Remember When...?
- A fire broke out Friday afternoon at a rib restaurant on the city’s West Side.
The blaze started around 12:15 p.m. at a rib restaurant in the 4800 block of West Division Street, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Will Knight.
Gus’ Barbeque is located at 4817 W. Division St. It is between an alley and a vacant lot, as seen on the most recent Google map.
Flames could be seen shooting from the restaurant, according to Police News Affairs Officer Michael Fitzpatrick.
According to a Google map? According to a News Affairs officer? No stringers with cameras. No video of the fire. No neighborhood story that this was a family friendly joint where everyone met their future husband or wife. Just a couple of sterile quotes and a Google map. No wonder the media is dying.
Labels: media
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
26 Comments:
Used to see stringers all over the place on even routine accidents and such, now... nothing. Don't know if it's lack of interest or the newsies stopped paying or what.
Hey, it's virtually like being there, don't you virtually know?
Sounds like some twelve year old wrote that 'article'. A twelve year old who should be mortally embarrassed and never darken the door of a media outlet ever again.
The media's not paying the reporters any money to go to a site and film. And chances are pretty good that they pay little to nothing for an independent article.
Money is a large part of why the media sucks so bad. The Internet is the other part.
Chicago has always been a great news city. The old City News Agency was where any serious apprentice reporter wanted to work and cut their teeth in the investigative reporting business. Back in the day, there used to be one or two of them hovering around many a district desk trying to sniff out stories. Often you'd see them on the phones burning up the wires looking for info on the latest crime or shooting or anything worth following up on.
Sometimes we'd feed them some info or a tip and they'd follow it up, looking for additional leads for hours. There was a lot more trust and respect between us and them back then.
Once they started cutting their budget, we'd only see them at the station for major heater cases. Other than that they only pestered us by phone, calling the district desks a couple times a shift. Once they shut down City News, there was little attempt to find or train any REAL reporters and that brings us to where we are today. How sad for this once respected profession.
I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here, SCC.
Would you rather have some intrepid reporter relaying the story from the front lines? Complete with the usual mouth-breathing savages in the background flashing CIVL signs as they grab their dicks and shout incomprehensible drivel?
Even the handpicked dolt that makes the entertainingly ignorant, nonsensical remark: "I's was jus comin out da ressurant wit sum tips wit mild sauce when it blowed up" wears thin.
Why perpetuate ghetto ignorance via media glamorization? Society's already saturated with the mindless lifestyles these bastards live. The less of these assholes that impressionable minds see, the better.
Google map and News Affairs officer vs. Malt Liquor-soaked Pookie and brain dead cohorts?
No contest.
Be careful SCC,
scuttling the media will ONLY result in more "journalist" majors applying for the position of patrol officer after being jobless
That place was a nasty rathole, I wouldn't eat there if you paid me. This wasnt Carsons west side ribs by a long shot
Yes, I Remember When...
Many years ago, when I was a much younger man and gas was cheap I used to do just that to make a few bucks.
My career goals were to be a firefighter, a newspaper photographer or the dream job of shooting for LIFE or National Geographic.
Many nights I would be awakened by the scanner radio by my bed listening for the siren blast of an engine company calling for a "still-and-box alarm" over the Fire Main frequency. If it sounded interesting and not too far away I had my gear ready to go and I'd be out the door in a few minutes.
I knew the city pretty well and I could get almost anywhere quickly. When I got close, I always got a sense of urgency from the smell of the smoke and the rumble of the diesel engines and screeching of the saws. I knew firefighters from all over the city then and they accepted me as a friend.
I would shoot my black and white film and get enough information for a caption or even a few short paragraphs. I would find a payphone and call the City Desks of what were Chicago's evening newspapers, the Daily News and the Chicago Today and let them know what I had. One would always be interested and I would race downtown and in the eerie pre-dawn darkness have all of Michigan Avenue to myself. I knew the little passages and gangways between the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower and I got to be known there. They would let me hand process my 35 mm film and make contact sheets. If they liked them the photo would be in the evening edition and I always liked seeing my name under it.
Never made a lot of money doing that, didn't become a firefighter, or travel the world for LIFE or National Geographic. I became a Chicago Cop, did pretty well after all.
I say good riddance to the media. But seriously, are they not even trying anymore?
The new buzz phrase is "doing more with less" in every office, business and corporation. You didn't know? Why wouldn't it apply to the news media.
Is it just me or are there new names added to the "Accordong to" Police & Fire News affairs? Thought we needed boots on the ground? Are these Units getting bigger or just replacing them with former CAPS Clout?
Well if it weren't for Google Maps, these mouse mice would never even seen 015 (or 025) District.
Nice work Scoop. As for the rest of you, go out and find someone to lock up, nothing to see here.
What a shame.
There is no money to be made in news. There never really was. A lot of people look back on 20 or 30 or 50 years ago and idolize the reporters of the time, but the stories that got printed were not any more accurate in general than what you see today. They were just slanted differently, maybe in a way most of us prefer, but still slanted.
