WTTW: Windows Turned Toward Wrigley
In return for a $150 donation, WTTW is offering donors a Harry Caray documentary, an audio CD of Harry's memorable calls, and a book titled "For Cubs Fans Only." Half of Chicago wouldn't touch that offer with a skunk pole.
Harry Caray was an announcer for the Chicago White Sox from 1971-1981. For all the kids growing up in Chicago during that decade, he was the voice of the White Sox. Harry Caray led Sox fans in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the Seventh Inning Stretch at Comiskey Park long before he ever reprised that performance for Cubs fans. The fact that Harry became more visible in the local media after he became a Tribune employee does not mean that he was more important to Cubs fans than he had been to Sox fans. It does not mean that he became more important to Chicago as a Cubs announcer than he had been as a Sox announcer. It just means that he benefitted from the Tribune's practice of self-promotion. Both WTTW and the documentary they aired tonight treat Harry's decade with the White Sox as if it doesn't matter. By extension, they treat Sox fans like we don't matter either.
We're used to that, but we're not sure why it happens. I mean, we know why the Tribune promotes the Cubs culture at the expense of everyone else in this diverse city -- as Nelson Algren observed a half century ago, the Tribune distorts reality to promote its own interests -- but we're not sure why competing media and independent media so often follow the Tribune like obedient little lemmings.
Harry Caray was an announcer for the Chicago White Sox from 1971-1981. For all the kids growing up in Chicago during that decade, he was the voice of the White Sox. Harry Caray led Sox fans in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the Seventh Inning Stretch at Comiskey Park long before he ever reprised that performance for Cubs fans. The fact that Harry became more visible in the local media after he became a Tribune employee does not mean that he was more important to Cubs fans than he had been to Sox fans. It does not mean that he became more important to Chicago as a Cubs announcer than he had been as a Sox announcer. It just means that he benefitted from the Tribune's practice of self-promotion. Both WTTW and the documentary they aired tonight treat Harry's decade with the White Sox as if it doesn't matter. By extension, they treat Sox fans like we don't matter either.
We're used to that, but we're not sure why it happens. I mean, we know why the Tribune promotes the Cubs culture at the expense of everyone else in this diverse city -- as Nelson Algren observed a half century ago, the Tribune distorts reality to promote its own interests -- but we're not sure why competing media and independent media so often follow the Tribune like obedient little lemmings.
Labels: WTTW
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