Is the Chicago Tribune Doing Journalism Right in the Trump Sanewashing Era?
The headlines from this once arch conservative newspaper are not what you'd expect
Since Mad Clown 2.0 began in January, a surprising new entry has joined the world of resistance journalism: The Chicago Tribune.
After I left my hometown of Chicago for California more than thirty years ago, a part of me never left. One of the side effects is that, after all these years, I find myself retrieving headlines about Chicago in my newsfeeds. The primary source is still The Chicago Tribune, which for decades was considered the paper of record for the city.1
When I was growing up, then later in my young adulthood, peeling open the thick Sunday Tribune was a cherished ritual. Battles for the comics and sports sections were big parts of growing up in my family.
Readers knew that the paper was on the tail end of the McCormick years, when someone fondly known among Republicans as Colonel McCormick2 ran the newspaper and wasn’t shy about making his political leanings known.
Colonel McCormick was Robert R. McCormick, who founded Kirkland & Ellis, which became an influential Chicago law firm.
McCormick was a Goldwater Republican: Staunchly conservative, anti-communist, almost to the point of McCarthyism.
Nevertheless, the conservative newspaper became a practitioner of reasonably objective journalism, something that has largely disappeared from the American news scene. McCormick’s views were mostly expressed through editorials instead of editorialism, which my favorite journalism professor from more than 40 years ago warned us about regularly during our journalism lab sessions.
Editorialism can be loosely defined as commenting on current events while reporting on them. It can be direct, like Fox News, or more subtle.
Editorialism can be reflected in headlines, too. The New York Times has become so infamous for it that there’s a mega popular Twitter and BlueSky account called NY Times Pitchbot, which calls out the New York Times frequently for its poor headline choices.
Before I knew about Pitchbot, I wrote several articles hammering the New York Times for its sanewashing, a term that describes the normalization of Trump’s insanity, such as this one:
But here’s a fantasy check on objective journalism: It was practiced for only a few short years in between what in America has mostly been a freewheeling muckraker style of reporting.
One consistently reliable aspect of the American body politic, though, has been the existence of an opposition press, a “Fourth Estate,” to help keep government excesses in check.
This has changed since Trump entered the scene.
Everyone knows that the mass media have offered almost no real opposition to Trump.
I guess it’s fair to say that when I say mass media, I mean the major news outlets.
There is opposition, but it mostly circulates around independent blogs and a few lower circulation publications like The Atlantic, Teen Vogue (!), and old standbys like Rolling Stone and Mother Jones.
But since 2016, newspapers have normalized what most reasoned people see as a crazy man.
This brings me to the evidence behind my claim that the Tribune has become an exception to the rule.3
A Survey of Typical Chicago Tribune Headlines
Let’s look at a few of their recent headlines to see what I mean.
Mayor Brandon Johnson to Labor Day crowd: ‘No federal troops in the city of Chicago!’4
I’m not sure the McCormick Tribune would have run this story at all. The headline writers chose to include an exclamation mark in Chicago Mayor’s proclamation that federal troops were not welcome in the city.
A publication can also “editorialize’ through the graphics they include in a story. In this case, a clear protest sign made by a resistance fighter is shown in the photograph.
The New York Times would probably have issued a headline like this:
“Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson voices opposition to Trump’s answer to Chicago’s crime problem.”
A slight change in wording changes the entire vibe of the story.
The Tribune’s lead paragraphs looked like this:
As President Donald Trump mulls sending the National Guard to Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered a defiant message to the White House at a spirited Labor Day rally Monday.
“No federal troops in the city of Chicago! No militarized force in the city of Chicago!” Johnson said in a short speech, delivered steps from the Haymarket Memorial, at the site of the 1886 labor rally and bombing.
The McCormick Tribune would have started with a lede like this:
“As President Donald Trump mulls sending the National Guard to Chicago in answer to Chicago’s soaring crime problem, an unpopular Mayor Brandon Johnson expressed opposition to improved federal security measures.”
See how editorializing works in a news story? A little word massage, and voilà!
