MEDIA WATCH: Will 2014 see the invention of a Pulitzer Prize for Political Pandering? Sun-Times had Rahm Emanuel on its front page more than 50 times during 2013
There may not be a Pulitzer Prize for pandering, but if one is ever invented, it should go first to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reached heights in political pandering by a daily newspaper not seen in the USA since the days of William Randolph Hearst. During the year 2013, the second city's second newspaper became a daily wallow in the slop of punditry, with barely a reporter in sight. And when the dwindling number of Sun-Times readers weren't being treated to more opinions than can usually been found in the Blogosphere, there was always the "ALL RAHM ALL THE TIME" version of The Front Page.
May 10, 2013, one of the many many front page photos of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel during one year. Rahm's photo graced the front page of the Sun-Times more than 50 times in one year.The disgrace at the Sun-Times was everywhere throughout 2013. The newspaper's owner is hostile to print, and keeps trying to force his dwindling number of paying readers to go to an ever-changing panorama of silly internet properties, most of which make the reader long for the forthright smarminess of People magazine.
And of course the year 2013 was when the Sun-Times owners proudly fired all of their photojournalists, including Pulitzer Prize winning pro John White, because, after all, what matters in the "Digital Age" is "content" -- and any kid with a camera photo can snap some of that.
But a look inside the Daily Pander shows that the owners of the Sun-Times have at least one agenda, and that is to promote Rahm Emanuel's myths about Rahm Emanuel, while ignoring the growing scandal of all the Rahm facts.
So far, the people at the Pulitzer Committee haven't announced a Pulitzer for Page One Pandering, but if one is invented, the Chicago Sun-Times will win it for 2013.
