![]() “The mailers appeared during campaign season and will likely disappear after the election the goal is clearly to get certain people elected or ousted,” Kaplan said. Chicago City Wire does not print regularly, nor does it produce 50 issues per year.Īlisa Kaplan, who works for the nonpartisan research and political advocacy nonprofit Reform For Illinois, said in an email that although there is a long tradition of politically partisan newspapers, and that the definition of “newspaper” is expanding with the proliferation of online media, Chicago City Wire and other similar publications are misleading readers. State law states newspapers must print at regular intervals, for 50 weeks per year, for at least one year to qualify. The state actually has specific guidelines for what qualifies as a newspaper for the purpose of publishing legal notices, Craven said. “They’re not.”Ĭraven said that neither the Chicago City Wire, nor any of the other 34 Local Government Information Services publications across Illinois are members of the press association, or have applied for membership. ![]() “I don’t call them newspapers for a very good reason,” said Don Craven, president of the Springfield-based Illinois Press Association. While media law experts said that the publications were protected by the free speech provision of the First Amendment, they agreed that they were essentially political mailers, intentionally disguised as newspapers. “They are like yelling at you from the page.” If you don’t know much about any of these issues, and this is the first information you ever see, naturally I’d be worried, too,” Wade said. Nancy Wade, who lives in Lincoln Square, said finding the unsolicited publication in her mailbox made her livid. The issues are all eight pages long, have color photos and bill themselves as “special editions” focused on schools, sex education and crime. Credit: Noah Asimow/Block Club Chicago A note from Chicago City Wire’s publisher.Īll told, four print editions of the Chicago City Wire have hit mailboxes in the past month, confusing and angering unsuspecting residents who said they didn’t subscribe to the newspapers but assumed the publications were legitimate. “It’s going to be literally the end of days,” the headline reads. Most of the mugshots depict Black Americans, and all but three appear to be people of color. A particularly striking centerfold includes 36 mugshots of alleged criminals that the publication claims will be released upon the institution of the law. Two other issues focus on violent crime in the city, including inaccurate information about the Safe-T Act, a criminal justice reform law passed in 2021 which, among other things, eliminates cash bail and has been the subject of a significant misinformation campaign. “Pritzker family leads push to replace ‘myth’ of biology.” “No more boys and girls?” one headline reads. A later edition, released in September, focuses on transgender issues. An August issue hammers COVID-19 school lockdowns, describing “failure” in the Chicago Public Schools system and “plummeting” test scores. Pritzker’s administration, with a sprinkling of positive coverage on the campaign of Pritzker’s republican opponent, Darren Bailey. The Chicago City Wire print publications include almost exclusively negative stories about Gov. In a 2017 editorial, Proft identified himself as a principal in the company which owns Chicago City Wire. The company is responsible for dozens of conservative news sites across Illinois, from Kankakee to Sangamon. The publication and ones like it, which have flooded thousands of mailboxes in the city and suburbs over the past month, is a product of Local Government Information Services, a Lake Forest-based LLC run by prominent conservative Brian Timpone and associated with conservative radio voice and Republican political strategist Dan Proft. Real news,” its masthead reads.īut a closer look at its content and funders tells a different story. It’s folded like a traditional tabloid, and even has a high school sports section on the back. ![]() It’s printed on familiar, low-cost newsprint, and lays out a variety of articles, photographs and infographics, many with named bylines or wire service attributions. CHICAGO - Upon first glance, the Chicago City Wire looks like any local newspaper.
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