Where Have All the Reporters Gone?

Oct. 26 was a day that the dreams of millions came true. Paul Konerko caught Juan Uribe's throw and 88 years of waiting came to an end. Across the South Side of Chicago, thousands of people poured into the streets. On South Halsted, the street swelled with cars honking and pedestrians cheering, waving flags, banging pots, setting off fireworks. They were white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and they were, for those blissful hours, united. I know. I was there. And callers to radio talk shows reported similar scenes on Western Avenue and Kedzie. But where were the cameras? Where were the notebooks? Where were the news helicopters? Nowhere to be seen.

Chicago's establisment media focused on the ballpark at 35th and Shields and on Jimbo's across the park. There were thousands celebrating there, too, but police had limited the size of the crowd by sealing off the area for miles around. Police had closed all the offramps on the Dan Ryan, from the Eisenhower Expressway to 47th Street. They closed all Bridgeport streets for several blocks around the ballpark. No one could get into Bridgeport except on foot. So our city's media witnessed only the severely confined celebration at the ballpark, and they missed the celebration that erupted across the South Side.

This wasn't just a baseball story, this was a civil rights story. When in the history of Chicago have people of all colors joined together on the streets of the South Side to peacefully celebrate a common victory? I'm going to say never. It would have been grand if our media saw fit to document the event. In their defense, they didn't know where to look. Most of them had never been down here before.