Posted
10:49 AM
by Gene
The irrelevance of the edi-TOR-ial page: The Tribune has favored the death penalty since at least 1869. When the editorial board came out against it three weeks ago, "the newspaper might have expected a rise out of readers and politicians previously aligned with traditional thinking that favored capital punishment," says Timothy J. McNulty. "There was barely a ripple, a few heartfelt letters to the editor, a few calls, and almost all accepting and welcoming the new attitude."This is what Col. Zell is buying. He's buying a paper that would cease to exist but for whatever classifieds and display ads it has. That so few got excited pro or con about this says nobody reads editorial pages anymore, because like so much of a paper's contents you already know them by heart. Then again no one can take the
Trib seriously because it now walks in lockstep with the rest of the industry (which has NOTHING to do with declining circ -- not a PENNY!), but Col. seems to think if he devises some sort of way of deking out the public he can make big bucks. That's why it won't work: we've been deked out ENOUGH.
As to the death penalty, one can make a good case against it, but a newspaper can't, largely because it's one of those topics on which the hacks have developed an overwhelming superiority complex; and further a paper that endorses Republican presidential candidates out of reluctant habit is doing this solely to be in with the in crowd. It is not doing it out of principle -- but whoever accused a paper run by a "Col." of having principles?