Trib Picks Its Fights
The Tribune had taken a poll, and the poll revealed less public opposition to expansion than meets the eye. But there wasn’t much to the poll either. The Suburban O’Hare Commission, which exists to keep O’Hare no bigger than it already is, spotted an opportunity and promptly issued a public statement labeled “Tribune Spins Poll to Suit Editorial Bias.”
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What these numbers seem to be telling us is that if you live five miles from O’Hare you probably think of it as a convenience, and if you live a mile away you probably think of it as a nuisance. Some of us thought we knew that already. And what should we make of the narrow overall majority for expansion? O’Hare’s neighbors might oppose expansion because the noise is bad enough already, and people who live near the proposed Peotone airport might oppose it because they want their own airport built. But nobody else has any obvious reason to object. That 51 percent support across six counties sounds surprisingly low.
In addition to a bigger O’Hare, the Tribune supports a new airport in Peotone. According to its poll, 44 percent of the public favors Peotone too, and public support for expanding O’Hare drops when that’s presented as an alternative to Peotone. By how much it drops, the paper didn’t say. But it told us, “Outside southern Cook County and Will County, most respondents said they think Peotone is too far from most people to succeed as the Chicago area’s third major commercial airport.” The startling news here is that most people who live too far from a Peotone airport to use it don’t think it’s a good idea and most who live near enough to use it do.
Even if you wouldn’t argue with a word of this you might wonder if getting your rocks off in print is the best way of changing this mayor’s mind. To Tom Hardy of Burson-Marsteller, the PR firm that represents the Bears, hyperventilating is pretty much what the Tribune’s been doing. “I don’t recall ever seeing, in the 20 years I was there and nearly five years since I left, what appears to be a coordinated campaign with this kind of volume and ferocity,” says Hardy, who was the Tribune’s political editor for ten years. “They’re really going overboard and becoming a kind of Johnny-one-note on the thing.”
“His supporters used words like ‘compassionate,’ ‘loyal,’ and ‘honorable’ to describe Courtney, 48. They described a family man, a University of Nebraska football fan, a father of five children ages 7 to 22.”
L Buff: “I think the reporter is just trying to give a clear profile of how this (allegedly) poor excuse for a human being is regarded by his friends and neighbors. You know, typical mid-American guy next door type, evidenced by his loyalty to a typical mid-American football team.”
