WBEZ | media

CPS limits coverage from closing schools

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:03:00 -0500

On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education will decide whether to close 54 schools it says are failing or underutilized.

Since the recommended list of closures was announced in March, the city has been in a heated debate about whether some schools should be taken off the list. Media access to these buildings has been almost impossible, and some worry decisions will be made without a thorough inspection.

Arturs Weible is a music teacher at Lafayette Elementary School in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. He directs the only string orchestra at a CPS elementary school.

“We have 85 kids participating in the program. And these kids have higher expectations to keep their grades up. They have to keep their behavior in order,” he said. “And so these kids are basically doing above and beyond pretty much anything that’s being asked of an elementary school child.”

Lafayette is slated to close because CPS considers it an underutilized building. Weible disagrees, and says all parts of the building are in use, but maybe not at all times of the day.

He says he wants the public to see the school before a decision is made.

“To not allow media coverage within school hours is not fair to these parents. They don’t have a voice otherwise. The media is the voice of the community,” he said.

Before CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett announced the closings list, Weible said journalists got into Lafayette easily. Now, it’s like a black out with the exception of heavily restricted visits.

The district said since late March, every media outlet has had access to a proposed closing school and/or receiving school.

CPS says with less than a week until the board vote, it’s denying media access to the closing schools because it would be too disruptive. But a number of news organizations including WBEZ and Catalyst magazine say they’ve been denied access to closing schools since the list was made public.

Some reporters have successfully entered closing schools through other means.

“I was invited to come to Garvey by a parent,” said Kate Grossman, deputy editorial page editor for the Chicago Sun-Times.

She toured Garvey Elementary on the city’s South Side earlier this spring. It’s another school proposed to be closed because of underutilization.

She said there are numbers to back up CPS’s closing recommendations, but there’s also the reality of what’s happening inside.

“You can see that by going to these schools and seeing that they have quite a lot to offer kids even though on paper they’re underused,” she said. “So I think it’s a crucial part of the decision making when you’re deciding to close a school and consolidate it with another to know what you might be losing.”

Grossman said her visit to Garvey was very different from when she was invited by CPS to tour a receiving school with CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett.

“It was lots of people, and you can’t really do a lot of in-depth reporting when you’re following a school CEO around. And the principal might not be comfortable speaking her mind,” she said.

A student at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism also tried to gain access to schools without permission. CPS threatened to sever ties with Medill if it happened again.

Professor Marcel Pacatte agreed the student was wrong, but said the district’s response was extreme.

“A student was told yesterday there would be no more audio recording at closing schools. So that’s a fairly draconian issue,” he said.

Pacatte said now he’s making sure students are going through the proper channels to ensure Medill can continue covering the schools.

“I get where they’re coming from but I still don’t understand how they think it’s beneficial for the citizens of Chicago or the students in the schools of the district in the city itself to prevent stories from being told,” he said.

Media restrictions aren’t uncommon for urban school districts.

But Emily Richmond with the National Education Writers Association says too many restrictions can force reporters to find another way into the schools.

“There’s really no substitute for being able to just step back and watch what’s happening around you and have that first hand observation. And who knows what stories they would find in there,” she said.

Richmond says with an historic number of schools that could be affected, news coverage needs to go beyond statistics and present a clearer view of what’s happening.

Susie An covers business for WBEZ. Follow her @soosieon.

For some, Boston news coverage highlights need for Muslims in the media

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:32:00 -0500

As details continue to emerge about the two brothers suspected of planting bombs at the Boston Marathon on Monday, many American Muslims are processing the treatment that this story has gotten in the mainstream news media. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia, but little is still known about their motives or other affiliations.

Even before the suspects were identified, news shows and commentary programs on outlets such as Fox News, CNN and Glenn Beck speculated that the perpetrator of the attack was Saudi, Arab, “dark-skinned,” or Muslim. Fox News pundit Erik Rush provoked particular outcry when he tweeted “Let’s kill them all,” in response to a message about Muslims —a tweet that he later said was sarcastic.

“[The] Islamophobia machine is out there, it’s well-funded, well-oiled,” said Abdul Malik Mujahid, a Chicago-area imam and founder of SoundVision, an Islamic educational media organization. “Muslims have a responsibility to move forward and use the media which they have the freedom to use to say their opinion.”

Mujahid said the coverage has bolstered his belief that Muslims need to play a bigger role in crafting media coverage, whether by creating their own media outlets or by joining the newsrooms of existing ones. It’s a battle that Mujahid began nearly ten years ago, with the launching of Radio Islam, a daily, current affairs program that streams online and at 6 p.m. nightly on WCEV 1450AM.

A recent show focused on Muslims who were at the Boston Marathon as runners or as first responders. Mujahid said the idea is to counter a trend toward unfavorable attitudes toward Muslims.

“Despite the fact that Muslims have done a lot of effort to reach out to their neighbors, [perceptions of] Muslims and Islam in America continue to go on the negative side,” he said.

In the wake of the Boston coverage, Mujahid has stepped up a call for donations to expand Radio Islam’s programming. He wants to build a new studio downtown to increase the amount of programming, as well as foster the training of Muslim journalists.

