Category: national
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Criticizing the Critics
I had concerns about the Chicago Sun-Times even before its most recent AI-related fiasco. The newspaper seems to have diminished in quality and quantity since I started subscribing. More recently, it seems to be moving away from the opinion business. This shift seems more than refraining from candidate endorsements as is reportedly required of nonprofits.…
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Reality TV and Me
I recently finished Emily Nussbaum’s (2024) second book — Cue the Sun! — for a book club. Others have considered this book to be an accessible account of the “fusion of authenticity and contrivance” in reality television (Stowell 2024) and the narrativizing and gamifying of its starts (Cunningham 2024). As such, this oral history both…
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Hands Off and On
To My Elected Officials and Other Members of Congress: I was one of thousands in Chicago, and millions across the country, who spent Saturday afternoon sending a message. This message to the Trump administration was that we’ve already had enough, and that we’re prepared to stand for the preservation of our political principles and values.…