16 Jul 2007 0559H

re: media coverage of the Amy Jacobson story

For those not familiar, for the last week we, the Chicago public, have been deluged by a media frenzy over a story broken by a rival station about a reporter who was caught fraternizing with a person of interest in the disappearance of his wife, ostensibly to land the story, and the frenzy seems to be over her being caught on video over at the house of said person of interest and said person of interest’s sister, at a pool party, with said person of interest’s kids, with her own two young kids in tow, and, as has been reported numerous times now, in a two-piece bikini and a towel for a cover. As a result she was removed. Yet despite all this brouhaha I like to think that Chicago is a town that takes its news seriously, despite the fact that our papers seem to be constantly moving towards tabloidism.

For instance, remember back in 1997 when Jerry Springer was threatened to be brought on at the local NBC TV affiliate as a news commentator which led to the removal of the news director of the station, who, in a stunning reversal, then became general manager of CNN, proving that people fail upwards, only to last 14 months before he was moved on to another part of the company? And that the move to appoint Springer led to that station’s star anchors leaving for saner pastures, essentially gutting the news department, along with derision, ridicule, and ignominy being heaped upon the station?

It is almost too much to take in. But the point is that Chicagoans are outraged when unseemliness creeps its way into their news. For Jacobson, the unseemliness seems to have revolved all too much around the halter top. In a way it reminds me of the story told several months ago about the wacky astronaut who drove hundreds of miles in order to inflict harm on her romantic rival, remember her? And how the story focused primarily upon the adult diapers she was alleged to have worn in order to avoid stopping, she was in such a hurry? So basically it became not the story of astronaut love triangle turns deadly but the crazy lady in a diaper story?

Unfortunately it’s not the kind of unseemliness that Chicagoans should be focusing on. It’s appalling to me that the amount of effort being expended here by the mainstream media and by Chicagoans who fed this frenzy could have been spent on investigating and reporting on our mayor, city council, the byzantine affairs of city government, the debauched state of the county, or the governor, none of whom have attracted the kind of outrage that a pretty blonde in a halter and a towel did this last week.

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