Monday, August 23, 2004

Updated August 23 at 4:30 pm

Retraction of erroneous statement made by this blog about the Chicago Tribune:

In this blog's entry dated August 23, 1:00 am [immediately below], I quoted from Tom Roeser’s statement [made this Sunday night on his radio show] about the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the City Club of Chicago speech given by Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes on Aug. 18:

Tom Roeser:...At the City Club of Chicago where he [Alan Keyes] gave… a very passionate and very excellent speech [on Wednesday]…he [Keyes] came in surrounded by press, which is very good for a Republican candidate. Now, it is not all good; it is not all bad. But, you know a thing that bothered me about the [Chicago] Tribune: the [Chicago] Sun-times [Scott Fornek] had a very fair article about this; The Tribune had not one single line about his [Keyes’] first major speech in the City of Chicago or anywhere as a candidate…

I also criticized the Tribune for “its decision to selectively ignore certain political candidates.” Obviously, I was referring to what I thought was the Tribune’s treatment of Keyes’ City Club speech.

I learned this afternoon that Mr. Roeser’s statement was erroneous and my criticism, to the extent it was based on Roeser’s statement, was also wrong. In a follow-up conversation I initiated with Peter Kendall, Deputy Metro Editor for the Tribune, today, he referred me to the August 19, 2004 Chicago Tribune Metro section article by Ray Long and Christi Parsons that reports, in large part, on the Democratic or Governor’s Day at the State Fair. The article runs about 700 words, in total, and 20%, or so, of same is devoted to a report on Keyes’ City Club speech. The discussion of Keyes is located in the middle of the article.

I apologize to the Chicago Tribune and its political reporters for my erroneous statement that it had not covered the Keyes speech and to my gentle readers, as well. I also acknowledge Mr. Kendall’s gracious style when he advised me of my error.

Obviously, some of my statements and criticisms of the Tribune were based on a broader analysis than the existence or absence of the Tribune’s coverage of Keyes’ City Club of Chicago speech and that will be discussed separately. However, I do not want to muddy up this apology and retraction with that discussion.

Jeff Berkowitz, Host and Producer of Public Affairs, can be reached at JBCG@aol.com