A Tribute in Honor of:
Alderman Joe Moore
- Influencing the Owner of Windy City Times?!
Chicago's 49th Ward MudZappers
OBVIOUS SMEAR CAMPAIGN THROWS SHADOWS ON THE CREDIBILITY OF WINDY CITY TIMES
 - ARE BAIM'S OBJECTIVITY AND FAIRNESS ON A LONG SABBATICAL, OR WAS IT MERELY A SLOW NEWS DAY?


   Clear-sightedness and good judgment seem be difficult for Tracy Baim to maintain. 

   In March of 2000, she published what would appear to be a biased appraisal of the (then) candidates for Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, pushing (then Alderman of the 49th Ward, not the incumbent Clerk) Joe Moore as the favorite:

Outlines, The Voice of Chicago's Gay and Lesbian Community, March 15, 2000 -
ELECTION GUIDE* - Cook County Races Include Pro Gay Alderman

by Tracy Baim

[Excerpt:]

"The most high profile race seems to be for Clerk of the Circuit Court, a post vacated by Aurelia Pucinski (who changed from Dem to Republican). Chicago Ald. Joe Moore, with a long history of voting for gay rights issues, is facing several challengers."

   FYI, Joe Moore placed dead last in that race, and made a political laughing-stock of himself in the process.

   Some time before Rodde went under, Tracy Baim asked [the board of] Rodde to provide space for her paper in their offices. Since Rodde was committed to non-profits and Baim's paper was a commercial venture, she was turned down.  Her request, of course, was made while Harrington sat as the Rodde Board President - the rest is apparently non-history to Baim, because nothing (NOTHING) in the years since seems to have impacted on Baim's fantastic assessment of the Rodde demise.

   On October 2nd, 2002, the all-in-one Windy City Times (WCT) owner/reporter/editor/pro-Joe-Moore-witch-hunter-for-hire, Tracy Baim, launched an unimaginative smear campaign against former Rodde Board President, Michael J. Harrington. The WCT smear campaign, in the form of one (or three, depending on how much content you choose not to re-read) article(s) in the same issue of WCT, was marked by an extremely narrow scope, dubious issue origins and suspicious reporting methodologies. After days of preparation and re-clarification, many pointed and biased questions and a precious few answers were finally provided in the poisoned outpourings of a self-plagiarizing Baim. That day, 10/2/2002, Michael J. Harrington, candidate for Alderman of Chicago's 49th Ward, went under her guns not once, not twice, but three times in one pointed issue of the Windy City Times.  She might as well have printed a headline: HARRINGTION KILLED RODDE.  It really must have been a slow news day (week!).

The Feb. 8, 1990 Windy City Times article (Rodde Center Sold for $540,000) seems to be the historical source for the Dollar by Dollar report in the October 2nd, 2002, Windy City Times.  Funny, but that went down long before Harrington was asked to step in as President of the Board.

Dollar by Dollar: The Tragic End of Chicago’s 1st Major Gay Center - Windy City Times (10/2/2002)

Harrington Seeks Aldermanic Post. Past Controversies Follow His Campaign - Windy City Times (10/2/2002)

Harrington's 49th Ward Race Raises Rodde Center Questions - Windy City Times (10/2/2002)

To our knowledge, Baim's promise that "followup questions and stories will appear over the coming weeks" has not been kept, except in the form of letters to the editor (links provided below).


   In preparation for the interview cited by Baim, long before the interview itself, the Citizens for Michael Harrington campaign provided Tracy Baim with half a dozen names of persons who were on the board during Michael's time [on the board of the Rodde Center/Fund] or soon after.  Not one of them was an unknown to Baim, and in fact many of them are well-known leaders in the GLBT community and are readily accessible to anyone who wants to call them up.

   Harrington also contacted Patrick O'Connor, a former [Rodde] board member who not only shared extensive minutes, notes, and other records from the period when Michael was on the board, but also wrote Windy City Times *prior* to the interviews (July 18th, 2002) to dispel any notion that Michael's involvement in Rodde was anything but exemplary. Why [Ms.] Baim did not cite O'Connor in her piece, or why she claimed to have such problems locating people, is up to her to explain.  Perhaps she simply lost that long, historical recollection of Rodde from Patrick O'Connor.  Who knows?

   The backlash in October (in the form of letters to the editor of WCT) was pooh-poohed by Baim (as the responding editor) several times, each instance characterized by repeatedly irresponsible and unrepentant terms, putting the onus on 10 years of questioning input "from the community" instead of her own bias. 

   Patrick O'Connor was one of several people who later wrote to blast the paper for its obviously slanted coverage. 


LETTERS
Windy City Times (10/9/2002)


LETTERS
Windy City Times (10/16/2002)


TRACY BAIM Commentary: Self-Immolation
Windy City Times (11/20/2002)


   Time will tell.  Perhaps Tracy Baim will actually absorb something from the many answers given, answers from Harrington, O'Connor, Hansen and others.  Maybe, just maybe, she'll come to understand how things really went down.  Odds are, though, that she only hear what she wants to hear and disregard the rest. La, la, la-la, la-la-la...



See also: >> tribute2WitchyCityTimes2.html

 





- E-mail us: Chicago's 49th Ward MudZappers > Ward49_MudZapper@Yahoo.COM
Some time before Rodde went under, Tracy Baim asked [the board of] Rodde to provide space for her paper in their offices. Since Rodde was committed to non-profits and Baim's paper was a commercial venture, she was turned down. Her request, of course, was made while Harrington sat as the Rodde Board President - the rest is apparently non-history to Baim, because nothing (NOTHING) in the years since seems to have impacted on Baim's fantastic assessment of the Rodde demise.
READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

The Chicago Tribune Endorses WHO?!
and
Joe's Dive into NUMEROLOGY
and
Joe's THEORY OF RELATIVITY
and
WINDY CITY TIMES GETTING IT RIGHT
and
JOE TAKES A FLYING LEAP
and
WalWHO? Joe steps in it, deep.
and
JOE'S THE BEST FRIEND A COP NEVER HAD!
and
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS IN 49th WARD!
and
TOM BRADLEY - ONE SHORT YEAR AGO...
and
Sandy Goldman Rocks Rogers Park!
and
JOE SUPPRESSES FREE SPEECH! AGAIN!


JOE'S 2003 CHALLENGERS:

TOM BRADLEY

MICHAEL HARRINGTON

KAREN HOOVER

GRADY HUMPHREY

TOPICS ON WWW.FORUM49.ORG - 49th Ward Aldermanic Election - 2/25/2003
LINKS: