalism is a type of journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers. It may feature exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, sensationalism, or unprofessional practices by news media organizations or journalists.
Frank Luther Mott (1941) defines yellow journalism in terms of five characteristics:[1]
1. scare headlines in huge print, often of minor news
2. lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings
3. use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, pseudo-science, and a parade of false learning from so-called experts
4. emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements, usually with comic strips (which is now normal in the U.S.)
5. dramatic sympathy with the “underdog” against the system
I leave it to you to actually read the articles. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-open-letter-college-clout-story,0,2114931,full.story is the link to a rebuttal of the charges by several prominent University of Illinois professors.
It would be easy for me to point to a kinder gentler time when yellow journalism didn’t exist. When people always got a fair shake in the papers and rags like the Trib had tremendous ethics and good judgment. But that would be an impossible task as sensationalism has existed since Gutenberg became the first in Europe to use movable type in the 15th century.
So I lament what the Trib has become and consider stopping my subscription. I would miss the comics and sports, I guess. Even before this incident, I missed the shear volume of news published in the old days. Now, the cost of labor and newsprint curtail the paper to a shadow of its former self.
The problem, as I see it, isn’t that a few individuals were admitted that would have stayed out but for someone speaking on their behalf. The problem is that the Trib has become part of the problem. Instead of even handed reporting that allows the reader to draw a conclusion after hearing both sides, the Tribune has set itself up as both judge and jury.
The very language of each article is so biased as to make a reader incapable of reaching a fair decision. Here is the link to today’s story. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-u-of-i-clout-college-07-jul07,0,370456.story
What we lack today is a safe haven for ethics. The newspaper, the cop on the corner, the parish priest, the coach, our doctor and the school teacher were people that always played by the rules and when we were with them we felt safe. Recent events have proven once again how naiveté is rewarded with a slap in the face instead of a pat on the back.
This topic and all that’s been written about it prove once again how dangerous a slow news day can be, or perhaps what a scandal rag will do to sell papers. Shame on you, Trib.
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