http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/media/Category?oid=863479 Comments On: Media en-us Copyright 2009 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Chicago Reader readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Chicago Reader. wil@desert.net (Chicago Reader Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0600 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:00:00 -0600 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
for the record - i offered criticism of a program as well as praise for malatia in my initial post; you ignored the praise ... if you didn't appreciate my method, or style, so be it...but you responded w/ a personal attack, sandwiched around a valid alternative point of view.

i can play that way too, & showed you, but that doesn't make it fair...so, would like to leave it at that, w/o an apology...but pleased to hear there are no demons residing in oak park; one recently subdued in LA was enough to last a lifetime.

best to you & yours & sincerely hope this helps @ least a little, but if not, so be that too.

(ps - sorry, can't pass up a natural plug since you raised internet forums as safe havens - mozy on over to the LFA message board forums...you'll find 3000+ 'shoot-em out' posts promoting, i feel, a far more potentially life-saving mission-statement than 'bez could ever author.)
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:54:38 -0600 Chicago Reader that Internet forums are your only safe haven. What's next . . . a full postal shoot-em out?
Posted by MS,OAK PARK]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:38:51 -0600 Chicago Reader Posted by shaky]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:54:25 -0600 Chicago Reader Posted by DeBartolo]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:10:01 -0600 Chicago Reader
first of all, couldn't be happier that your son was finally motivated to seek help after listening to that sunday morning show....it's wonderful to hear my listener agony was actually another's joy.

that said, the theory that alcoholism runs in families is pretty old... but the causative factors - genes, home environment, or both, has yet to be resolved.

as his father & given your own irrational, hostile reply (in keeping w/ known behavioral symptoms of alcoholism) i'm now pretty much thinking it's both.

as for my own demons, the only one i'm aware right now apparently lives in oak park.
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:57:10 -0600 Chicago Reader
Staff and the listener address specific details and hard issues. Malatia
is so vague as to be arrogantly nonsensical. He almost sounds like Michael Scott from the office, spouting nonsense about ""executional myths" and using "flows out" twice in three sentences with little indication what it's supposed to mean.

WBEZ has real problems with how money and resources are allocated and he's rambling about truth. Here's some truth: even Malatia admits after two years Vocalo is hemmoraging money AND has amazingly low profile for a new media project.

Given all the tools for networking and marketing out there, Vocalo's experiment should have some significant city-wide - if not national and global - attention in two years.

Instead, even Chicagoland barely knows it exists and WBEZ listeners are actively NOT told about the other station using their money. The most publicity it's gotten recently is when it hired Robert Federer - an old school white print journalist who covers old school media for the most part. What this has to do with Vocalo's mission, I don't know.

At this point, Vocalo's obscurity is starting to come off as intentional or seriously incompetent. Like it would prefer if people didn't examine the lackluster end result of what is a great sounding idea.

I to think Vocalo is an amazing, perhaps revolutionary concept, but one which requires a strong focus and clear mission to function, and it's at best inconsistent. It doesn't help that WBEZ took an initially low cost business plan and squandered the startup budget and more on a new broadcast tower which wasn't in the origianal plan. And it still doesn't reach most of the city.

If Malatia had concentrated on building Vocalo's online presence and brand recognition, maybe it could have paid for the tower from funds provided by its own audience. Instead, it's hemorraging money and is better known as "Vocalo What?" and The Expense Pledge Drives Won't Mention.

I think part of the problem is Malatia acts and talks like a guy having a midlife crisis seizing ideas with more desperation than understanding.
Posted by My Opinion]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:57:47 -0600 Chicago Reader
There is a reason Malatia, in his response (and yes, you should post the documents, e-mails, whatever), does not address the specifics the staff raises: TM, above all else, cares about TM and to honestly address staff concerns would be to come down from the grandiose perch he occupies and acknowledge the connection between his managerial failings and the station's troubles.

There are some fine fine journalists in the WBEZ Public Affairs unit, doing excellent work.

It's also true that the department has weak leadership and functions as too much of a self-righteous, mutual admiration society.


Posted by Bob R.]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:46:49 -0600 Chicago Reader
Understood
Posted by Lou Grant]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:08:51 -0600 Chicago Reader Unfortunately, I don't have access to linkable documents, and if that changes I'll put them up.
Posted by Michael Miner]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:47:39 -0600 Chicago Reader Mark Seasly, Oak Park
Posted by MS,OAK PARK]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:16:51 -0600 Chicago Reader
Y'all are haters. WBEZ and it's news staff have produced some of the best radio journalism imaginable. I also kind of agree with Malatia's pragmatic approach - especially since his staff can obviously give it like they can take it.
Anyways, the right wing has WBBM. In the interest of civility I won't tell ya where they can shove it.
Posted by arturo giovannetti]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:27:35 -0600 Chicago Reader
-- MrJM
http://twitter.com/misterjayem
Posted by MrJM]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:35:22 -0600 Chicago Reader Posted by sick of LIB scum]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:28:09 -0600 Chicago Reader
Yet, you don't hyper-link to them. Why not?
Posted by Lou Grant]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:42:17 -0600 Chicago Reader

had malatia ever used language like that during any of his annoying pledge drives, would have never let my membership elapse.

well, i take that back...he'll also need to cancel (or better bury) the even more annoying sunday morning broadcast of "True stories of recovery from alcohol and drug dependency" - Magnificent Obsession.

nothing like waking up early w/ a nice cup of free trade french roast & listening to tales of self-induced agony & woe.
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:34:14 -0600 Chicago Reader
Thanks for your responses. I was pretty sure what the answers would be, but I thought I ‘d put the question to you just the same. I was going to put a link to this page on Potluck after I read your responses. Now, I’m not so sure. This is a nice little blog. It would be a shame if the Napergatian (who now posts under the handle “Citizen Investigative Journalist”) came here and started polluting the place with some of his long, monotonous posts.. If you are curious and/or want to post a response, the post in which CIJ made his allegations about you guys can be found here: http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/newsb….

BTW, to be fair to Chris, I’m sure he doesn’t regularly monitor IP addresses. In this instance, though, the situation built up to a point where it became necessary for him to do a bit of research to get his point across. It started with Chris calling out our multi-handled friend when he noticed a similarity of writing style in his different handles. When CIJ tried to deny it, Chris pointed out the IP addresses were identical. When CIJ persisted in his denial, Chris posted a long list of 40-50 handles of posters from about a two-month period that had identical IP addresses. Included on this list, of course, were a few of the handles he was then using. Believe it or not, he still tried to deny it for a while!

Jim, in response to your question about whether it’s possible for multiple people to post from the same IP address, the answer is certainly “yes”. If fact, when the issue was raised during your tenure as publisher/editor/ blog moderator, CIJ stated that if one or tow of his handles had identical IP addresses, it’s because “they” were blogging together at Dunkin’ Donuts. This was certainly feasible. But when you have forty or fifty “people” blogging from the same IP address, we are definitely talking about something different. And if you go back and read some of those old Napergate topic blogs with the realization that most, if not all, of the pro-Napergate Man posts are made by the same person, it’s kind of weird.

One more question for you, Jim, if you don’t mind. Was it really you that made this post a couple of weeks ago: http://blogs.suburbanchicagonews.com/newsb….


Ted, I hope things are working out in your new job. NCC seems like a nice place to work. Jim, I don’t know what your situation is, but if you haven’t yet found fulfilling, gainful employment, I hope you will soon.

Thanks again for your responses.

-JQP

Posted by John Q. Public]]> Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:04:30 -0600 Chicago Reader Posted by Ted Slowik]]> Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:16:18 -0600 Chicago Reader - Jim Lynch
Posted by Naperville]]> Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0600 Chicago Reader
Wow! You guys have some great stories about your days at the Sun. I figured a newsroom was probably a pretty tense environment in which to work in these days of declining subscribership, but I had no idea of all of the politics. I do my part to help by subscribing to both the Naperville Sun and the Tribune, but I am seriously questioning whether the cost of the Tribune is justified by the increasingly paltry content.

Anyway, at the risk of making your stomachs turn, I was wondering if you guys would care to comment on an issue that has been simmering on the Sun's Potluck Blog the past few days. Earlier this year, Chris Magee exposed the activities of one blogger who, for a couple of years, had been making frequent, very long posts under a host of different handles, all purporting to be different people. The blogger attempted to deny it, at first, so Chris posted a long list of handles that all came from the same IP address. It turns out that this one guy comprised pretty much the entirety of that "group" of bloggers that identified themselves as "Napergatians" (remember "them"?).

The Napergatian has been trying to live it down, ever since. For ten months he offered up the excuse that he only did what he did to protect his true identity. Then, a few days ago, he came up with this story that it was all part of a scheme to increase participation on Potluck by making it look like a far more active site than it actually was. He also said that both of you guys were well aware of his activities, but let him continue regardless.

I'm curious to know what you have to say about this.

Thank you.

-John Q. Public
Posted by John Q. Public]]> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:09:04 -0600 Chicago Reader
back in 2003, no one cared enough about "arguably the paper's best" columnist to even comment.
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:31:01 -0500 Chicago Reader
back in 2003, no one cared enough about "arguably the paper's best" columnist being jacked around to even comment.
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:26:00 -0500 Chicago Reader
only point i have time to make this morning is that your statement - "William founded Safeway" - isn't going to sit too well w/ former 1st ward alderman don parrillo who seems to think he founded that auto insurance business ... as was reported back in july:

"According to the insurer's website, 'Since its inception, Safeway Insurance has been under the leadership of Board Chairman and President William J. Parrillo.'

'I started it,' the alderman says, 'then brought in my brothers,' of which he has three."

source: http://www.hydeparkmedia.com/Alderman_Parr…

that said, according to alderman parrillo's website, his "tell all" book is at the printers & if you get yourself a copy perhaps he might even repeat that claim in his book ... then again, maybe not, given the fact the parrillo bros have been in federal court for years contesting the control of Safeway.

book: http://caponemaygofree.com/capone/index.ph…
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:55:12 -0500 Chicago Reader Best.
Posted by Mike Garman]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:01:07 -0500 Chicago Reader Posted by FGFM]]> Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:38:46 -0500 Chicago Reader
have realized though should be thankful 'cause it did serve as an inoculation against my 1st exposure to a news aggregator ... didn't get nearly as dizzy as i suspect the experience could allow.
Posted by DeBartolo]]> Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:14:22 -0500 Chicago Reader