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SUN-TIMES: BURRIS WON'T RUN IN 2010
It's time to stop the madness of the Red Eye. The Trib is getting more expensive while its circulation shrinks, the Reader has fired its best writers, the Sun-Times is laying off a quarter of its workforce...so guess what? It's time to hold a widely circulated, widely read daily newspaper to a higher standard.
And despite some of your (and our) claims to the contrary, the Red Eye is this paper.
A lot of the time, we're able to give it a pass. We dig the Metromix stuff, are able to quickly take in a bunch of the Trib's main article, and let's face it: sometimes, reading about Jamie-Lynn Spears' pregnancy is all one can really handle while riding the El.
But this? This should not be in a newspaper. It isn't informative, it isn't news, and it isn't even well written. It's mostly just insulting, and we deserve better from a daily paper.
Today's Humpday column (for those of you that don't pick up the Red Eye) is by our pal Dustin J. Siebert, and focuses on the issue of homophobia. [Ed note: Siebert's take on respecting all kind of people would be a lot more credible if he weren't so sexist: he ditched a date for being "thick." He recently learned "Women must be right. Even when all logic and reason dictates otherwise, they must win the debate." And he's very authoritative about what we should do with our bodies, which are, btw, baby-feeding factories: "All women should keep ink away from the cleavage area. Your infants need food, not reading material." Guh.] Siebert wants people to "get over it" and suggests that homophobic religious people consider these two pieces of "inarguable logic" in order to become accepting of GLBT people.
>> There have been no empirical studies I know of linking one person's homosexuality to that of another. In other words, being around gay people won't make you or your impressionable children gay. [Ed note: But even if it did, isn't the point of this story that there's nothing wrong with being gay?]>> What so-called benevolent God would allow gays (many of whom are God-fearing) to exist, only to damn them to hell?
God help us all if our opinions about tolerance are formed from studies that Siebert "knows of." And his idea that a benevolent God wouldn't damn gay people to hell? Is this the same God that allows genocide, child abuse and the CTA to happen? Enough is enough. If we can all agree that the Red Eye is here to stay (and acknowledge that boycotting a free publication isn't a particularly effective way to encourage positive change), then let's put our collective thinking caps on. What would improve the Red Eye for you?
Image via Dustin Seibert's Facebook page.
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From the article:
"It also baffles me to no end that we waste energy talking about same-sex marriage."
REALLY? Because in the very first sentence of your article, you tell us that you devoted a good amount of time and emotion arguing about this with your family. And it would seem to be that the purpose of your very column today is to get people to "waste energy" discussing this.
Dear God, can we make the redeye just go away?
Why should it be any surprise that RedEye would have a columnist like Siebert when they have the equivalent of him--Neil Steinberg--competing for readers in the Sun-Times?
I wouldn't pick up a Red Eye if there was a hundred dollar bill attached to it.
Face it--we don't have a newspaper in Chicago anymore.
At least he's spot on about Wu Tang Clan.
Oh, wait...
I automatically deduct at least 15 IQ points from anyone I see reading the Red Eye.
With that (ahem) newspaper, you get what you pay for.
Wait, let me get this straight ... The Reader fires some of its best writers only to print a review (an incredibly off-base review, by the way) by one of the RedEye's worst "columnists?"
Holy fuck.
That's funny -- because during the short time I was picking up Red Eye, I felt like it was destroying at least twice that.
I stopped picking it up and felt so much better for it.
This is why I only pick up the Red Eye for the crossword.
funny -- the crossword is one of the reasons I stopped picking it up. That crossword is not a challenge at all.
yeh right, lou.. that's like my friend who just gets it for the sudoku.. at least that was his defense when we were rummaging through is bag and found (GASP!) several issues of the red eye.
I can't even insult Red Eye anymore. I'm beginning to suspect it likes the attention.
That's exactly it. Ignoring it is probably the best policy, no matter how spot on Laura is in her post today.
Unfortunately, most people like easy and unchallenged, which is why the Red Eye exists in the fashion that it does, and why, for example, they don't have people such as Zorn and Mo Ryan writing for it, and they have hacks like this guy.
chuck: what, that they ain't nothin to fuck with?
i too started picking it up for the crossword and sometimes sudoku, if i 1. have time left in my trip and 2. feel like it. i know it's not a challenge, but i feel better for working my brain a tiny bit before work (as opposed to actually reading the red eye).
I'm sorry - for God's sake, he uses the word "bequeath." Using expensive vocabulary words in a free newspaper does not make you a better writer, dude. Just a shitty one.
Yeesh. I just now went to read the offending article in its entirety and I just can't read further. He's giving me cramps. Big ones.