“We’ve made this switch from more of a victim mentality, more of this idea of please don’t beat me up, and kind of scared and not knowing what to expect, as opposed to now taking a more confident and proactive position,” said Asma Uddin, an attorney at the Becket Foundation for Religious Liberty and the founder of Altmuslimah, a blog about gender and Islam.

Uddin said since 9/11, more Muslims have started to think like Mujahid, focusing on how to disseminate their stories through the media. She said she saw the effect of that in the media coverage of the Boston bombings. Although some news outlets rushed to connect the attack to Islam, she said many more were careful not to jump to conclusions.

“It’s become increasingly sophisticated, and part of that, is because Muslims are speaking up and nuancing people’s perceptions,” Mujahid said.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ’s North Side Bureau reporter. Follow her at @oyousef and @WBEZoutloud.

The Consequences of the Media Information Hydrant: A Nation of Silent Spectators with Torey Malatia

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:09:00 -0500

Torey Malatia is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Chicago Public Media, Inc. He is a leader in public media strategic thinking, has written and lectured extensively about the public media's role as a public trust, and serves as Board Chair of Public Radio Exchange, Inc. As an advocate for deepening community commitments, he has spearheaded numerous neighborhood and local reporting initiatives.

Together with Ira Glass, Torey co-founded This American Life in 1995. Under his leadership, Chicago Public Media has developed its most significant national initiatives and programs, including The Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2000, Sound Opinions in 2005, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!, a co-production with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. in 1998. In 2001, he was inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame as the first not-for-profit representative to receive this honor.

Born and reared in Oak Park, Illinois, Torey resides in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago with his wife, artist Elizabeth Carson Manley.

Recorded live Sunday, April 13, 2013 at The Stevenson Center on Democracy.

RedEye article sparks discussion about media racism

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:18:00 -0600

On days where the wintry weather overtakes Chicago and you can barely see outside of your window, I’m oddly reminded of the 2000 kids’ movie Snow Day. According to the logic of the film, snow days change things; they re-write the rules. When the snow began to hit in the wee hours of the morning, I poured myself a glass of wine, listened to the new David Bowie and re-posted a photo of the RedEye to Facebook before bedtime. All in all an average night, right?

But I forgot the movie’s lesson: anything can happen on a snow day.

When I woke up Tuesday morning, that photo had been shared from my personal page over 2,500 times and another 600 from the author’s page. I figured that a couple friends of mine would comment on it, and we would privately lament the state of media racism in this country, before we move on to eat sandwiches and poop (not at the same time). I’ve become so desensitized to racism that I no longer am surprised when things like this happen, because they’re such a common occurrence. We want to be newly incensed every time Victoria Jackson says something stupid or people have racist reactions to chips, but at a certain point, these things become the expected norm, yet another dick in the wall

On the evening in question, racism just made me sleepy. Call it racism fatigue.

However, the photo going viral Tuesday reminded me how much we need this dialogue, how much we need to be reminded that these issues are worth engaging and that we have a responsibility to spread awareness. It reminded me of my own privilege in being able to shut the computer on racism and ignore it if I want to. I can plug my ears and say la-la-la if I want to, because (as a non-POC) structural racism benefits me. On an unseasonably cold March morning, it was the ultimate alarm call. The best part of waking up is racism in your cup.

For those unfamiliar, Westgard’s photo breaks down the amount of coverage allotted to crime in Chicago, where the shooting of a woman in Rogers Park gets 10 times the word count of four people killed in the Back of the Yards, Englewood, Gage Park and New City. The RedEye piece is a abridged version of Adam Sege’s original Chicago Tribune article, which goes further into the incidents in the latter four neighborhoods. It’s problematic that Sege had to lead with the woman in the Northside neighborhood, burying the others at the back of the article. But at least it’s more equitable. That's better, n'est-ce pas?

Spoiler: Non.

Is it sad that I could even think about “defending” the Tribune for devoting 50 percent of their content to one North Side woman and the other 50 percent to folks in “black” neighborhoods? Is it sad that we can so easily overlook the fact that the RedEye truncated coverage of everyone not in Rogers Park, deciding that mention of them was all but expendable? Yes, but that’s what it’s come to these days. It's sad that this is the reality. You can comforting yourself by saying, “Well, at least the RedEye didn’t leave out the South and West Side stories entirely. Those folks got a whole paragraph, 23 words of shiny, abridged, motherf*cking inclusion. Where’s my wine? Let’s get drunk.” Welcome to the fatigue.

In Westgard’s breakdown of the article, he labels Rogers Park as being a “white” neighborhood, which (to an extent) it is. Statistics show that the neighborhood has a larger white population than any other demographic, but Rogers Park boasts Black and Latino statistics that nearly match it, with respective counts of 26.3% and 24.43%. If you’ve ever been to West Rogers Park, you know that the neighborhood is famous for its thriving South Asian scene, with bustling Indian and Pakistani restaurants up and down Devon. You can’t go anywhere without tripping over great South Asian cuisine.

