WGNs’ future? An “Orwellian” must-run promotional campaign that parallels President Trump’s attacks on journalism is roiling newsrooms owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group—the company poised to buy Chicago’s WGN-TV and Radio.
■ Deadspin has knitted the campaign as aired on dozens of stations into one chilling supercut.
■ MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough: “I’m not sure who advertises on these stations — but they’re basically advertising for America’s new Pravda.”
■ Happy International Fact-Checking Day.
■ Snopes deflates 2018 April Fool’s Day jokes.
Unchanged, 1968-now. Fifty years after riots sparked by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. devastated Chicago’s West Side, Tribune photos show many of those neighborhoods never recovered—and in fact look almost exactly the same.
■ Cops, students and a rioter share their recollections of that time.
■ The Trib wants your 1968 memories.
■ The New York Times: Trump is reaping what racist Gov. George Wallace sowed half a century ago.
■ Nelson Mandela’s disgraced ex-wife, Winnie, is dead.
■ ThinkProgress reports that, over drinks with a stranger in Chicago Thursday, ex-Trump campaign adviser (and Chicagoan) George Papadopoulos dug a deeper legal hole for Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
■ Now ex-Secretary of State Tillerson has been quickly and unceremoniously disappeared from the State Department website.
■ Bloomberg: How Trump could hurt Amazon. (But then where would his campaign get office supplies?)
■ The Daily Beast: California billionaire Tom Steyer’s seemingly quixotic campaign to impeach Trump is creating “a political death star”: A list of a “staggering” 5.1-plus million email addresses.
■ Mayor Emanuel says it’s a prelude to an improved and more interactive 311 non-emergency city services interface.
■ Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington: “Emanuel looks more vulnerable than ever,” but the more challengers he gets, the better—for him.
Tweets he didn’t send. Beachwood Reporter proprietor Steve Rhodes bit his digital tongue as religious imagery smothered the Loyola Ramblers’ unsuccessful campaign for the NCAA basketball championship.
■ In an interview with Vox, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reflects on a tough year: “We will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years.”
He ‘helped define the modern TV drama.’ Producer Steven Bochco, whose legacy includes Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and Doogie Howser M.D., is dead.
■ A Washington Post review of last night’s NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert: It “rose up from its own chaos” and “found salvation in the end.”
■ Take a great photo of Chicago or news relevant to Chicago? Share it with the Chicago Public Square Flickr group and you may see it here.
■ … Or maybe it’ll illustrate a future edition of the (still in beta!) Public Square Newscast audio series. Check it out.