Self-Criticism in Chicago

Newspaper editors normally do not suffer criticism--or critics--gladly. They tend to get even unhappier when the criticism comes from members of their own staffs. Nevertheless, a group of Chicago reporters and photographers have been publicly lambasting their own papers ever since the 1968 Democratic Convention--and getting away with it.

Their vehicle is the Chicago Journalism Review, a candid monthly critique of the city's press. It grew out of a feeling by many newsmen that their editors and publishers have been too cozy for too long with the city's dominant politicians and businessmen. "News management, news manipulation and assaults on the integrity of the working press," said the Review in its first issue, "are commonplace in this tight little city." Editors go along "through conspiracies of silence." Many newsmen, the journal added, are also guilty: "They learn not to rock the boat or they cultivate cynicism--the hardboiled, hard-drinking kind that is supposed to make Chicago newspapermen so colorful." The Review hopes to change that by promoting "a professional consciousness among our fellow newsmen--to let them know that their battle to stay 'pure' is not a lonely, hopeless fight."

Daley Takeover. The Review, whose fifth issue is due this week, depends on articles and tips from newsmen with personal knowledge of their papers' omissions, distortions or other misdeeds. Though many of the articles are signed, none of the contributors have complained yet of pressure from their bosses to keep quiet. The Review is edited by Daily News Education Reporter Henry De Zutter, Sun-Times Urban Affairs Specialist Christopher Chandler and American Education Reporter Ron Dorfman. All three contend that their careers are still prospering.

Discussing coverage of the convention disorders, the Review noted approvingly that editors "nervously let their reporters set down uncomplimentary facts about the police and the mayor." But post-conventian coverage was something else. After out-of-town newsmen left Chicago, the Review claimed, "Mayor Daley was permitted to take over the media. Our own editorialists told us that we didn't really see what we saw under those blue helmets." The Review charged that the American had interviewed Police Superintendent James B. Conlisk about the disorders, then let him edit the resulting story.

According to the Review, when the Walker Commission sought reporters' accounts of events, Larry Mulay, general manager of the City News Bureau, censored his own reporters' memos to the commission, including one man's claim that a policeman "calmly kicked [a] photographer in the groin and walked on." Explained Mulay: "We have to work with the police, and we depend on them for information all year long." The Review chided the Tribune for assailing all the "anonymous statements" in the Walker Report, then quoting "unimpeachable" (but anonymous) sources and "men of unquestioned integrity" as the basis for its own story claiming that the report had been rewritten under the direction of former Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Unflattering Insights. The wide-ranging Review offers other unflattering insights into the quality of Chicago journalism. It contends that the American killed a series on malpractice in a hospital because the institution had "well-connected officials." After police staged a raid on prostitutes operating out of the city's fashionable Ambassador East Hotel, the afternoon newspapers somehow failed to name the hotel. But when American Reporter Gary Cummings then attempted to omit the names of hotels that were the sites of such respectable functions as conventions and speeches, he was ordered to write them in. The Review also noted that even after University of Illinois officials told the Tribune that a police estimate of $50,000 in damages as a result of a black student demonstration was greatly exaggerated, the paper continued to use the figure. The university's final damage estimate was $3,812.49.

The Review assailed the Sun-Times for claiming that a LIFE magazine article on Chicago police corruption contained only "old stories that were printed here when they were news." Countered the Review: "About 90% of the LIFE material had never been printed by the Sun-Times or any other Chicago newspaper," including. the names of involved officers.

Delicate Line. The Review criticizes reporters as well as editors. In one article, Sun-Times Reporter Ben Heineman Jr., son of the president of Chicago's Northwest Industries, accepted part of the blame himself for the failure of the city's newspapers fully to pursue leads that pointed toward police responsibility for the deaths of four Negroes shot during the April disorders. The Review pointed out that city hall reporters normally accept Christmas gifts from aldermen and get at least "$200-$300 and 25 to 30 bottles of booze" each year.

Although circulation is growing (it is now 3,700), the Review, at 50-c- a copy, does not break even; the deficit is made up by an anonymous donation and a foundation grant. The reaction of newspaper editors to the efforts is cool but not overtly hostile--yet. "We welcome criticism," says Daily News Editor Roy Fisher. "But I think reporters for the News could be more constructive by channeling their criticism within the paper." Sun-Times Editor James Hoge praises the Review staff for its ability to draw a delicate line between'"what's legitimate information for a critique and what's a violation of inner office confidences." Tribune Editor Clayton Kirkpatrick is less charitable. "We don't tell people what they can do with their free time," he says. "But I can't say that I take it seriously."

There is something distinctly disturbing about newspaper employees in effect snitching on their own bosses in public. Yet the Review can clearly serve a useful purpose in Chicago. Besides, its kind of self-criticism might be even more important in the nation's many one-newspaper towns, where journalistic complacency often goes unchallenged.

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