I live in a building that’s half-immigrant and half-white—with Rogers Park’s student population blending with its first- and second-generation residents, populations that overlap just as often as they don’t. But despite this fact, Rogers Park is perceived to be white, with Loyola University getting most of the credit for generating the neighborhood’s energy. Additionally, Rogers Park gets lumped in with the rest of the North Side (often called the "White Side"). Despite enjoying the diversity of everything from Uptown and Buena Park to Andersonville and Albany Park, we stereotype the North Side as a homogeneous Caucasian fantasia, as if Lakeview were the only neighborhood. Even if it’s not the reality, the specter of Wrigley takes over the North. We get whitewashed.

Because of the North Side’s perceived white centrality, we get the coverage that the South and West Sides do not. Last year, I wrote an article on my experiences living in Chicago, an ode to everything I love about the city after calling it home for almost a decade. The piece was called “40 Reasons I Love Being a Chicagoan,” and it included everything from Big Chicks to Costello’s, whose Mess Sandwich I would eat every day if my heart would allow it. I wrote it from my limited view as a North Side resident, where I’ve lived every year of my residency here.

A number of respondents accused me of "Northsider Bias," charging that I left out perspectives that were reflective of a larger cultural population. I was furthering the stereotype that Chicago only happens on the North Side. Where was Bronzeville? What about Pilsen? Why didn’t I mention Bridgeport? At first, I was taken aback by the accusation—but then I realized they were right. I'd been to the South Side a handful of times, and it was a faint blip on my cultural radar. This is a common reality in Chicago, where you can barely find a train to take you anywhere past Roosevelt. For Northsiders, it can be difficult to get outside of your niche experience or learn to think about Chicago differently. You get trapped in your own reality.

This ideological infrastructure permeates the ways in which we talk about Chicago and how we live our lives here. When realtors and property agents signify “good neighborhoods,” they aren’t talking about Back of the Yards or Englewood. They wouldn’t even show you a property in Englewood. They mean Roscoe Village. When they talk about neighborhoods that are “up and coming” or “on the rise,” they mean Uptown. In Rogers Park, Loyola has been buying up a great deal of the property in the area. They now own our building. It might not be a “white neighborhood” currently, but it’s slowly getting there. Baby steps.

As a representation of a city that’s heavily segregated, the RedEye article reflects larger issues of racial inclusion in our city, ones that are so pervasive that they are nearly invisible. It’s a symbol of a media industry that’s equally structurally classist and racist as the city, driven by economic incentives to reach a majoritarian audience of white consumers. The reason I barely blinked at the RedEye article is that coverage like this is so commonplace. It even has a name: “Missing White Woman Syndrome.”

Can you name any non-white woman who has gone missing and gotten major press coverage? Rosie Perez doesn't count, so me neither. Reason magazine gives us two telling examples of this:

“Remember Laci Peterson, who disappeared on Christmas Eve, 2002? Her case received saturation coverage in the U.S., and widespread coverage elsewhere. You could follow it in the Taipei Times if you cared to. By contrast, Evelyn Hernandez – like Peterson, very pregnant at the time of her disappearance – went missing seven months before Peterson did. Her torso was later found in the San Francisco Bay. The case got a few mentions here and there, but was largely ignored.

“Last summer a jury acquitted Casey Anthony of murdering her daughter, Caylee, in 2008. You remember. Her trial received seemingly nonstop attention across the nation. But as Alexander points out, just about nobody has ever heard of Aja Fogle, N’Kiah Fogle, Tatianna Jacks, or Brittany Jacks. Like Caylee Anthony, those girls – ages 5, 6, 11, and 16 – were murdered in 2008. Their mother was convicted of the crime and sentenced to 120 years in prison.”

The more you read the news, the more you realize that the axiom isn’t if it bleeds, it leads. The reality is that if it bleeds white, it leads. Such framing is meant reach the demographics that media outlets find more attractive as an audience; those with cultural and financial capital get the coverage, whereas less "lucrative" markets are otherized, left out or footnoted. (See: them urbans.)

Although the woman in the RedEye piece’s race was never mentioned, ethnicity is often interpellated as white in news media—as whiteness has become our socioeconomic default setting. Observe any billboard, newspaper, advertisement or magazine. Turn on CBS, our most-watched network. The media is white people. We’re looking at an industry where “white journalists write 93% of front pages in the U.S,” and statistics from 2011 show that just 13.26 percent of journalists overall are writers of color. Hell, I’m white and in the media. I’m part of the problem. I am the man.

Written at the tail end of the Obama-Romney race, a write-up from Salon further addresses this issue:

“The percentage of [front page election] articles written by Asian American reporters is 3.3%, by African American reporters is 2.9%, and by Hispanic reporters is 0.7%. This under-representation of minorities reporting on the front page holds true across most media outlets for most ethnic groups. The Dallas Morning News stands out as an exception where 18.8% of their front page stories were written by African Americans. The most striking under-representation of minorities in our data is that of Hispanic journalists, considering the Hispanic population stands at approximately 16.3% of the U.S. population (according to the 2010 Census).”

Although I’m happy to see the Internet take the RedEye to task over its exclusion of minorities in coverage, this criticism needs to be shared with an entire industry and city that continues to marginalize voices and perspectives of color. The RedEye is such a tiny fraction of the problem that I worry we’re not seeing the forest for the racist trees, but I’m heartened by the RedEye’s timely response to the criticism.

