How is everybody doing? It’s been awhile! Hope everybody is having a great weekend and summer.
We’re going to experiment a bit with a new Sunday Six format. No more 600-800 word lead column before the articles. We’ll have a lede topic from the news this past week, but written in a shorter, breezier style that gets readers to the links quicker.
Same variety of stories, just less words to get there.
Sound OK?
Let’s get right to it.
CONVENTION WISDOM
The national press corps descends on Chicago this week for the Democratic National Convention. It’s the party’s first in Chicago since 1996 and much has changed since Bill Clinton was confirmed for the second time 28 years ago.
For one thing, cable news outlets dominate coverage. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the three most watched channels, will broadcast 24/7 starting this weekend. The network’s coverage will be delegated to an hour in primetime and streaming.
Here in Chicago, this week provides more datapoints about the state of local news, how the industry operates. No intelligent discourse on the issues that most residents care about—crime, immigration, inflation—but instead, the convention will get Celebration Day treatment. Don’t expect anything other than glowing, laudatory, self-congratulatory stories, interviews and commentary. Thursday’s podium reveal drew this breathless report from Fox 32. Interviews this week with Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson were nothing more than state-sponsored content disguised as news.
The “Democratic National Convention” might as well be called the “Democratic Press National Convention.”
Television news best serves its audience when its live and topical. The four-day convention provides a ceaseless supply of content. Just know what you’re getting.
Not news but an entertainment product.
THE SIX
*One of the economic benefits of hosting a convention are all the out of town appetites, hungry for a taste of Chicago. So where do conventioneers eat while in Chicago? Where can all those New York-based political consultants or delegates find a slice of deep dish or Italian beef? Chicago Eater provides a comprehensive list.
*the elevation of former teacher/football coach Tim Walz to vice presidential candidate has forced a glut of think pieces on coaching its place in America. The mainstream press is caught in the middle as they reject the conservative values football brings while needing to carry water for Walz. That made me search for a decades old piece from Sports Illustrated (which it used to do these types of deeply reported stories) on a ball coach from Mississippi named “Bull” who didn’t take any crap and believe the best lessons were the hardest ones.
*Missed watching the Paris Olympics this past week. Ratings were a hit this year as Americans needed a patriotic respite from the political climate we are in. The competitions are entertaining, the human interest stories compelling. Here’s one from the BBC about woman who finished in 78th place — but did finish — at the Paris Olympics. The thing about it, though: she did so with a severely injured hip and a stress fracture in her femur.
*many requests for more true crime links. Found this one via USA Today on three girls who survived a horrific attack in 1975. Nearly half a century later, they finally learned the identity of their assailant. But as they found, closing a cold case doesn’t erase the traumas and scars.
*you probably heard this story about a woman who threw her Chipotle burrito bowl at an employee in a fit of rage. In court, the judge offered the woman an unusual deal. He sentenced her to 90 days in prison, but she could shave off 60 days if she would spend that time working in a fast-food restaurant. “Do you want to walk in her shoes, or do you want to do your jail time?” The jury is out on whether such creative sentences work as this fascinating read via Grub Street explains.
*like so many of you, spent several hours in front of the TV this summer watching the Olympics. Just how do these athletes become great? This 11-year old article from Outside argues who there’s a big genetic component. Practice isn't enough, not even the “10,000 hours” popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers, which misstates underlying research — it's an average, not a benchmark. In chess: “It takes 11,053 hours on average to achieve international master status. The range is important. One guy takes 3,000 hours to become a master, another takes 25,000 and he’s still not there.”
PLUS ONE
Finally…last weekend, Metallica played two shows at Soldier Field. We are only a couple of weeks away from the start of the high school and college football seasons. Let’s get the hype train started…
Have a suggestion for The Kerr Report? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.