Tribune Only Sees Trouble to the South

We're not surprised to find William Ligue Jr. back in the Tribune just in time for opening day. When tickets are on sale, the Tribune likes to evoke the illusion of U.S. Cellular Field as a dangerous place and keep the crowds coming to Tribune-owned Wrigley, even though people are raped and murdered more often near Wrigley than near U.S. Cellular. Two people have been murdered after attending Cubs games in the last two years, and that's not counting the corpse found in a Wrigley Field honeyhut with a needle in its arm.

William Ligue is the Tribune's favorite tool for stereotyping Sox fans, even though Ligue also attended a game at Wrigley on the day he attacked Royals coach Tom Gamboa.

But wait, you say, maybe everything a ballpark brawler and his family does is simply newsworthy. Could that be it? If so, you'd expect the Tribune to provide equal coverage of Ronald Camacho, who got into a brawl with a bunch of Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field in 2000. But notice the difference in story counts:

Tribune stories about William Ligue since May 1, 2002: 51.
Tribune stories about Ronald Camacho since May 1, 2000: 4.

Both cases resulted in mutliple court cases and legislative action, yet the Tribune prefers not to cover ugly incidents at Wrigley.

Word to the wise: Even though the Tribune loves to perpetuate the deception that Wrigley is safer than U.S. Cellular, ballpark brawlers are much better off picking their fights at Wrigley, where they can count on the Tribune to cover up their actions. What ever happened to that woman who threw a ball at Jacque Jones' head last year, demonstrating more accuracy and velocity than most of the Cubs' pitching staff? Those crack investigative reporters at the Chicago Tribune couldn't be bothered to cross the hall in the Tribune Tower to find out what that was all about.

Thanks to Cubune Watcher Dan Grillo for the heads up on this report.