In addition to reaching out to Westgard on Twitter, they released a mea culpa on social media within less than 24 hours of the meme going viral. They didn’t even try to defend themselves or offer excuses for their gaffe. They simply apologized. It’s an incredibly classy move, especially from an outlet often dismissed as tabloid journalism or “fluff.” This response is anything but. Here’s what they had to say:

“The online conversation that’s developing around this story is an important one. Thank you for the comments and feedback. This is incredibly important to us, especially as we set out to shine a light on Chicago violence this year. Conversations like these will continue to inform and improve our coverage. We hope you’ll continue to join us in addressing these issues.”

We can shoot the messenger all we want, but as this statement shows, we must target the system along with them. By releasing this statement, the RedEye has recognized that this is a conversation we need to be having, whether we feel burned out on talking about privilege or our eyes are being opened for the first time by the simplicity of Westgard’s graphic. In this photo, Westgard makes the allegedly invisible plain and clear. The visual brings the discourse to those who might not think critically about structural racism or take the time to check out Racialicious or Crunk Feminist Collective, where these discourses take place every day.

We need to keep in mind that making the RedEye apologize won’t solve racism and remember to take accountability for raising awareness and shining a light on racism—with whatever tools we have available. Racism isn't just the RedEye's problem. It's everyone's.

Nico Lang writes about LGBTQ issues in Chicago. You can follow Nico on Twitter @Nico_Lang or the Facebook.

Hyperlocal news website Everyblock.com shut down

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:50:00 -0600

Community news website Everyblock.com shut down Thursday, to the surprise of its active user base. The decision was made by NBC News, the corporate owner of the site since 2009.

In a short blog post "increasing challenges to building a profitable business" are cited as a reason for the shutdown. All ten current employees are laid off- seven in Chicago, one in Seattle and two in New York.

The site was founded in Chicago by Adrian Holovaty in 2007 with a grant from the Knight Foundation. In 2008 the site launched with a four person staff.

"Adrian Holovaty was an early innovator in using data to drive community," said NBC News chief digital strategist Vivian Schiller Thursday.

Schiller answered WBEZ's questions about the shut down via email.

"As we continue to grow and evolve the NBC News Digital portfolio, we are focused on investing in content, products and platforms that play to our core strengths," Schiller said. "The decision to shut down the site was difficult, but in the end, we didn't see a strategic fit for EveryBlock within the portfolio."

Schiller said NBC News looked at various options both inside and outside the company to keep Everyblock running.

"But sadly, none of them were viable," she said.

Msnbc.com bought the site in 2009 for an undisclosed sum, though the original computer code was made available for free in accordance with their Knight grant.

Holovaty left Everyblock in August 2012 and says in a blog post on his personal site that he had reason to believe the site's future was safe.

"The last time I talked with an NBC News representative, at a conference a few months after I left EveryBlock, he indicated that NBC was optimistic about the site's future," the post reads.

Schiller declined to share any information about Everyblock's operating expenses or revenues.

Shocked users are airing their greivances in the comment section of Everyblock's final blog post. There were nearly 300 comments less than two hours after the article publishing.

Fans of the site are paying homage on Twitter. Dan Sinker, of @mayoremanuel and Knight-Mozilla OpenNews tweeted, "Long live the huge legacy and hundreds of sites built in the space its founders singlehandedly created."

"Everyblock had a small but very loyal set of consumers, particularly in Chicago," Schiller said. "We hope Everyblock helped them be better neighbors and that they are able to carry that spirit forward on other platforms."

In a post from August, Holovaty reflected on his time with Everyblock. He claimed that Instagram founder Kevin Systrom learned much of the coding language that powers the billion dollar app from Everyblock's source code and personally thanked him.

Others have credited Everyblock with kick-starting a movement in data journalism. Chris Cast, a web developer from Seattle tweeted, "Sad to hear about #everyblock. They did more for open data than we realize."

Chicago's Chief Technology Officer John Tolva credited Holovaty with "starting the fire" of government data transparency.

Alderman Joe Moore of Chicago's 49th Ward was an avid user as well. He said, "I know some of my colleagues didn't always like it because it provided an opportunity to beat up on the alderman, but I thought the benefits outweighed the negatives."

"I'm going to miss it for two reasons: one, it provided me another avenue to communicate with my constituents. And two it provided me a window into what my constituents were thinking. By finding out what my constituents were thinking, I was able to be a better alderman," Moore said.

The following statement was posted on the Everyblock blog:

We’re sorry to report that EveryBlock has closed its doors.
It’s no secret that the news industry is in the midst of a massive change. Within the world of neighborhood news there’s an exciting pace of innovation yet increasing challenges to building a profitable business. Though EveryBlock has been able to build an engaged community over the years, we’re faced with the decision to wrap things up.
Thank you for having let us play a role in how you get your neighborhood news. Thanks for the contributions, for the questions, and for allowing us to connect you to each other, in many cases to make great things happen in your community. Along the way, we hope we’ve helped you be a better neighbor.

