Perhaps no other U.S. city carries as dynamic and legendary a political charge as does the Windy City of Chicago. From Daley to Bilandic. From Byrne to Washington to Sawyer and back to Daley again. Politics Chicago style is always evolving, frequently controversial and undeniably intriguing.
So when you want to know the facts behind the headlines, your choice of source is vitally important. For 18 years, Evanston native Andy Shaw of ABC 7 has had microphone in hand and script committed to memory.
Whether he's describing the latest folderol between Cicero's Betty Loren Maltese and Joseph John Moreno or covering Mayor Richard Daley's first meeting with President George Bush, for many Chicagoans the reporting done by Andy Shaw has become synonymous with political savvy.
Shaw has the credentials of a topnotch reporter/writer regardless of the particular genre. Shaw joined the ranks of ABC 7 in September 1983 and currently concentrates his talents on covering Chicago's City Hall with not infrequent trips to Springfield and the nation's capital.
But Andy Shaw's roots are in the fields of education and print. Shaw was hired by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1974 and served as Education Editor for the daily. Shaw won several awards including 1st prize in a 1976 American Association of Professors competition for a series he penned on The University of Illinois at Chicago, which is also his alma mater. Even before joining the Sun-Times, Shaw had his finger in the pie of news reporting. He spent several years as a general assignment reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago in the early 1970s.
Carrying with him some solid experience as an Education Reporter, Shaw was able to secure a position with NBC 5 Chicago ( WMAQ-TV ) as the Editorial Director from 1976 to 1982. His work garnered yet more awards including two local Emmys. Shaw also contributes freelance articles to a variety of publications.
Today Shaw spends most of his workday covering political campaigns and elections for WLS Channel 7, the ABC affiliate. He can be counted on to deliver breaking news during presidential primaries, conventions and debates, including ABC 7's Poll Coverage. His political commentaries might be transmitted from Mexico, Ireland, Cuba, England, Canada or perhaps one of the other many destinations he has traversed to keep Chicagoans up to date on world political events. Shaw is a frequent guest on WLS TalkRadio including the Don Wade and Roma Show on WLS NewsTalk 890.
Although it seems highly improbable that the ambitious Shaw could maintain a second career, indeed he does. Shaw and his wife Mary own and operate The Windy City Bed & Breakfast Inn, which is located in an old Victorian mansion.
DAVID GUARINO: Andy, I'm really pleased you're giving us an opportunity to learn more about you and your life as a political reporter for Channel 7. Is it fair to say that your emphasis is on City Hall and Springfield?
AS: I think it's politics in general. I think it used to be City Hall when City Hall was more of a dominant political story. Politics have changed and with it the media coverage. There's not the same interest in City Hall that there used to be during the Harold Washington years. During those Council years, City Hall was something we could cover every day for multiple shows. Daley's not that interesting. He has much more of a lid on his government. As a result, there's less controversy, less conflict, less news. So we've expanded—I do a lot more state, more suburban. Do a lot of national where there are big stories.
DG: When ( Jane ) Byrne was mayor, City Hall was always pretty big news.
AS: Right. The Byrne administration sort of "launched" TV news. And the Washington administration catapulted it even further. That era truly made a lot of careers, including mine. Those Council War years made a lot of our careers in the sense that we got on the air, well we were on the air for eight to ten minutes a day, two and three times as much as we are now. The stories were so good. Because the whole town was caught up in this fascinating battle between Washington and the City Council. And there were so many good issues. I mean it had all the drama, everything news loves. It had race, conflict, money, power. Sex was the only thing missing. ( We both laugh ) And that was always alleged quietly. That was truly a great era. At that point City Hall was almost the whole beat. There wasn't even time for much else. And two of us were doing it. So I would do all of the city stuff and Hugh Hill did more of the state stuff. But then we've evolved from two to one per station and even there you have to scramble to find enough political stories. The nature of news has changed a lot, David. The nature of political interest has changed.
DG: I find it fascinating that you used to work for the Sun-Times.
AS: That's right. I went from the City News Bureau to the Sun-Times; I started out as a business writer. I had been bugging them for a long time for a job, I'd been doing a lot of little freelance things and they liked me because I had a lot of energy. But they didn't have any real job. So eventually they got a job for me in the Business Section. I believe this was 1974. And interestingly enough, when they hired me for the Business Section, I don't believe I'd ever read a Business Section before. I mean, I'm a '60s guy! I didn't pay any attention to business. We had family businesses; I stayed clear of them. I wanted nothing to do with business. You know business was sort of like the Establishment. But here they hire me to be a Business writer and I did features. Because I was a pretty good writer and a good reporter, I didn't know much about businesses; they had me do a lot of long Sunday features. And I'll never forget going over for the opening of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, which was opening back in '74 to do a feature on the opening of this Exchange. I said one time along the way, "Look, I've always wanted to know, help me out with one thing. Tell me what the difference is between a Bear and a Bull." And this PR woman looked at me like I was kidding. I said, "I'm serious." So she explained it to me. And when I left that day they all had kind of quizzical looks on their faces because I'd interviewed the new head of the Chicago Board and found out all about it. And the Sunday piece ran and they called me on Monday and they said, "You know we really like that story a lot, it's really well done. But we gotta tell you when you left on Friday we were really worried about what we were going to get when you asked the question ( about Bear and Bull ) ." So I did the business writing for six months and then I was the Education Reporter at the Sun-Times for a year and a half. I won a bunch of awards for Education writing, and that got the attention of Channel 5. Because Channel 5 at that point was shifting from General Assignment Reporters to specialists. They wanted all specialty reporters.
DG: So how did you actually get into television, Andy?
