Reporters Want Sun-Times Owner To Pledge Not To Meddle In Newsroom

The Chicago Sun Times building is photographed Thursday, May 30, 2013, in Chicago. The Sun-Times Media announced today that they laid off their entire full time photography staff at the city's tabloid newspaper, and ... The Chicago Sun Times building is photographed Thursday, May 30, 2013, in Chicago. The Sun-Times Media announced today that they laid off their entire full time photography staff at the city's tabloid newspaper, and its suburban sister publications. The union representing laid-off photographers at the Chicago Sun-Times plans to file a bad-faith bargaining charge with the National Labor Relations Board. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green) MORE LESS
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Reporters at The Chicago Sun-Times are asking the newspaper owner’s reassurance that it won’t to interfere in editorial content in response to the very public resignation of Springfield Bureau Chief Dave McKinney.

As TPM previously noted, McKinney resigned from the paper after Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner’s (R) campaign allegedly sought to quash a story that he reportedly threatened a business associate during his days at an investment firm.

McKinney hired a private investigator and said that Rauner’s campaign tried to retaliate against him through the paper’s management. McKinney, in his resignation letter, said he was put on leave from his post and when he returned was told not to have his byline on stories related to the company at the heart of the investment firm story.

Now, the Sun-Times reporters have posted a petition on their union website asking the CEO and Chairman of Wrapports LLC, the parent company of the Sun-Times, for reassurance that they won’t seek to get involved in the editorial content of the paper.

“We are deeply troubled by the situation leading up to Dave McKinney’s resignation,” the petition read. “It raises incredible questions about whether Sun-Times reporters risk retaliation from management after writing stories unfavorable too politicians or our company’s investors. We have basic concerns about whether we will be able to do our jobs moving forward without interference.”

Rauner’s campaign publicly argued that McKinney should not have written the story as he had a conflict of interest because he’s married to a Democratic consultant.

Crain’s Chicago Business, which flagged the petition on Friday, noted that Jim Kirk, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the Sun-Times released a statement praising McKinney as one of the “best in our profession.” Kirk also said that he disagreed with the part in McKinney’s resignation letter “questioning the integrity of this newspaper and my role as editor and publisher.”

Read the full petition letter below:

Mr. Michael Ferro and Mr. Timothy Knight:

We are deeply troubled by the situation leading up to Dave McKinney’s resignation. It raises incredible questions about whether Sun-Times reporters risk retaliation from management after writing stories unfavorable to a politician or our company’s investors.

We have basic concerns about whether we will be able to do our jobs moving forward without interference.

We want to know: did a politician or someone tied to that politician lodge a complaint with Mr. Ferro over a story? If there was indeed a breach in the firewall that is supposed to exist between owners and the newsroom, how do we know that will not reoccur? Would you or Mr. Knight address the newsroom to answers these questions and others?

Respectfully,
Chicago Sun-Times Newsroom and supporters

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