Adrian Holovaty posted the following statement on his personal website, Holovaty.com:

I'm very saddened by today's news that EveryBlock has been shut down by NBC News.
I founded EveryBlock in 2007 after receiving a grant from the Knight Foundation. It was launched in January 2008 by an original team of four (Wilson Miner, Dan O'Neil, Paul Smith and me) and was acquired by msnbc.com in 2009. NBC News acquired msnbc.com last year and now has decided to shut down the site and let go all 10 employees.
The premise of EveryBlock was to offer you a custom site devoted to news in your neighborhood. We showed you nearby public records (crimes, building permits, restaurant inspections), pointed you to automatically indexed articles (newspapers, blogs, forums) and provided a sort of "geo-forum" that let you talk with people who lived near you. I wrote a bit about the site's legacy several months ago.
I left EveryBlock in August, after five years, as I was itching to make something new. I had no idea NBC News would be shutting it down (in fact, at the time, I said I expected it would be around for a "long, long time"). The last time I talked with an NBC News representative, at a conference a few months after I left EveryBlock, he indicated that NBC was optimistic about the site's future.
I'd like to thank all the EveryBlock employees past and present, along with the members of the EveryBlock community. It was a great site, beautifully designed and lovingly crafted. It made a difference for people, particularly in Chicago.
More than six years ago, I wrote a blog post that got some attention about how newspaper (and, really, journalism) sites needed to change. EveryBlock was an attempt at that kind of change -- in my eyes, a successful attempt. EveryBlock was among the more innovative and ambitious journalism projects at a time when journalism desperately needed innovation and ambition. RIP.

This story is developing and will be updated as more information is made available.

By way of introduction: What TV series' opening credits say about architecture and place

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 05:00:00 -0600

I had a fascinating, but all-too-brief, chat earlier last week with a Texas architecture professor who uses the opening credits of television programs to teach her students about architecture and cities.

She's on to something. Architecture, history and place are often captured and contextualized — and quite well, too — in seconds'-long intros. The professor's picks included the famous Mary Tyler Moore Show intro, but also that of Frank's Place, the short-lived, but still sorely-missed 1987 CBS comedy featuring Tim Reid as a Boston college professor who inherits his father's New Orleans restaurant:

A few weeks ago in my assessment of the now-canceled Boss, I mentioned the program's opening credits. But others come to mind now, such as the intro to All in the Family, with its shots of working-class Queens. Or the above intro to the 1970s comedy Good Times showing a grimy Chicago as it was then, not to mention the long-gone broadcast antenna atop Marina City and the now-bulldozed Cabrini Green housing projects.

Buildings and place are featured prominently in the BBC Sherlock series:

And dig the Brutalist campus a brooding Gary Collins strolls through in the early 1970s show The Sixth Sense:

Got any examples of architecture-rich TV intros you'd like to share? Email them to me at lbey@wbez.org, along with a few lines explaining your selection. If I get enough responses, I'll do a follow-up here.

The Steve Edwards Interview

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 05:00:00 -0500

I was very sad to learn that today's interviewee would be leaving WBEZ. Steve Edwards was the first person to ever interview me at the station. His good nature and professionalism made me, and I'm sure many others, feel comfortable on-air. After over a dozen years with the station and a stint as the host of The Afternoon Shift, last week Edwards took his leave to work at the University of Chicago's new Institute of Politics.

Edwards’ reports and interviews have been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Chicago Headline Club, the RTNDA, the Associated Press, UPI and Public Radio News Directors, Inc., and he earned a National Headliner Club's Grand Award for radio.

I got a little help from Steve's former colleagues, who will miss him, for some of the "deep cut" questions.

Your new job sounds very professional but a little confusing to the sleep-deprived. What will you be doing there, in layman’s terms?
Well, the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics is modeled after a similar institute at Harvard, which was established in honor of President John F. Kennedy to “promote greater understanding and cooperation between the academic world and the worlds of politics and public affairs.” As Deputy Director, Programming, I’ll help create public programming across multiple platforms; opportunities for students to become engaged in politics and public service; and a program for visiting fellows – elected officials, journalists, policy-makers, and the like – to come to Chicago for an academic term to interact with students, faculty and the public around the important issues of our time.

As a listener and a guest I’ve always enjoyed how professional and prepared you are on-air. That said, can you describe a moment or two when you found yourself completely caught off-guard on-air?
There are too many to count, but the one that comes most immediately to mind happened on my very last episode of The Afternoon Shift. Usually, my colleague, Melba Lara, tosses back to me between the 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. hours by saying “Hour two of The Afternoon Shift is just ahead. Steve, what’s coming up?” And then I tell her. At least that’s the idea. And the thing is, because we’re in separate studios, Melba and I can’t see each other. So, you have to trust that the other person is actually there – and paying attention – which I wasn’t on this day. I’d absent-mindedly stepped out of the studio to introduce myself to filmmaker Andy Wachowski before our upcoming interview, so when Melba asked me what’s coming up next…there was dead silence on-air. Our director/producer Jason Marck then jumped in to save the day, joking that I’d had enough and decided to quit on the spot. And I came racing back, out of breath, and blurted something incomprehensible.

What accomplishments are you proudest of as a journalist?
Most of all, I hope I’ve been able to share a few stories and conversations that have deepened our understanding of the world around us, and, as poet Sonia Sanchez put it so well during a recent interview, our understanding of what it means to be human. Then again, a longtime colleague did tell me recently that she thought the single best moment in my career was the WBEZ pledge drive video where I jumped in the lake, fully clothed.

