Shut Out

As you probably know, I don't have a lot of truck with the myth of the liberal press. But I do believe in the anti-Chicago press. Last year at this time, we were deluged with stories about the Boston Red Sox. This morning, if you didn't live in Chicago or hadn't seen the game the night before, you wouldn't know the White Sox had won the World Series. Perhaps Boston's "curse" was more romantic, being tied in with Babe Ruth and all. But not only had the White Sox not won a World Series in 88 years (trumping Boston's drought by two years), they hadn't played in a Series since 1959. During that time, Boston went to three (in 1967, '75 and '86, if you're keeping count).

Granted, the story was swept from the online sources (the ones I track, anyway) by Harriet Miers withdrawing her name from nomination for the Supreme Court. That, and the news that there's no news from Patrick Fitzgerald, and the $2 billion in bribes and kickbacks in the oil-for-food program. But the third story in the New York Times online was about reduced holiday fares on the MTA, while Yahoo focused on long lines for gas in Florida. Top sports story in the Washington Post? The NFL is considering relocating the New Orleans Saints to Los Angeles.

On another front, a news story about Chicago's main contribution to the War on Terror, "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, referred to him as "New York born Jose Padilla." Come on!

The news outlets may just be following the trend of the viewing public. The TV ratings for this year's broadcast of the World Series were down 30% from last year. Although last year's ratings were unusually high, analysts are saying that this Series could hit a record low, besting the previous low ratings record held by the 2002 Series between the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants.