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Best reporters in Chicago? Check out these 5 women
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Inspired by the first woman on a GOP presidential ticket (see, Sarah Palin is good for something), my entry in the Examiner "best" series features women I admire working Chicago's news beat.
1. Carol Marin. OK, this one's a "gimme," since Marin showed us all what she's made of when she refused to participate in a newscast that featured Jerry Springer. Didn't hurt her career: she went on to CBS national and the staff of "60 Minutes II" and added a Sun-Times column. She's now back home as NBC5 political editor and contributor to WTTW's Chicago Tonight. Jerry Springer hosts the summer replacement "America's Got Talent," proving where his really lies.
2. Cheryl Corley. Starting on the Chicago beat for WBEZ radio, Corley rose quickly to Midwest Correspondent status for the NPR network. Her style is to focus on individuals to tell a broader story. This comes through in her favorite topic, housing, whether covering the aftermath of Katrina or or a new approach to homebuilding — miniaturization. Her story about those who design and live in extraordinarily tiny homes on wheels became one of NPR's top emailed stories.
3. Lynn Sweet. She's the John Drummond of Chicago politcs, with a head so full of the city's convoluted history and relationships that it's nearly impossible for politicos to pull a fast one without her noticing. Back in March, Sweet and Marin led the questioning at one of Barack Obama's toughest campaign news conferences, insisting he come clean on his relationship with Tony Rezko. Obama relented, pleaded "boneheadedness" to explain the relatively minor business deal he had with Rezko, and reporters backed off. Sweet's blog is one to watch in these final weeks of the campaign.
4. Amy Freeze. Yeah, that's right, the Channel 32 weather lady with the suspicious last name. It's real: I once heard her refer to her grandfather, insisting "his name is Freeze, too." Her forecasts are also real: easy to understand and marked by an almost giddy excitement as she experiences each shift in Chicago weather. Freeze's website bio has a long list of meteorologist credentials and she's had some solid experience on the news desk, so she's not just another pretty weather-girl face. Freeze is just plain cool: she even had a cameo on "Scrubs" in 2005.
5. Kris Kridel. From beat reporter at WFYR ("Fire") to midday anchor and co-host of WBBM's noon business report, Kridel has added class (I resist the urge to write "klass") to Chicago radio for, um, decades. This summer, she started moonlighting on WTTW-Channel 11's "Chicago Tonight," covering all things business--from the economic boost Chicago got hosting the filming of "Dark Knight" to McDonald's struggle to keep value menu pricing in the face of rising wholesale costs for everything from flour to oil. She's so good, she even drew praise from Tom Roeser, a hard-boiled GOP stalwart and regular on the political talk show circuit.
That's my list--but there are certainly more great women covering news in Chicago. Who's your favorite?
Memory lane: Here's Jerry Springer's first Channel 5 commentary, in which he blasts Carol Marin as an "elist snob."
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