What tips do you have for other hosts and journalists on how to quickly prepare for an interview?
Ask short, focused questions. And listen relentlessly.

As a journalist, what do you like best about Chicago politics?
The fact that it closely resembles a dastardly family melodrama.

As a resident, what do you like least about it?
The fact that it too often serves self-interests rather than the public interest.

Aside from NPR, what radio stations/podcasts do you most enjoy listening to?
I’m an omnivore when it comes to audio. I listen to all the AM talk stations, sports radio, WFMT, WDCB, XRT, B96 and V103. I’m a huge fan of the shows Tonic and The Signal on CBC Radio 2 and podcasts like WTF and Love & Radio, among others. I also love late night college radio, where you can often find some great extended DJ sets.

What do you listen to with your kids in the car?
Most of the above – plus lots of our own music. I’m not big on the “kids music” thing, per se. I think great music is great music, regardless of genre or life stage.

Speaking of your kids, we had fun chatting about American Idol this summer, which we both watched. What else do you watch with your kids?
Well, I have younger kids, so Idol was in a class by itself in terms of family watching, though followed closely at times by The Voice and So You Think You Can Dance? (I do, but I can’t). My kids are also waaaaayyy into PBS, not just PBS kids, but real PBS – you know, like, America’s Test Kitchen and Chicago Tonight. In fact, he’ll hate that I’m telling you this, but my son, William, used to stand in front of a mirror at the age of 3 pretending he was Phil Ponce. I’ve since tried to introduce him to the Real Housewives franchise as well, but without success.

I’ve been asked by NPR listeners whether you look like your voice (I said yes). Have you received any weird comments over the years from listeners who met you in real life who commented on the face/voice correlation?
Thankfully, no. I think they save those for behind my back.

What will you miss most and least about working at Navy Pier?
Most: Watching the changing of the seasons via the Lake.
Least: Watching the changing of the seasons via the tourists.

What was your favorite pledge drive giveaway?
Hmmm. That’s a good one. That Tivoli radio really is amazing, though it’s a bit pricey for some. And I’m always a sucker for the magazine combos. Oh – and that free Chipotle burrito coupon they used to give out on certain days? That rocked.

What celebrity gossip magazines do you read? If one were to set up a celebrity gossip fantasy league, how would that work?
Ha! You’ve done your research, Zulkey. Nice. US Weekly, of course, is the gold standard. And as a former player in such a league, I can safely say that I definitely don’t read it enough. We "drafted" celebs and received points based on where and how often the members of your "team" appeared in the magazine. My wife, Andrea, and I played for one year and got spanked. It wasn’t even funny. People were trading for celebrities we hadn’t even heard of. To give you an idea of how outclassed we were, I gambled big that 2007 was going to be Whitney Houston’s comeback year.

Who is your favorite rock drummer and what’s your favorite song to drum to?
Favorite rock drummer? Probably either Stewart Copeland of The Police or John McEntire of The Sea and Cake and Tortoise. Favorite song is too hard. "Tom Sawyer" by Rush would be the classic answer here, but I can’t stand it.

Tell me about the time you got into a fight on a party boat whilst in college. Did you win?
Damn, you’re good! Who is your source on this stuff? Short answer: No. Long answer, I escaped by a TKO. The story is too long to recount here, but for the record, I simply stepped in – quite chivalrously, I might add – to defend a good friend of mine who was being harassed repeatedly by a group of drunken party-goers. And you know what I learned? I learned never to do that again. I also learned that one should never wear loafers on a boat deck in the rain when 300 lb. men are trying to beat you up.

How does it feel to be the 328th person interviewed for Zulkey.com/WBEZ?
Vivifying.

What does the country think of Chicago's teachers' strike?

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:40:00 -0500

Chicagoans absolutely love it when people in other cities pass judgment on our politics (see the comments on this article in The Atlantic about Mayor Rahm Emanuel). Here's a smattering of what national publications are saying about our teachers' strike.

"Chicago Teachers’ Folly", The New York Times Editorial Board, September 12, 2012.

Thesis: "Teachers’ strikes, because they hurt children and their families, are never a good idea."

Facts they rely on: Teachers are already well-paid; the proposed evaluation system is sound.

If they had to, who would they side with?: The Mayor and CPS.

Most accusatory phrase: "holding the city hostage."

Key quote: "Moreover, Ms. Lewis, who seems to be basking in the power of having shut down the school system, seems more inclined toward damaging the mayor politically than in getting this matter resolved. If the strike goes on for much longer, the union could pay a dear price in terms of public opinion."

"School’s Out In Chicago Thanks to a Massive Teachers' Union Strike", Jezebel, September 10, 2012.

Thesis: Everyone in Chicago is really annoyed at these dumb teachers.

Facts they rely on: An interview in the Huffington Post with parent and activist Wendy Katten of Raise Your Hand for IL Public Ed.

If they had to, who would they side with?: The Mayor and CPS.

Most accusatory phrase: "Will the city give in?"

Key quote: "Air conditioning, apparently, is not a primary concern."

"Rahm Stands Up To Teacher Union Bullies", David Frum in The Daily Beast, September 10, 2012

Thesis: If Rahm Emanuel gets his way, school reform will have a new king.

