Chicago Sun-Times
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This article is about a Chicago newspaper. For the Canadian newspaper, see Owen Sound Sun Times.
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago.
HistoryThe Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city. It began in 1844 as the Chicago Evening Journal[2] (which was the first newspaper to publish the rumor, now believed false, that a cow owned by Catherine O'Leary was responsible for the Chicago fire).[3] The Evening Journal, whose West Side building at 17-19 S. Canal was undamaged, gave the Chicago Tribune a temporary home until it could rebuild.[4] In 1929, the newspaper was relaunched as the Chicago Daily Illustrated Times.[2] The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun, founded in 1941 by Marshall Field III, and the Chicago Daily Times. Before Murdoch, the newspaper was for a time owned by Field Enterprises, controlled by the Marshall Field family, who also owned WFLD channel 32 since its inception in 1966. During the Field period, the newspaper had a populist, progressive character that leaned Democratic but was independent of the city's Democratic establishment. Although the graphic style was "urban tabloid", the paper was well-regarded for journalistic quality and did not rely on sensational front-page stories. It typically ran articles from the Washington Post/Los Angeles Times wire service. In 1984 Field sold the paper to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, and the paper's style changed abruptly toward that of its suitemate New York Post. Its front pages tended more toward the sensational, and its political stance shifted toward Republican. This was in the same era that the traditional Republican bulwark, the Chicago Tribune, was softening its positions, ending the city's clear division between the two newspapers' politics. This shift was made all but official when long-time Sun-Times columnist Mike Royko defected to the Tribune. However, on July 10, 2007 new editorial page editor, Cheryl Reed, announced that, "we [the Chicago Sun-Times editorial page] are returning to our liberal, working-class roots, a position that pits us squarely opposite the Chicago Tribune—that Republican, George Bush-touting paper over on moneyed Michigan Avenue."[5] After Murdoch sold the paper (ironically, to buy its former sister television station WFLD to launch the Fox network) the Sun-Times was acquired by Hollinger International, controlled, indirectly, by controversial Canadian-born businessman Conrad Black. After Black and his associate David Radler were indicted for skimming money from Hollinger International, through retaining noncompete payments from the sale of Hollinger newspapers, they were removed from the board, and Hollinger International was renamed as the Sun-Times Media Group. In 2004, the Sun-Times was censured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations for misrepresenting its circulation figures.[6] As of April 2007, it had not yet resumed reporting.[7] Notable storiesIn 1978, the newspaper conducted the controversial Mirage Tavern investigation, in which undercover reporters operated a bar and caught city officials taking bribes on camera. In 2005 Editor & Publisher named the Sun-Times as one of the "10 That Do It Right.".[citation needed] In January 2004, after a six-month investigation, the paper broke the story of the Hired Truck Program scandal, led by Tim Novak. After the paper had erroneously identified the perpetrator of the April 16 2007 Virginia Tech massacre as an unnamed Chinese national, the People's Republic of China criticized the Chicago Sun-Times for publishing what it called "irresponsible reports".[8] The newspaper later silently withdrew the story without making any apologies or excuses. The author of the false story was Michael Sneed. In August 2007 the Sun-Times printed a story about Michelle Obama, the wife of Senator Barack Obama who is a candidate in the 2008 presidential election, which said in part:
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