Criminally Bad Chicago Crime Journalism

On today’s how we discuss three examples of media coverage of crime and violence in Chicago that perfectly demonstrate just how bad the coverage of these issues is in Chicago. There is little doubt that the tried and true methods of covering crime and violence in Chicago on a daily basis serves nobody’s interest but the outlets and journalists’ themselves.

The internet has served not as an empowering tool for the media to crime and violence in a more nuanced and thoughtful way without the space and time restrictions that printing deadline or nightly newscasts put on local journalists. Instead it has mostly served to increase space available for the same horrible reporting. The secondary problem the internet has allowed for is the ever increasing pressure from political operations that disguise themselves as media outlets and push “reporting” that serves a fringe political ideology. Unfortunately for Chicago, there too many fringe political operations that put pressure on local media to report the news inline with their political ideology.

All of this leads us to the three media stories we we discuss on today’s show:

68 bullets fired in Near North shootout, but man accused of taking part only faces misdemeanor after prosecutors reject felony charges

All three are horrific in their own way. Sometimes it is heard to figure out if a report on crime and violence in Chicago in Chicago is from a mainstream outlet or one of the fringe political operations if you read them without knowing what outlet it was coming from. Crime and violence reporting has always been an issues in Chicago unfortunately the internet has not brought about a boom in meaningful and thoughtful coverage of these issues.

Tracy has nearly two decades of experience researching and working within criminal justice systems. When Tracy began pursuing a career dedicate to system reform, he found that no single organization existed to promote evidence-based discussions among law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Recognizing that citizens in Chicago deserved the right to demand transparency in their criminal justice system, Siska established the Chicago Justice Project. He received his Master of Arts degree in Criminal Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Chicago Justice Podcast

This is our Chicago Justice Podcast that covers crime, violence, and justice issues in Chicago. We will feature deep dives in to justice system data, interview with researchers and justice system reform advocates, as well as evaluations of justice system practices.

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