Facts they rely on: Wage increase percentages and teacher retention rules.

If they had to, who would they side with?: The Mayor, all the way.

Most accusatory phrase: "Ultimately, this imminent strike represents a challenge to the wave of school reforms imposed first by President Bush's No Child Left Behind and then - even more aggressively - by President Obama's Race to the Top."

Key quote: "Of course at that point, we'll hear that this new ultra-confrontational Democratic flag-bearer is a sad decline from the inclusive, conciliatory style of Barack Obama, by then promoted almost to an honorary Republican."

"Chicago Teachers Union Winning? What Rahm Emanuel is Up Against Vertical: politics", James Warren in The Daily Beast, September 12, 2012.

Thesis: Unions are weaker than they used to be, but Emanuel has a tough fight ahead of him.

Facts they rely on: References to Karen Lewis' infamous imitation of Arne Duncan.

If they had to, who would they side with?: CTU.

Most accusatory phrase: "It was all self-absorbed, shabby and suggestive of a leader about to take her troops over a cliff."

Key quote: "The mayor is triathlon fit, famously disciplined and generally as serious as a heart attack. Lewis is overweight, scattered in her ways and a wisecracking former chemistry teacher and failed stand-up comic."

"15 Students Who Are Psyched About The Chicago Teachers Strike", Buzzfeed, September 10, 2012

Thesis: These kids need to be in school because they can't spell.

Facts they rely on: Tweets.

If they had to, who would they side with?: The children! Think of them!

Most accusatory phrase: "The Chicago Teachers Union called a strike Sunday night. The kids will learn to spell whenever they get back."

Key quote: "Yay/noooo THERES NO SKOOL...NOW GRADUATION GONE GIT PUSHED BACK ..!!!! :("

"Chicago teachers resisting much needed education reforms", The Washington Post Editorial Board, September 10, 2012

Thesis: You name it, teachers are doing it wrong.

Facts they rely on: Chicago's school day is/was too short, teachers get paid enough, principals should hire who they want.

If they had to, who would they side with?: The Mayor and CPS.

Most accusatory phrase: "Who, other than union leaders, think it’s a good idea to force principals to hire from a pool of people whose only qualification is previous service and who in many cases were deemed to have been ineffective?"

Key quote: "A scandalously low 56 percent of Chicago students graduate from high school. That is the status quo the union is fighting to preserve."

"Stand against Rahm!", Rick Perlstein for Salon, September 11, 2012

Thesis: Unions are the best.

Facts they rely on: A lot of numbers.

If they had to, who would they side with?: CTU all the way.

Most accusatory phrase: "[Teachers] don’t trust the mayor — who the union’s feisty president, Karen Lewis, claims told her at a social outing at the ballet shortly after his election 'that 25 percent of the students in this city are never going to be anything, never going to amount to anything and he was never going to throw money at them.'"

Key quote: "So though this may change if the strike turns lengthy and disruptive, Chicago isn’t seeing its teachers as greedy. They’re seeing them as a vanguard in the struggle against what might happen to the rest of the middle class next if they don’t speak up."

"Chicago’s Striking Teachers Take Protest Too Far", Gawker, September 11, 2012

Thesis: A teacher suggests that Mayor Rahm Emanuel likes Nickelback.

Facts they rely on: Sign said teacher used in a rally.

If they had to, who would they side with?: Maybe Nickelback.

Most accusatory phrase: "In an urgent email to the Chicago Tribune, a spokeswoman for Rahm Emanuel sought to assure constituents that the mayor is most definitely not a fan of Nickelback."

Key quote: "...as this photo clearly shows, the protests have already taken a turn for the dirty."

"Chicago's Teacher Problem, and Ours", The New Yorker, September 11, 2012.

Thesis: Why does everyone hate teachers all of a sudden?

Facts they rely on: 80 percent of CPS students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch; only 60 percent graduated from high school this year.

If they had to, who would they side with?: CTU.

Most accusatory phrase: "She said this with the same kind of social enthusiasm with which she might have recommended a new Zumba class, or passed on the name of a place to get really great birthday cakes."

Key quote: "A certain casual demonization of teachers has become sufficiently culturally prevalent that it passes for uncontroversial."

"26,000 Chicago Teachers Will Strike on Monday", The Atlantic Wire, September 9, 2012.

Thesis: "Nobody disputes the notion that Chicago's schools need help."

Facts they rely on: Numbers, which "indicate that this is not a small labor dispute."

If they had to, who would they side with?: CTU.

Most accusatory phrase: "Blame for the strike will inevitably fall on Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emmanuel [sic], who was not present at the negotiations on Sunday."

Key quote: "But just because he's got an epic labor struggle on his hands doesn't mean Rahm should stop being Rahm, now, does it?"

Did we miss any good ones? Leave them in the comments and we'll add them.

Today is not 9/11; today is the day after

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:00:00 -0500

There is no peg to this story except that yesterday was an anniversary. Today is just a regular day. Today is the day after a day that 11 years ago meant something. But today, we don’t know what that something means anymore.

“Where were you on 9/11?” countless news organizations tweeted yesterday. “Share your story!” Remember with us, they asked.