This Northwestern professor fled the US under Trump. He hasn’t looked back.5
I won’t claim that The New York Times wouldn’t run a story like this. They do it all the time. The New York Times appears to be a newsroom in conflict. We see lots of good, well-researched investigative stories mixed in with sanewashing.
But a story like this, although not unheard of during previous iterations of The Chicago Tribune, would have been rare. Now, I see these kinds of things every day, often multiple times.
President Trump’s takeover of Washington, D.C., offers insights on what could be in store for Chicago6
This one speaks for itself. “Takeover?” Is this really the Chicago Tribune?
And, once again, the photo editor shines her/his light on the story by focusing on resistance protest signs.
As Chicago continues to make gains on crime, many see potential for damage in National Guard threat7
This headline comes from the McCormick Tribune’s “Unpossible” files because it’s impossible to imagine the Tribune I grew up with creating a headline like this.
It’s possible that you would have seen the second part of the headline, but the first part, “As Chicago continues to make gains on crime” leading into the second part of the headline? Not a chance.
This is not to suggest that the Tribune would not have run a story on lower crime rates. But the stories would have run separately, and they never would have included it in the context of a conservative government’s attempts to bring in the National Guard.
ICE arrests increase across Chicago under Trump, many with no convictions, data shows8
Another story that is difficult to imagine from the older, more conservative Tribune.
In the wake of SNAP cuts, feeding hungry Illinoisans falls more than ever on food pantries9
Another context decision by headline writers, who chose to lead off with “SNAP cuts.”
I might have shown poor white folks in Chicago (there are plenty of them) at a food pantry instead of Black folks because of stereotyping. Old habits die hard. A tip to Tribune photo assignment editor: Find a church food pantry on the West Side along Damen Avenue next time, maybe?
Fun fact: The South Side of Chicago is home to a thriving Black middle class, but the mass media depicts it as a war zone.
Progress, not perfection, I guess.
Nuclear plant deal sets stage for AI billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg to reshape Illinois energy policy10
Woah, dudes. That was a masterclass in headline editorializing.
And I love it.
Skeptical aldermen urge Chicago police to not work with ICE on Trump deportations11
I remember when those skeptical alderman would have received no print space from Tribune editors, and the cops would have high-fived the ICEstapo stormtroopers. The skull bashing during the 1968 Democratic Convention didn’t happen in a vacuum.
Two people detained on Father’s Day at Broadview immigration center12
The initial paragraphs led by a powerful lede say it all:
Natalia Cardenas, 28, cried on Father’s Day.
The Cardenas family arrived in Chicago from Colombia three years ago and believed Jose Manuel, 49, was reporting for a routine appointment as part of the asylum process — a form of protection for people fleeing danger in their home countries. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Cardenas’ father. After that, their calls to him stopped going through.
“We don’t know where he is … whether he’s OK,” Cardenas said in tears, in front of an immigration processing center in Broadview after watching her dad go inside.
The newspaper sends frequent newsletters on immigration upates. None of them are slanted in favor of the regime.
They’re here. They’re queer. They’re farming. New generation of LGBTQ farmers more visible and vocal.13
Stepping away from Trump a bit, this story would have been considered “unnecessary” by many previous iterations of the Tribune (depending on the editor at the time).
You would expect that in the face of Mad Clown 2.0’s threats against anyone portraying the LGBTQ+ community in a positive light, The Tribune would back down.
The opposite has occurred.
Other recent headlines related to the LGBTQ+ community:
Amid celebration, Pride Parade calls for resistance to federal incursions on LGBTQ+ rights
The struggle that produced Pride
‘What are they hiding?’: Illinois Democrats denied entry into ICE processing center in visit Wednesday14
Leading the headline with “What are they hiding?” is another win for the headline writers. It would have been simple enough to write, “Illinois Democrats denied entry into ICE processing center in visit Wednesday.” A lot of newspaper sites would have. Instead, the Tribune led off with a quote from one of the resisters.
Damaging, golf ball-size hail will fall more frequently because of climate change, Illinois researchers warn15
Climate change doesn’t escape the eye of the Tribune’s editors, either. It would be easy enough to soft-pedal this. The construction of the sentence suggests that the headline writers chose not to. It is so easy to change the headline to make it more comfortable for energy CEOs. Watch:
Damaging, golf ball-size hail will might fall more frequently because of climate change, Illinois researchers warn
See how easy that was? It happens all the time. Nobody notices these subtle changes, so the underlying cause of worsening storms gets hidden from view.
Nicor Gas seeks record $309 million delivery rate hike16
There’s nothing special about this headline besides the alarming fact that Illinois’ largest natural gas utility wants to raise its rates by 20%. Brrr. Cold of them.
Sometimes the subtlety of editorial slant can’t be found until you read a news story’s opening paragraphs.
The part that caught my eye was the lead paragraph (also known as the “lede” in journo-speak):
As President-elect Donald Trump extolled the virtues of natural gas during a post-certification speech Tuesday, details emerged about a proposed $309 million Nicor Gas rate increase that seeks to raise delivery charges for Chicago-area customers by more than 20% next year.
From a pure news standpoint, it would have been sufficient to write: “Details emerged today about a proposed $309 million Nicor Gas rate increase that seeks to raise delivery charges for Chicago-area customers by more than 20% next year.”
Context is important here. Leading with Trump extolling the virtues of natural gas and dumping it into the headline is deliciously unnecessary.
I approve.
The Smallest of Small Sample Sizes
What I listed here is just a taste of The Chicago Tribune’s change of direction. It’s not an inexpensive subscription, though. It costs $30+ per month. That’s my full budget for this kind of thing, so I rotate my subscriptions. I’ll subscribe to the Tribune for a few months, then maybe Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, then maybe another publication.
Why the change in tone?
One obvious answer is that the paper is reflecting the city it covers. But there’s no rule that newspapers should reflect the city they cover, especially when a conservative ownership group controls the publication. It certainly didn’t reflect the city’s population under Colonel McCormick.
The current iteration of The Chicago Tribune, under Executive Editor Mitch Pugh, is owned by Alden Global Capital,17 which also owns the Denver Post, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Boston Herald, the San Jose Mercury News, the East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, California), the Orange County Register, and the Orlando Sentinel.
When Alden took over, I expected them to do what all private equity firms do when they purchase media properties: Continue the path started by another private equity dude, Sam Zell, and finish destroying the paper.
Under Zell, the paper withered to a husk of its former self.
Under Mitch Pugh, it seems to be thriving.
Let’s honor our heroes.
Say hi to everyone, Mitch:
Subscriptions to the Tribune aren’t cheap, but you can get access to a lot of what they write about by subscribing to my Substack here at Ruminato. Researching the political landscape is not free. If you have a few pennies to burn, I hope you’ll consider sending them my way so I can keep researching for you and making dumb jokes about our current affairs sometimes.
Or…
Notes
All screenshots are derived from the Chicago Tribune website. Fair use claimed.
Hot tip: Many paywalls can be defeated by turning off your browser’s JavaScript. Most of the Gannet papers (USA Today, Austin American-Statesman, for example) fall into that category. The Wall Street Journal (for example) does not, because they handle their paywall on the server, which means they only deliver a story to you if they know you are a paying customer.
I prefer to support publications that I feel are useful, but I’m not unwilling to turn off my JavaScript in a pinch. There’s nothing illegal about it, because all you’re doing is revealing what you’d see on a browser that doesn’t support JavaScript. The pubs are sending you the information. It’s up to them to paywall correctly on the server side if they’re concerned about stories being read for free.
It’s possible that Colonel McCormick, being a traditional conservative, would be a Never Trumper these days, and the Chicago Tribune would relentlessly attack the regime. But we don’t really see a lot of that. There are conservative voices in opposition to the regime, but most uber-wealthy conservatives are enablers of the growing fascist threat.
For the history of the Tribune:
https://graphics.chicagotribune.com/tribune-publishing-ownership-saga/blurb.html
Footnotes
It’s chief competitors were the more liberal-minded Chicago Daily News and its sister publication (later on), The Chicago Sun-Times.
