And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
Lewis Carroll - He was no Cathleen Falsani
Thirsty in a very dry land, parched readers looked to drink from the water of a clear pond of thought and opinion, but there was ne'er a drop to drink. Chicago was a journalism desert until August 8, 2007.
And Then!!!!!!!
A leading Chicago Philanthropist funded the operation of an Internet news source that offer a varied and balanced forum of opinion for Chicago and the Nation.
The Chicago Daily Observer was launched in late summer of 2007 and continues to provide the best source of opinion on politics, religion, social mores and topical events.
Operated by local genius Thomas Roeser and business innovator John Powers, Chicago Daily Observer manage and edit the vast array of offerings from every point of view and level of talent - from Don Rose and Dennis Byrne all the way down to Pat Hickey.
Thomas F. Roeser is an 18th Century man of letters and parts gracing an age marked by convenient convictions and Wal-Mart world views. Tom Roeser, a life long Catholic and corporate leader,with a discerning eye that scans the offerings from the written word, drinks deeply from the best in thought and shares the best of what he has consumed in voice that levels the conversation with democratic largess.
Here is a posting of Tom's August 8th launch of Cdobs - Chicago Daily Observer. What Tom initiated with John Powers runs sprints in the lanes of opinion every morning.
Not long ago after I spent most of my blog (www.tomroeser.com) complaining about the abysmal quality of our local daily newspapers, a reader known as Lovie’s Leather wrote to say “why don’t you either shut up or start a newspaper of your own?” I don’t know what happened to Lovie’s Leather but he gave me an idea. I visited with a number of people and after a year we have funds were collected to start this five-day-a-week Chicago Daily Observer… which will be a for-profit Internet publication—free to you but paid by ads and other income-producing devices that will allow it to stand tall in the free market.
We have opened our doors to capture a “center-right’ treatment of the news…some breaking news, some commentary—but all, we hope, in the spirit of Chicago’s great newspaper tradition. We’ll have some well-known names in this issue and the succeeding ones…including Dennis Byrne , Russ Stewart, Jeff Berkowitz, Ben Joravsky, talk radio commentators you are familiar with—Deborah Rowe, Teri O’Brien, hopefully Eileen Byrne (who just got married)...as well as the inimitable Frank Penn, decorated veteran of Vietnam and a former Chicago police officer, Charlie Johnston, probably one of the finest grassroots practitioners in Illinois, Terry Sullivan who helps run an educational enrichment center in the inner city—Midtown, Nicholas Hahn III, the bright young just-turned-20 kid who in his efforts to conservatize DePaul and make it once again the Catholic university it somewhat dishonestly proclaims itself to be, has been named one of the five leading conservative young leaders in the U.S. by the Young America’s Foundation.
Others will include Peter Fitzgerald, Chris Dudley, Ben Joravsky (who will supplement his Reader duties to write in his interesting way on TIFs and other things), Joe Morris and Kathy Posner to name a few. Democrats won’t be ignored with contributions upcoming by people like Jack Franks, the bright young state representative and committee chairman from McHenry and Tom Dart, the young, vigorous sheriff of Cook county. More will be added by the day, Frank Avila, Frank Coconate—many others…
The idea got started with a lunch I had with Ron Gidwitz, entrepreneur and civic leader, whose innovative run for governor of Illinois impressed me. Not enough to support him at the time but as I got to know him, I was highly stirred by his encyclopedic understanding of government in the city and state, bracing ideas with a free-market twist and his courage in articulating them. Ron and all of us agree that the role of government must be subordinated to the free market. After that, I “drafted” John Powers, the young co-founder of Pay-Pal who has become our president. He is one of the brightest young men in Illinois. John is responsible for a lot of snazzy devices in our product—maps that pinpoint where in the Chicago area events are happening that interest us. In the future, for example, if you want to find a good charter school you just need to hit a button and they’re there…or a neighborhood with less crime than yours…hit the button and you’ll see them all. John is responsible for all those wonderful innovations.
Ron, John and I have a lot of fun putting this project together and we intend to see it grow and become a true alternative to the liberal promulgating four major daily newspapers in this market. In a sense, we hope to be something like a local version of www.realclearpolitics.com by giving you a taste of different views
that…for some reason (I wonder why?)...have been omitted from our newspapers.
Here in the Chicago area have two city newspapers. One is the Democratic party’s newspaper of record and frenetic Barack Obama cheering section. The other is all too often (although getting better) a paper torn between its liberal reporting staff and its editorial board. We have two regional dailies…but guess what? All follow the same generally liberal line. For this huge metropolitan area that is so diverse, they supply precious little diversity. By merely existing, we supply diversity. I hope you stick with us. I hope that today’s will be the worst edition we put out—since by doing we all get better. Welcome aboard!
Thomas F. Roeser
Chairman,
Editorial Board
Give my post title click for the best and most varied in Chicago thought
