{"id":26320,"date":"2020-07-27T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=26320"},"modified":"2020-07-27T07:34:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T12:34:28","slug":"tribune-moving-john-kass-column-maintain-credibility-news-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2020\/07\/27\/tribune-moving-john-kass-column-maintain-credibility-news-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribune moving John Kass column \u2018to maintain credibility of news coverage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Colin McMahon<\/p><\/div>\n

After 23 years as the Chicago Tribune\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0white male conservative standard-bearer, John Kass is about to lose his coveted spot on Page 2 and his status as the newspaper\u2019s \u201clead columnist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colin McMahon, editor-in-chief of the Tribune, today announced plans to reorganize the paper\u2019s columnists and separate their work from the news section.<\/p>\n

Within the next few days the changes will be unveiled in print and online to help readers differentiate between news and opinions, he said. One effect will be to relegate Kass and other columnists farther back in the print edition and label them more clearly as opinion writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose changes speak to our need and desire to be transparent with readers about what we do,\u201d McMahon said. \u201cAnd, I believe, they will help us maintain the credibility of our news coverage with our online audience, our print readers and our communities amid what is by all accounts a raw and hyper-partisan political environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides, as insiders pointed out, the days of the \u201clead columnist\u201d ended at most major newspapers years ago. Now it\u2019s about a range of voices.<\/p>\n

Kass, 64, a 37-year veteran of the Tribune, inherited the high-profile position after the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko in 1997.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

John Kass<\/p><\/div>\n

The moves have been in the works since early March when McMahon replaced <\/a>Bruce Dold as editor-in-chief of the Tribune. But they\u2019re being implemented just days after the Chicago Tribune Guild called out Kass for a column in which he invoked an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory<\/a> and drew the wrath of his co-workers.<\/p>\n

Kass did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

McMahon declined to address the union\u2019s complaint against Kass, but said: \u201cThe Chicago Tribune, like other quality U.S. newspapers, has long prided itself on being home to a robust marketplace of ideas. Readers engage deeply with the Tribune\u2019s editorials, columns, Op-Eds and letters to the editor, and the Tribune has long accepted that people taking issue with or even offense at the opinions expressed goes with the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, the Tribune, like a lot of news media, doesn\u2019t do a very good job of explaining the difference between news coverage and opinion writing.\u00a0That is something we\u2019ve been working to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gathered opinion writing in one place on chicagotribune.com<\/a>, for example. We\u2019ve added explanatory language to editorials by the Editorial Board. We\u2019ve developed a standard for headlines to call out what are opinion columns. And we\u2019ve got more changes coming shortly to our online presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 23 years as the Chicago Tribune\u2019s\u00a0white male conservative standard-bearer, John Kass is about to lose his coveted spot on Page 2 and his status as the newspaper\u2019s \u201clead columnist.\u201d Colin McMahon, editor-in-chief of the Tribune, today announced plans to reorganize the paper\u2019s columnists and separate their work from the news section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26320"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26334,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26320\/revisions\/26334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}