I grew up reading the Chicago Tribune - when I was a kid there were three large papers in Chicago(land) - The Daily News, The Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. The Trib has always been my favorite. Daily News is long gone, and the Sun-Times gets bonus points for being more portable for Your Daily Commute, but the Trib has always outclassed the Sun-Times.
They had Ann Landers. We had Dear Abby.
They had Ebert. We had Siskel.
They had Wizard of Id and Andy Capp and Funky Winkerbean. We had Dennis the Menace and Doonesbury and For Better or Worse.
They had Mike Royko. And after they sold (out) to Murdoch, we had Royko!
Today, the Trib has a great group of columnists - some with a liberal slant, some with a conservative slant. The Trib is recognized as a conservative newspaper, but it's a good paper with many strengths.
Yesterday (Friday) I went downtown to see some sights. I've been doing that quite a bit lately - in early June I spent several hours at Navy Pier (rode the 148 foot Ferris Wheel, took a skyline cruise and a dinner cruise). A couple of weeks ago I went on 2 cruises - one an architectural river cruise and one a historical lake cruise. And on Friday, I bought myself a one day CTA pass to ride and walk between about a dozen different locations, from the "best view of the city," to the various public artworks on display, to the location where the Eastland capsized, and to the Tribune Tower, at 435 North Michigan Avenue.
That's one block north of the river, directly across the street from the Wrigley Building.
The Tribune Tower is one incredible place. It's definitely a tower, skinny(ish) and very tall. The building was based on the winning design submitted in a contest (the second place contestant was built just south of the river). The winning entry was submitted by Hood and Howells and is Gothic (or more probably neo-Gothic) in design. It is very likely the only building in Chicago with flying buttresses, though gargoyles are not unheard of, particularly lurking around the Daley Center.
But two features really make the Tribune Tower stand out for me. The first can be viewed while outside. There are 136 (I've read - I have not counted) pieces of rocks brought in from other buildings and walls throughout the world. Some are placed in areas where you can touch them, like:
The Alamo
and Edinburgh Castle
Others were higher in the wall. All of them made me think about the buildings (and walls) from which they'd come, and how these buildings had affected the people who used them:
Westminster Abbey
Trondheim Cathedral
Taj Mahal
Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China
So even before walking through the doors, this building had me thinking. And then I walked into the lobby.
I remembered the lobby, vaguely, from a visit ten or more years ago. I remembered that there were quotes on the walls - and that I liked those quotes. And now I remember why, and why I like the Tribune so very much.
How could anyone walk into a building with chunks of the Taj Mahal and the World Trade Center built into it, through a lobby which has words like the following carved into it, and not be completely clear about What Is Important?
The entire and absolute freedom of the press is essential to the preservation of government on the basis of a free constitution. - Daniel Webster
The nearer you are to the enemy the nearer you are to God. - Robert R. McCormick
Give me liberty or give me death! - Patrick Henry
This is true liberty, when free-born men, having to advise the public, may speak free, which he who can, and will, deserves high praise, who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace, what can be juster in a state than this? - Euripides
Give me but the liberty of the press and I will give to the Minister a venal House of Peers. I will give him a corrupt and servile House of Commons. I will give him the full swing of the patronage of office. I will give him the whole host of ministerial influence. I will give him all the power that place can confer upon him to purchase up submission and overawe resistance: And yet, armed with the liberty of the press I will go forth to meet him undismayed. I will attack the mighty fabric of that mightier engine. I will shake down from its height corruption and bury it beneath the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter. - Richard Brinsley Sheridan
I want the Tribune to continue to be after I am gone as it has been under my directions an advocate of political and moral progress and in all things to follow the line of common sense. - Joseph Medill
"No mission too difficult No sacrifice too great" - First Division Motto
"Take her down!" - Howard Gilmore
The mass of every people must be barbarous where there is no printing, and consequently, knowledge is not generally diffused. Knowledge is diffused among our people by newspapers. - Samuel Johnson
The struggle for freedom of speech has marched hand in hand in the advance of civilization with the struggle for other great human liberties. History teaches that human liberty cannot be secured unless there is freedom. - Chief Justice Floyd E. Thompson
And ye shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. - St. John 8:32
The liberty of opinion keeps governments themselves in due subjection to their duties. - Erskine
To the press alone checkered as it is with abuses the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression. - James Madison
Where there is a free press the governors must live in constant awe of the opinions of the governed. - Lord Macaulay
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that can not be limited without being lost. - Thomas Jefferson
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the goverment for a
redress of grievances. - First Amendment to the Constitution
The administration of government has become more complex, the opportunities for malfeasance and corruption have multiplied, crime has grown to most serious proportions, and the danger of its protection by unfaithful officials and of the impairment of the fundamental security of life and property by criminal alliances and official neglect, emphasizes the primary need of a vigilant and courageous press, especially in great cities. The fact that the liberty of the press may be abused by miscreant purveyors of scandal does not make any the less necessary the immunity of the press from previous restraint in dealing with official misconduct. - Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice United States
I do not agree with a word that you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it. - Voltaire
Newspapers are the sentinals of the liberties of our country. - Benjamin Rush
Let it be pressed upon your minds let it be instilled into your children that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all civil political and religious rights of freemen. - Junius
A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves. - George Sutherland Associate Justice United States
The newspaper is an institution developed by modern civilization to present the news of the day, to foster commerce and industry, to inform and lead public opinion, and to furnish that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide. - Robert R. McCormick
With all the "MSM" issues that have been being brought up - and made up - over the past several weeks, it became very important to me to visit this building. And after running my hand over the bricks from the Alamo and Edinburgh Castle and then standing in the cool marble lined lobby, soaking in the inspiring words, I'm very glad I was able to do that.