Contributors. 2004. “American Lawyer, Army Officer & Newspaper Owner (1880–1955).” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. November 2004. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._McCormick.
They don’t call him crazy (yet), but they do frequently call him out.
Pratt, Gregory Royal. 2025. “Mayor Brandon Johnson to Labor Day Crowd: ‘No Federal Troops in the City of Chicago!’” Chicago Tribune. September 2025.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/01/mayor-brandon-johnson-labor-day-no-federal-troops-chicago/
Armanini, Kate. 2025. “This Northwestern Professor Fled the US under Trump. He Hasn’t Looked Back.” Chicago Tribune. September 2, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/02/northwestern-university-professor-flees-chicago/
Vock, Daniel C. 2025. “President Trump’s Takeover of Washington, D.C., Offers Insights on What Could Be in Store for Chicago.” Chicago Tribune. August 31, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/31/trump-dc-takeover-chicago/
Kubzansky, Caroline, and Sam Charles. 2025. “As Chicago Continues to Make Gains on Crime, Many See Potential for Damage in National Guard Threat.” Chicago Tribune. August 27, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/27/national-guard-chicago-crime/
Mahr, Joe, and Nell Salzman. 2025. “ICE Arrests Increase across Chicago under Trump, Many with No Convictions, Data Shows.” Chicago Tribune. July 21, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/21/ice-arrests-increase-across-chicago-under-trump-many-with-no-convictions-data-shows/
Levenson, Sophie. 2025. “In the Wake of SNAP Cuts, Feeding Hungry Illinoisans Falls More than Ever on Food Pantries.” Chicago Tribune. July 20, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/20/in-the-wake-of-snap-cuts-feeding-hungry-illinoisans-falls-more-than-ever-on-food-pantries
Lippert, John. 2025. “Nuclear Plant Deal Sets Stage for AI Billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg to Reshape Illinois Energy Policy.” Chicago Tribune. July 8, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/08/clinton-meta-nuclear-plant-data-center/
Sheridan, Jake, and Nell Salzman. 2025. “Skeptical Aldermen Urge Chicago Police to Not Work with ICE on Trump Deportations.” Chicago Tribune. July 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/01/aldermen-chicago-police-ice-trump-deportations/
Stein, Carolyn, and Nell Salzman. 2025. “Two People Detained on Father’s Day at Broadview Immigration Center.” Chicago Tribune. June 15, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/15/immigration-detainees-fathers-day-broadview/
Schoenberg, Nara. 2025. “They’re Here. They’re Queer. They’re Farming. New Generation of LGBTQ Farmers More Visible and Vocal.” Chicago Tribune. August 4, 2025.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/04/illinois-queer-farmers-lgbtq/
Presa, Laura Rodríguez. 2025. “‘What Are They Hiding?’: Illinois Democrats Denied Entry into ICE Processing Center in Visit Wednesday.” Chicago Tribune. June 18, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/18/illinois-democrats-immigration-advocates-denied-entry-into-ice-processing-center-in-visit-wednesday/
Pérez, Adriana. 2025. “Damaging, Golf Ball-Size Hail Will Fall More Frequently because of Climate Change, Illinois Researchers Warn.” Chicago Tribune. July 28, 2025. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/28/damaging-golf-ball-size-hail-will-fall-more-frequently-because-of-climate-change-illinois-researchers-warn/
Channick, Robert. 2025. “Nicor Gas Seeks Record $309 Million Delivery Rate Hike.” Chicago Tribune. January 8, 2025.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/07/nicor-gas-record-rate-increase/
Contributors. 2018. “American Hedge Fund.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. April 12, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alden_Global_Capital.
Hi Mitch! 👋👋
Charles, I remember when I lived downstate, we would get our Trib and relish it over morning coffee. But then, they stopped home delivery and that was it. I read online but there’s nothing like dirty fingers from newsprint.
I remember John Kass and wondered what happened to him. I’m sorry I found out. Johnkassnews.com
His recent piece is pretty ugly.
Appreciate this column… my crazy dad was a newspaper man and he taught me quite a bit. He would agree with you. 👍🏻