Let’s make one thing clear - I am not a blogger!
Suddenly as Second City Teachers begins its ascent in readership as we continue to break important stories that leave the well-funded corporate media behind, people are once again referring to me and my website as ‘the blogger.’
Did you see what the blogger wrote recently?
I am a journalist and I studied journalism at the University of Illinois at Champaign. I worked for many newspapers that went out of business after the Internet destroyed the newspaper business.
The community newspapers have been replaced by social media where people get a lot of their information.
Why is it important to read a newspaper article written by someone trained in journalism? There are three important reasons.
1) We have to source our stories! Whatever we write, if we did not observe it personally, it came from somewhere and we need to cite it. It’s not based on rumor, hearsay or opinion. I can still hear my journalism professor say every time, what is your source after every line I wrote in the article. It was frustrating, but important.
2) We have to check our facts! Our reputation is based on our reporting. Your name will quickly turn to mud if your facts are incorrect. We do make mistakes, and then make corrections. People trust reporters to report the facts.
3) We build up relationships with inside sources! I subscribe to reporter Sy Hersh’s Substack page to read about politics because he has built up inside sources who are critical of the US government. Hersh is one of our greatest investigative reporters, yet he cannot get published in any mainstream media. I also subscribe to Edward Siedle’s Inside Warrior Substack Page, because he is the leading expert on Pension Fund corruption. He used to write a popular column in Forbes Magazine, but was fired. They didn’t like his critical articles of the Florida Governor tied to Pension Fund corruption.
I first started reporting on Chicago education politics back in 2005 for Substance News. I was given free reign to report on corruption in the Chicago public schools, their principals, unions and pension funds. Substance is where I learned my chops from the leader of independent journalism, Founder and Editor George Schmidt. We lost a great paper for the people after George passed away from cancer in 2018.
George said it best, no media is objective. Substance was unabashedly biased toward CPS teachers and all the people who worked in the schools. I most humbly try to follow in those giant footsteps. The people’s paper!
When you read The Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun Times, you are reading the media biased toward the rulers and millionaires. That is why today so many people have turned to Social Media and are subscribing to independent reporting. With less investigative reporting, corruption continues to ascend. The income gap grows and our leaders wage more wars across the globe. That is why the media here is so heavily censored.
I first started a blog in 2011 after I left Substance News, but as people pointed out, it was not really a blog. I didn’t have the resources to put into building up a news website. I was reporting stories by interviewing people and reading documents. That is called journalism.
I made the next step to put my work on Substack, an online newsletter. This format is perfect for me because I can continue to report and build up subscribers to bring people information that the mainstream media does not report.
What kind of stories do I report that they neglect? How about breaking the story that the Executive Director of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund is on a Do Not Hire List at the Teacher Retirement System where he previously worked? I reported this after Crain’s Chicago Business had just awarded him the Notable Leaders in Finance 2023 Award. A reporter with Pensions & Investments then interviewed me about the story, and called me a ‘blogger!’
According to the online definition, a blog is a regularly updated website or web page, typically run by an individual or small group that is written in an informal or conversational style. Hmm, I always thought blogging was just commentary about published articles.
Names change, but things stay the same.
I am a reporter. I am a journalist. But am I also a blogger? Do I sound like disgraced President Richard Nixon who was forced to resign after Watergate broke, thanks to excellent investigative reporters.
I am not a Crook! He was..
I am not a Blogger! Hmm..
Well said. I think the Chicago community is lucky to have a newspaper covering CPS and the CTU. So maybe the way to get that point across is to put it in the name and in a slogan beneath the name. Something like The Second City Teachers Reporter
A fully vetted and fact checked online newspaper