WGN Wears its Bias on its Sleeve
The homepage of WGN Radio features five references to the Chicago Cubs and no references to the World Series champion Chicago White Sox. Its link to sports scores is an image of the Tribune-owned Wrigley Field scoreboard. In its defense, sort of, the Tribune-owned WGN is the radio home of the Tribune-owned Cubs, but WGN is also a leading news station in Chicago and it bills itself as "the Voice of Chicago." Clearly, it's only the voice of half of Chicago.
Last summer we broached this state of affairs with Dave Eanet, WGN's sports director. To his credit, Eanet said WGN tries to be balanced in its reporting and he apologized for those occasions when it drops the ball (apologize is something we've never seen any other Tribune employee do). But seven months later, WGN's web page still reflects a Cubs-only Chicago. Here's what Eanet had to say about that last September:
In fact, WMVP, also known as ESPN 1000, includes the logo of every Chicago team on its homepage, including both the Sox and the Cubs, as they did last year when they carried White Sox broadcasts. Likewise, WSCR, also known as The Score, gives equal billing to each team across the top of its homepage, even though it's the station that carries Sox games this year. These sports stations actually achieve balance and fairness, but WGN, a news station, does not. Since WGN presents itself as a source of journalism, since it claims to be "the Voice of Chicago," it certainly has a greater injunction to be balanced and fair than the sports stations. But any visitor to the WGN homepage would get the impression that there is no Chicago but Wrigleyville, the impression of a Chicago with no World Series champion Chicago White Sox, which is, I'm sure, just the way the Tribune would like Chicago to be. After all, you can't be a monopoly until you erase the competition.
Last summer we broached this state of affairs with Dave Eanet, WGN's sports director. To his credit, Eanet said WGN tries to be balanced in its reporting and he apologized for those occasions when it drops the ball (apologize is something we've never seen any other Tribune employee do). But seven months later, WGN's web page still reflects a Cubs-only Chicago. Here's what Eanet had to say about that last September:
"We ARE partners with the Cubs, just as WMVP is a partner of the Sox (as WSCR will be next year) and WBBM is a partner of the Bears. We promote our broadcasts of Cubs baseball... and the website -- which is not under the direction of our department --is used to promote all WGN programming."
In fact, WMVP, also known as ESPN 1000, includes the logo of every Chicago team on its homepage, including both the Sox and the Cubs, as they did last year when they carried White Sox broadcasts. Likewise, WSCR, also known as The Score, gives equal billing to each team across the top of its homepage, even though it's the station that carries Sox games this year. These sports stations actually achieve balance and fairness, but WGN, a news station, does not. Since WGN presents itself as a source of journalism, since it claims to be "the Voice of Chicago," it certainly has a greater injunction to be balanced and fair than the sports stations. But any visitor to the WGN homepage would get the impression that there is no Chicago but Wrigleyville, the impression of a Chicago with no World Series champion Chicago White Sox, which is, I'm sure, just the way the Tribune would like Chicago to be. After all, you can't be a monopoly until you erase the competition.
Labels: WGN
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