The troubling photo

What Time Out Chicago blogger Robert Feder had to say about Michael Ferro’s family excursion to Wrigley Field was fair comment, but not exactly the last word in media criticism.

“Is this Michael Ferro dude for real?” Feder asked. “By what stretch of the imagination could anyone consider it newsworthy that the owner of the Sun-Times attended a Cubs game with his family? But there on Page 67 of Wednesday’s paper was a quarter-page photo of the Wrapports chairman with his wife and kids hanging out behind the Wrigley Field scoreboard with Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. But wait, there’s more: Page 74 of the same edition carried a full-page Game Face photo of Ferro’s son, Trey, identified as a ‘lifelong Cubs fan and member of the golf team at Latin School of Chicago,’ throwing out the first pitch at Tuesday’s Astros-Cubs game. (Olympic gold medalist Conor Dwyer, who also threw out a ceremonial first pitch at the game, was ignored.) The shameless star treatment says a lot about Ferro and how he views the Sun-Times as his personal PR toy. It says even more about editors who pander to the boss rather than stand up for what’s right.”

My first reaction to this diatribe was to wish Feder had left the editors out of it. Grown-ups pick their spots. Editors who’d go to the mat with Ferro over a petty ego trip wouldn’t deserve their jobs anyway.