Ray Long, the Chicago Tribune's Political Correspondent, Springfield Bureau, asks on his Facebook page: "Will the opinions of editorial board--which are separate from the straight, down-the-middle news pages--make any difference to you?"Today's Tribune has a front-page editorial, and it is labeled as such. I don't have a problem with newspapers having editorials. But the Tribune has ever since the change in ownership become less like a "straight, down-the-middle" newspaper and more of a crusading newspaper. The balance in the news pages seems to be more fleeting than in years past. I think that this has been a business decision to move its coverage closer to the partial, partisan press seen both in the newspaper industry's past and current news coverage present, and away from impartial, objective coverage that most newspapers in the recent past had striven for. And, I will say, impartiality is what the better newspapers in the country still strive for.
Having an editorial on the front page, however, is a bad idea. And they have done this several times recently. The small label of "Tribune Editorial" at the top doesn't convey the fact that this is something that belongs on an editorial page. It is inside baseball that blurs the line that should be fairly bright when it comes to news coverage and editorial opinion. Coupled with the crusading tone the newspaper has taken, it throws all pretense of objectivity out of the window.
In today's overheated, Fox News "There's One Sides to Every Story" lack of reporting balance, the Tribune would have been better served to work to become a better newspaper, not a crusading one.
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