The City News Bureau, where real reporters were made, is long gone. And so is hournalism in this city.
I use to tell the cub reporters at "City News" to get out in the field and meet the Detectives on the street or at the Area and a delivered pizza would always break the ice and maybe get a scoop. Not many listened but those that did got the story. Hello "Rose".
They don't make reporters like "Bulldog" Drummond or "Casey" from the old Sun-Times.
Move along, no violence, nothing to see, keep moving.
Used to like the City News Stringers, used to walk up to them whenever there was a crowd all secret like and look away and talk out of the side of my mouth and tell them "This shithead who owed me a favor, just told me that you were going to be jumped after we left". and then I'd watch their reaction. Your not in Evanston no more sonny boy.
All the years I worked in 015, I never ate there one fucking time. Didn't care for asscrack spit food.
That was a pretty pathetic article.
"Just a couple of sterile quotes and a Google map. No wonder the media is dying."
...with WBBM radio broadcasting a story of some horrible crime, then telling you to "go to our web site if you want a description of the offender."
Years ago, they broadcast a crime story, and I didn't quite catch the name but thought it sounded familiar.
I phoned the station thirty seconds later, got the announcer who had just finished reading the story, and asked "What was the name in that story you just ran about blah-blah-blah?"
The guy refused to tell me. "Uh, well, uh, you'd have to call the police department or something."
I said "You mean to tell me you just put that public information out over ten states with 50,000 watts, but you can't say it to me?"
He couldn't explain, and got more scared. I hung up.
Once we had a train wreck with 45 people killed, and I think it took them half the day to find out about it and longer to decide what to do.
I tried giving them a news tip once during the 105-degree 1995 killer heat wave, about whole blocks on the north side that had NO RUNNING WATER in the residences for drinking or to cool off, while idiots were running the last of it out onto their lawns with sprinklers -- no pressure on the hydrants in case of a fire.
I had hoped that they'd put the story out and ask people to stop sprinkling and washing cars during this disaster, but I couldn't make them understand me. All they could say was "Uh, you really, you need to get to, like, a cool place or something?"
They always have been screwballs.
Now they all have computers, and little things clipped to their ears -- and you get even less information.
It's too weird.
"Would you rather have some intrepid reporter relaying the story from the front lines? Complete with the usual mouth-breathing savages in the background flashing CIVL signs as they grab their dicks and shout incomprehensible drivel?"
--4/09/2011 12:54:00 AM
Actually, yes. The more, the better. I want the Billiken Parade covered from start to finish, with cameras on the crowd most of the time.
You know it. I know it. The man clutching his genitalia and shouting knows it.
...but it embarasses the people in Highland Park and Glen Ellyn who helped engineer it.
Never made a lot of money doing that, didn't become a firefighter, or travel the world for LIFE or National Geographic. I became a Chicago Cop, did pretty well after all.
4/09/2011 02:06:00 AM
We may have found our media mole.... I will give you plenty of good news to cover. This summer will be epic!
"Used to see stringers all over the place on even routine accidents and such, now... nothing. Don't know if it's lack of interest or the newsies stopped paying or what."
--4/09/2011 12:19:00 AM
A good reporter can get a really interesting story out of almost anything. Today, another 15 people shot, they toss it over their shoulder, suck a Zero soda, play a video game for a minute, yawn, call home to ask what kind of pizza to bring back...
That "killer instinct" for a story is simply gone. I mean, like, there's already 20 pictures people put up on Flickr, why even breathe anymore...
013th District Copper said...
That was a pretty pathetic article.
4/09/2011 09:37:00 AM
HELLLOOOOO!
That was the WHOLE POINT of this post.
DUH!
The new buzz phrase is "doing more with less" in every office, business and corporation. You didn't know? Why wouldn't it apply to the news media.
4/09/2011 07:15:00 AM
repeat that buzz phrase to my wife.
I believe City News was funded by the other media outlets and, as they started going out of business, the financial burden increased for the remaining ones. Eventually they were unwilling to fund the agency and it closed.
As was stated earlier though, there simply is little or no profit in running a news outlet anymore... Well, except for the million$ you can make running a blog on the second largest police department in the nation!
>>>CHALKIE said...
Never made a lot of money doing that, didn't become a firefighter, or travel the world for LIFE or National Geographic. I became a Chicago Cop, did pretty well after all.
4/09/2011 02:06:00 AM
We may have found our media mole.... I will give you plenty of good news to cover. This summer will be epic!
4/09/2011 02:15:00 PM<<<
If you are thinking it is me you are wrong. Prehaps I should say DEAD WRONG. I work midnights on the West Side and the people I work with know what I used to do.
You are right about this summer, it will be epic, and bloody. I have told the people I work with many times don't do anything stupid, like shoot cell phone photos of crime scenes and suspects and send them out.
Stay safe, don't get your name in the papers for the wrong reasons.
Who the HELL CARES. The Media only printed what they needed to sell papers. They would never really tell you the truth only part of the story to get you to read on. GOOD Riddens. If they closed down I wouldn't give two F--ks.
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