Other media groups got criticized for not remembering it enough or in the right way, to the benefit of blogs like New York magazine’s Daily Intel. They took advantage of NBC’s choice not to observe a moment of silence yesterday morning when other news networks were doing so and instead air an interview with Kris Kardashian discussing her choice to get her breast implants replaced; Daily Intel’s well-edited split-screen with audio of the different channels playing at the same time is, I would say, surprisingly and masterfully comical.

I don’t necessarily blame NBC for their now-obvious gaff; it’s hard not to notice the difference in 9/11 coverage between this year and years past. Things are drastically less September 11th-ed out. Powered by my admittedly faulty memory, I like to visualize the intensity of the coverage of 9/11 in the years since that date slowly falling like an inverted bell curve, and then peaking suddenly back up with the 10th anniversary, to fall quickly back down this year.

“Some anniversaries offer a natural reflection point,” Carolyn Ryan, the metropolitan editor of the New York Times told the paper’s new public editor Margaret Sullivan Tuesday (I will remind you, in case you have forgotten, the original 9/11 was a Tuesday).

She was referencing 2011’s 10th anniversary. That natural reflection point that is natural only to us as humans, with our desire for nice round, even numbers that give us something to mark the meaningful passage of years. Given that, and the inevitable passage of time, it seems unlikely that we’ll “remember” with the ferocity we have those first 10 years. I’d posit a guess that the 10th anniversary was the most we’ll ever hear of 9/11 again. Pearl Harbor, the death of JFK -- these things that define generations live only in the memories of those that experienced them, to be retold to others who simply cannot, and honestly don’t want to understand the emotional intensity involved.

Though even those who live through an event at the same time can’t often share about it properly or correctly. There are those that are told they remember the wrong way. (There are those that tell themselves that they remembered or felt the wrong way.) The companies that exploit events for profit or goodwill. The celebrities that make anniversaries less-than-serious, almost meaningless. Videogum editor Gabe Delahyde hilariously (to those of us who appreciate the humor of a publication like The Onion, who famously “Onion-ized” 9/11 coverage) spent much of today retweeting every horribly meaningless platitude that celebrities and companies like Oreo shared about the anniversary today.

Anniversaries give us a time. They give us a space. They tell us “it’s okay to do this today.” They give news organizations a structure, a peg, a reason people will read, listen, look or watch their story, no matter how potentially mundane the topic. They prove how much time has passed and how little or much we have changed.

They also prove our value to others. Relationship anniversaries, the anniversary of someone’s death -- these things back (and sometimes subvert) our claim to feeling a certain way. The best way I can ever tell that I’m experiencing time normally, the way humans are intended to, is when something feels both forever ago and yesterday.

Not so many people were asking whether we’re remembering 9/11 too much last year, the way we have this year, until we won’t have to ask it anymore because we just won’t be doing it. Some were tired of the stories, sure; tired of the difficulty in coming up with original and actually meaningful content.

But that’s because there’s no good way to anniversary anything, except maybe by yourself. And it’s peculiar, because perhaps today is the day we should really count as an anniversary. Today is the day I woke up in an apartment that wasn’t mine and wandered around downtown Manhattan with my mother, looking for coffee and a copy of a historic paper that would be impossible to find because everyone wanted it.

It was beautiful out, just like September can be. No one was on the streets. It was unnatural, it was eery, it was remarkably terrible.

A week later, I was uptown and it was like nothing had happened. Nothing had happened or was remembered except by me.

Oh, but that’s my story. It doesn’t much matter, expect as a peg. On a year that counts just right.

Empire State Building shooting leads to social media payday for one Instagrammer

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:00:00 -0500

As the world tries to figure out the motives of the Empire State Building shooter, one random Instagram photo provides a window into the dirty underbelly of photo licensing for wire services.

Here's what we know: Instagram user mr_mookie posted a photo of a man bleeding from a head wound on a curb that was geo-located to the Empire State Building. The photo's caption reads "They shoot, aw made you look! No really tho. Dude got popped!"

After a few glib comments about how he couldn't be bothered to stop and help, the user added a slew of tags to the photo. After that, it was only minutes until comments started rolling in from other Instagram users claiming to be photo editors for major wire services or media outlets.

Sure enough, the photo was licensed to multiple outlets within two hours of being posted. Here it is on the Associated Press photo wire, accompanied by this caption:

"This photo posted to an Instagram account belonging to a person identified as mr_mookie, an eyewitness at the scene, shows a victim of a shooting being tended to by pedestrians outside the Empire State Building in New York, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. The identity or condition of the victim was not immediately known. Law enforcement officials in New York City say at least four people have been shot outside the Empire State Building in violence that stemmed from a workplace dispute, and that the gunman has been killed by police. The shooting happened at about 9 a.m. Friday at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. (AP Photo/mr_mookie via Instagram)"

A Facebook account for Muhammad Malik is linked from the mr_mookie Instagram account. Malik soon started posting about all the reporters calling him about the photo:

Then he turned to talking about getting paid for the photo and defending the glib caption.

He has a point -- I'm not sure who to be more disgusted by: the media's bottomless appetite for photos of violence or the photographer's numb reaction. Interestingly, when the Aurora shooting happened mr_mookie had a much more somber response: