(I’ve totally lost track of who owns whom anymore, so other posters or the mods will kindly tell me if this is totally irrelevant here or in the wrong forum.)
Co-owner of Chicago Reader writes and publishes column expressing some Covid vax skepticism, leading to protests and upheaval at the Reader, jeopardizing the paper’s transition-in-progress to becoming a non-profit, and apparently causing enough immediate financial trouble as to jeopardize the paper’s continued existence.
I posted about the co-owner’s “vax skepticism” (a.k.a. antivaccine nonsense) awhile back (link may be useful to those who can’t get past the Washington Post paywall).
It’d be too bad if the paper crashes and burns as a result of this stupidity*. It’d be another example of a business owner who’s intent on expressing dubious personal/political beliefs at the expense of his business and its employees.
*Example: “We have been kept in the dark about vaccine safety and efficacy by our government and its partners in Big Pharma, who tell us they have looked at the science and it supports vaccinating our children against a virus that presents them with only the most miniscule risk of serious illness. As a parent, I will demand more answers before simply taking their word.”
Yeah, what’s 1000 or more pediatric deaths and many thousands more serious childhood illnesses, hospitalizations and I.C.U. stays from Covid-19. Miniscule, I tells you!
I moved it to the breaking news forum from ATMB. It seems like a better fit.
To the best of my knowledge the SDMB & the Straight Dope itself are
owned by the Chicago Reader
. But I thought they were bought out so I’m confused at that point.
Okay, I see that @What_Exit has immediately moved this to MPSIMS, and the earlier thread by @Jackmannii explains:
ETA: Simul-posted with @What_Exit 's post just above. So Jackmanni’s post, if accurate, clarifies that.
I thought The SDMB was owned by whoever owns WBEZ and the Sun Times.
That makes sense, the Dope was sold and we’re not part of the Chicago Reader is good news it seems.
I was able to verify, "Chicago’s public radio station, WBEZ, has purchased Sun-Times Media (STM), which owns the Straight Dope, including the SDMB."
Okay, today’s WaPo article does mention that the whole dispute began last November. It does not explain, as far as I can tell, exactly what recent events have brought it back into the headlines just now.
It looks like the precipitating news event was an employee rally outside the home of the antivaccine co-owner.
The Tribune article suggests that Goodman was pissed off over the Reader’s attempt to replace his original column with a fact-checked revised version. Now they’re squabbling over the for-profit board’s power to select members for the non-profit board, including how many might be aligned with the paper’s for-profit owners (the unresolved “censorship” issue is also involved). Delays in getting the non-profit rolling supposedly are jeopardizing the paper’s future.
What a stupid mess.
Update: Goldman has agreed to give up control of the Reader, and allow the non-profit plan to proceed, thus likely saving the paper.