Author Archives: Todd Wexman

FCC chairman Michael Powell would like us to believe he’s on the side of those who view with alarm the growing concentration of ownership in commercial broadcasting. His “we are working hard to make sure that the broadcast ownership rules are not completely swept away by the hand of the court” is an obfuscation that’s […]

If ever there was a clear-cut measure of human folly–among contractors, politicians, planners, pressmen, and their electronic-media counterparts–the proposed airport in Peotone would well exemplify its perfect example. Your cover story by Robert Heuer [“Runway Inflation,” March 15], which might better have been titled “Flying Blind,” highlighted both the ignorance and manipulative skill of Illinois […]

Talking city politics, Michael Miner once complained of a “shift during Daley’s administration to more private dealings, less open discussion, and diminished public involvement in decision making.” John Stroger has caught the bug. Daley’s airport and the more recent Millennium Park are projects that came full-blown onto the scene with nary a chance for public […]

wexman.qxd Harold Henderson’s “There Goes Their Neighborhood” (Reader, 29 May 1998) succinctly covered a great deal of ground. I would not, however, characterize CHA’s plans as “rest[ing] on a foundation of exceedingly optimistic assumptions.” I’d say they rest on a foundation of exceedingly subtle deceit. Take, for instance, their “hopes” that some people now living […]

wexman.qxd [Re: Hot Type, February 20] Those of us who attended a meeting of the WBEZ community advisory council on Wednesday, September 22, 1993, were afforded a taste of the future when Torey Malatia, the station’s brand-new program director, opened his mouth for the very first time. In a short speech–and afterward, during a question […]