Media biz tremors / Thompson Center fight / 'Justice League' reviews

MEDIA BIZ TREMORS. Undoing a ban in place since 1975, the FCC has cleared the way for companies to own TV stations and newspapers in the same market.
It also eased regulations governing how many TV and radio stations a media company can own in a single market—a move that paves the way for Trump-friendly Sinclair to take over Tribune Media, which owns WGN-TV and Radio.
The conservative Koch brothers are on-board for a bid to buy the parent of Time, People and Sports Illustrated.
Chicago’s WXRT, WBBM and other CBS radio stations today have a new owner: Entercom.
Comcast is talking about buying big chunks of the Fox empire.
Columbia Journalism Review: Winter is here for digital media.”
Mashable has been sold at “a fire-sale price.”
The Onion, ClickHole, Gizmodo and others are at least partly up for sale.

‘I’VE BEEN ANGRY ABOUT IT … FOR OVER 10 YEARS.’ Al Franken’s accuser shares her story in a long interview with CNN.
What the Tribune’s Heidi Stevens sees in that incriminating photo of Franken: “I see a guy making sure we know this woman doesn’t belong here.”
FiveThirtyEight guru Nate Silver: Democrats “missed a chance to draw a line in the sand on sexual misconduct” by not “pushing Franken out the door.”
President Trump—still silent on the harassment accusations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore—nevertheless found time to condemn “Al Frankenstien” (sic).
Former Trump adviser Roger Stone seems to have been in on the Franken story before it broke.
One of Moore’s accusers tells NBC’s TodayHe scarred me for life.”
The Onion: Democrats Call For Convincing Amount Of Condemnation For Al Franken.”
Following charges of sexual assault against Star Trek veteran George Takei, publishers are backing away from questionable deals under which they paid him to promote their stories.
Gov. Rauner has signed two new laws—requiring sexual harassment prevention training for Illinois lawmakers and lobbyists, and ending a one-year statute of limitations that would have kept the new legislative inspector general from investigating old complaints.

AN ‘ALMOST CERTAIN … LOSS OF A DEDUCTION FOR STATE INCOME TAXES.’ The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet and Tina Sfondeles take a look at what the U.S. House-approved tax-overhaul plan would mean for Illinois.
Al Franken’s problems cripple a Democratic fight he was supposed to lead against the tax plan.

THOMPSON CENTER FIGHT. A 16-minute (free) online video, Starship Chicago, makes what architecture critic Blair Kamin calls “a strong case for saving this imperfect but inspired work of postmodern architecture.” (Thompson Center atrium as pictured in Starship Chicago.)
Neil Steinberg: “Construction in Chicago is booming at a rate not seen in a decade.”

CRIMINAL TEAMWORK. Chicago police are hunting a group of thieves who’ve beaten and robbed people in three separate incidents downtown in the last couple of weeks.
Two people posing as delivery men attacked a woman during a home invasion last night in West Town.
Shots fired on the Dan Ryan Expressway yesterday left one man dead and two women and a child hurt.
After a week missing, a chef at a trendy Chicago restaurant has been “safely located.”

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK—IN VICTORIA’S SECRET. Federal investigators say an educator has been looting federal food subsidies for low-income kids at a suburban school she founded.
A suburban public school superintendent is quitting amid charges of “inappropriate or offensive” conduct.

‘I NOW SEE THINGS MUCH DIFFERENTLY.’ And yet, a Homeland Security adviser has apologized and quit after CNN outed him for 2008 remarks blaming the nation’s slums on the “laziness, drug use and sexual promiscuity” of African-Americans.
Activist Chicago priest Michael Pfleger is protesting Fifth Third Bank’s installation of double-security entrance doors—“a discriminatory trap,” he says—at its joints in two African-American communities.

‘DC AND WARNER BROS. HAVE F**KED IT UP AGAIN.’ Esquire’s Matt Miller calls the new Justice League movie “a disaster that fits with our times.”
But Richard Roeper says it’s “executed with great fun.”

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ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square was missing an article in the phrase “working at a mall as high school senior.” Guess who spotted it?
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