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Scoopsville USA Earlier this year, the Chicago Sun-Times carried a front-page story on the Chicago Bears' decision to make "substantial cuts" in their plans for renovating Soldier Field, trimming costs in hopes of appeasing Mayor Richard M. Daley. The issue of where the Bears will play and who will pay for the rehab or for a new facility is a political football that has bounced around city and state government for more than a decade. The decision was a major development, and the story belonged solely to the old sports reporter Fran Cohen Spielman (SESP75). Two subsequent stories brought out the possibility of additional financial help from two state agencies, to the chagrin of some in state government who weren't ready for the information to come out. Getting a scoop is often more gut-level art than science, acknowledges the Tribune's Gary Washburn (J68, GJ69). "Sometimes you have an idea, a hunch, and you just start poking around," he explains. "Sometimes, you get tips within the walls of City Hall, and, other times, someone from the outside comes to you." For one of Spielman's big stories, sources outside City Hall netted results. During the summer of 1998 the city was rocked by the brutal murder of an 11-year-old girl and truly shocked after two boys, ages 7 and 8, were charged with the crime. After the initial story broke, Spielman and a Sun-Times colleague "called everyone we knew," she recalls. "We cast a wide net." A tip from one contact yielded information that something big was happening in the case. Working sources in the Police Department and the Cook County State's Attorney's office, the two reporters broke the news that DNA tests had linked an inmate then in the county jail to the crime. The boys were exonerated, leaving the police with a lot of explaining to do. Washburn, too, can claim his share of scoops. With a new governor of Illinois set to take office in January 1999, Daley was working during the months before to put together a comprehensive package of gun control legislation for the General Assembly. Before the official announcement, Washburn made headlines with his reporting of the details of that package, which included exposure of weapon dealers to huge liability claims from victims of gunshot wounds and a provision to make it illegal for gun shop owners to sell handguns to most residents of Chicago. On another occasion, relationships with sources in the construction industry led Washburn to a page 1 story on sweeping reforms planned in the city's Building Department. With the city enjoying a construction boom, Washburn learned that delays in issuing permits were causing costly and frustrating problems for developers and architects. "The process was really choking on delays," he says. Washburn's story revealed plans for a major shakeup in the department, including the addition of new managers, personnel transfers, consolidations of all offices involved in the approval process for "one-stop shopping" and more timely and comprehensive reviews of building plans. Spielman and Washburn agree that it often isn't easy being on the hot seat. "I don't follow the pack," Spielman says. "That's why I'm out there alone sometimes. It's lonely when you're on your own, but I'm not afraid as long as I know I'm right." — T.S. |