And to think what a great newspaper town this once was.
Thank you thank you thank you for writing this. A friend emailed me one of his brilliant essays called "Looks Are Way Underrated" and it sent me into a tizzy, followed by a dark depression. To think that how many thousands of people are ingesting this crap makes me profoundly sad. Good thing it's sunny today.
Thank you thank you thank you for writing this. A friend emailed me one of his brilliant essays called "Looks Are Way Underrated" and it sent me into a tizzy, followed by a dark depression. To think that how many thousands of people are ingesting this crap makes me profoundly sad. Good thing it's sunny today.
The *only* good thing about the Redeye is that the guy who hands them out at the Irving Park (blue line) station in the morning also graciously opens the door and says good morning. He knows better than to try to hand me one of those papers, though.
Newcity is pretty good.
Hey Ska, welcome to Chicagoist bro! I've always only deducted at least ten points from any one I see reading it, but thanks for raising the bar, 20 points it is!
And I like how every one who reads the Stupid Eye lies about the reason why they read it,sudoku/cross work puzzels my A$$
Like "Not_another_username" said "I wouldn't pick up a Red Eye if there was a hundred dollar bill attached to it."
The RedEye: Because USA Today is so opaque and wordy.
It gives us a chuckle when we read that Chicagoist is calling to hold Red Eye to a higher standard.
Remember Chicagoist, just because you give the source of a story a "HotLink" doesn't make you a journalist.
I am not a big fan of some parts of the Red Eye, but what's with all the posturing? Isn't it 80-percent AP articles?
I hate to break it to you, but those are the same articles you read in any newspaper in the entire country.
I love this bit
Gay men always have intrigued me, if for no other reason than getting the perspective of a man who doesn't share my reaction to Halle Berry's topless scene in "Swordfish." So whenever I become acquainted with one, I always pick his brain.
These "gay men" of which you speak, are they from the lands beyond the forest? Do they come from the sky in chariots of fire wearing robes made of the sun? Jesus what a stooge.
Having had straight people talk to me in this "you're a gay, speak for you kind" way I can tell you it's almost as grating as some rampant homophobe claiming that my boyfriend and I are the heralds of the apocalypse. At least the bigots aren't playing at being enlightened.
And I'd take Angela Bassett over Halle Berry in a queer heartbeat.
Simplecreature,
Halle Berry is way hotter. You may be gay but how do you type being blind.
Hey, lay off him.
He's written such hard hitting exposes on how "Once Taboo, Tatoos on Girls are Getting Hot!" (In 2007! What a brave new world we live in!) or "Money and Love Don't Always Mix Well". (Seriously?!)
Bravo, Senor Slapdick, Bravo...
"hate to break it to you, but those are the same articles you read in any newspaper in the entire country."
And you wonder why we have the President we have?
And of course Sir Mind of a Read Eye Reader, it’s not in all News Papers, just the ones more and more people are reading. Enjoy yer self kitten
p.s This morning there was a cute woman on the Ye Old Blue line. I got on with a homeless dude accompanied by his unheartwarming smell and a dirty large sack containing all of his earthly possibles.
Two seats were left, one next to the cutie dressed like a banker, the other next to a grungy woman reading a book. The cute women looked at me with pleading eyes that said please sit next to me so I want have to sit next to the homeless smelly man. I looked, saw a Red –Stupid- Eye in her hands, and passed her right by to set next to the women reading the book, it was The Brothers Karamazov! Right before I got off the train I complemented her on her selection and she smiled.
Boycott The Stupid Eye and shun all who read it!
Am I a bad person for finding Spook's blue line story to be hilarious?
What's with all the Red Eye bashing? And even worse, its readers? I don't have any problem picking up a Red Eye; it's definitely not my only source of news, but it's free and it's short. It does what it's supposed to do. And just as A2 said, the articles are fine, they're all AP stories.
Red Eye just needs to get rid of all their columnists. They're trying to hard, and failing miserably, to be non-fictional Carrie Bradshaws.
Kookybites,
By being amused by the story printed above,
You sir, are clearly not fit to feed pigeons, let alone be honored to let them take respite on your person whilst sitting on a red fire hydrant!
Regards
S
Kookybites,
By being amused by the story printed above,
You sir, are clearly not fit to feed pigeons, let alone be honored to let them take respite on your person whilst sitting on a red fire hydrant!
Regards
S
too hard, I know.
What newspaper doesn't run AP stories?
A2: almost all newspapers run AP stories (and at least all those in major cities). But the AP stories don't make up for the insulting content that isn't AP.