'Chicago Sun-Times' Looks to Redefine Itself as 'Liberal, Working-Class' Paper

by Actual News Geezer | July 10, 2007 at 12:44 pm | 897 views | add comment

The Chicago Sun Times is moving left.

It's gotta be a business decision, not a moral or political one. I say this with due deference to publisher John Cruickshank, who in a past lifetime was a fellow journalist at the Vancouver Sun and Global TV (formerly known as BCTV). I met with John a couple of years ago when I was teaching for a term at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. I'd brought my class to his office on a fieldtrip and he proceeded to shock them with his Fleet Street-style of journalistic realpolitik.

John is nothing if not a pragmatic journalist.

CHICAGO The Chicago Sun-Times is turning left.

The tabloid that shifted toward political conservatism under the brief ownership of Rupert Murdoch more than two decades ago now says that it is "rethinking our stance on several issues, including the most pressing issue facing Americans today: Bush's war in Iraq."

Under marching orders from Publisher John Cruickshank and Editor in Chief Michael Cooke, new Editorial Page Editor Cheryl L. Reed introduced a new Commentary section Tuesday with a promise to turn the tabloid back into the liberal-leaning paper it was for decades before the Reagan administration.