AS: I helped Lee Hanna, the General Manager of Channel 5 in the mid '70s. I did a lot of research on schools for him after he'd asked me if I'd help give him some recommendations on where he should settle his family for schools. So I took that like an assignment and I generated all this data for him and he was very appreciative. And he said, "Look, if there's anything I can ever do for you, let me know." I said, "Well, there might be something. It's always kind of been my fantasy to work in TV as opposed to print" He said, "Well that's sort of interesting because we are actually thinking of going toward a 'beat' system. We want an Education Reporter. Call the News Director and talk to him." So I did, and I did an audition and they hired me. ( Andy smiles ) So I was lucky, I didn't have to go through Peoria and Podunk and Altoona and all those places. I went right to Channel 5 from the Sun-Times.
DG: You're a frequent guest on WLS Radio. Whose shows are you on, Andy?
AS: I fill in, I guest host. I've done The Don and Roma Show, Jay Marvin. ... I love to gab, and I have a lot of people I can call and get as guests. I think if I weren't doing this, that's what I would be doing. Because I like to talk.
DG: Which of the places you've been sent to posed the most challenges?
AS: Well the problems were different going to England and Ireland with Mayor Daley when he first became mayor. It was combining with stops in London, Dublin and I believe Shannon or Cork. ... The problem with that trip was simply logistics. Some dreadful weather conditions prevailed. ... We go to Daley's ancestral town on the Southern coast of Ireland. This little town of probably 500 people where they speak Gaelic as the first language. And we get there on the quintessential Irish day: 50 degrees, 50 mph winds, sheets of rain, and we're covering Daley and I can't find a mirror in the whole little town to brush my hair. ( more laughter ) Eventually what I did was I waited till we got to the lunch stop which was a pub, went into the pub bathroom, got myself semi-presentable and did a stand up in front of The Wild Boar Inn.
DG: You mentioned that your trip to Cuba was pretty difficult also. How so?
AS: The Cuban trip was probably the most difficult. In the sense that Cuba is sort of a backward place technologically. And getting through on the phone and getting the satellite hooks up, I mean the logistics difficulties in actually making television happen in Cuba was more complicated.
DG: Weren't you sent to Florida last year during the vote count?
AS: Yes. That was a tough month because the story was happening in so many places. It was in Austin, Texas, Tallahassee, Fla., Dade County, Broward County and up in Washington. And my job was to kind of put everything together. I was on the air five and six times a day, and I was working from 8 a.m. till 11 p.m. every day for a month and that's a long stretch.
DG: Last year's election was so volatile and divisive. Do you think the situation has abated or do you think that many Americans will remain disenfranchised; does the present administration have a chance to be judged fairly?
AS: I think that Bush has gotten remarkably good press treatment mainly because they are a very smart bunch out there. Now he has pursued a very rigorous conservative agenda with a minimum of outcry. Yeah, he's taking some hits on the environment now; he took some hits on the Ashcroft selection. ... Bill and Hillary really helped him get off to a good start because there was so much attention focused on the pardons and the Clintons, and how they left the White House. ... They dominated the news for most of January and February, so Bush was able to get a start in a more quiet. ... I think that the sense of disenfranchisement and of unease about him ( Bush ) is as pervasive as it was, and I don't think that he would necessarily win the election any more comfortably today than he did six months ago.
DG: Many people allege Chicago has a history of usually being a hotbed of political corruption.
AS: The fact that I was able to stay in my hometown and work is a terrific asset. But I think I've lost a bit of my perspective nationally, so it's hard for me to tell you whether there's more corruption here. Minneapolis, Seattle, the towns run by the Scandinavians are always thought to be a little more honest. ... I don't honestly believe there's necessarily more corruption here, I think it's a little more institutionalized. The media has done a better job of ferreting it ( corruption ) out and so have the prosecutors. You don't have Moles going underground to nab politicians in every city the way they have them here. There have been a succession of scandals since Greylord including Silver Shovel, that all relied on undercover Moles. When I say institutionalized, I mean the Democratic Machine's M.O. invited corruption. The fact that all the precinct captains were also city workers and inspectors. I think the city developed a reputation for everything having a price.
DG: Could you give us an assessment of the importance of the gay and lesbian voting bloc.
AS: Well you know you're being taken seriously in Chicago. You have an Irish Catholic mayor from Bridgeport whose family probably shuttered at the word "queer" which was the word back then, and just prayed that no one in the family would ever somehow turn out that way. That same mayor goes in every Gay Pride Parade for the last decade. [ Actually, while Daley has a pride reception and does other gay events, his "no work on Sundays" policy leaves him out of the parade. ] Appointing gays to office; setting up a gay and lesbian task force and a liaison and making it so clear that he ( Mayor Daley ) really believes in the Human Rights Amendment. I think, sure, the size and the political sophistication of the gay/lesbian community in Chicago has forced all politicians to take notice, even George Ryan, who comes from a wing of the Republican party that theoretically would be resistant to gay issues seems to have come a long way on that issue. ... Gays and lesbians are a major voting bloc taken seriously. And I think that the interesting thing is that the gay/lesbian community has actually become a lot more sophisticated too. While the old "Act Up" groups may have initially gotten the attention of the politicians; it also had that effect of turning off a lot of regular people because a lot of the activities were offensive to people. I think that the politics ( of the GLBT community ) have become much more normalized; now people work in the old fashioned way. They lobby, they get political contributions, they work door-to-door, and they probably pass bribes like everybody else. ... It's a mature political community now, like Hispanics and Blacks. I suppose what we really need is an alderman or two that are gay/lesbian to be able to really say the GLBT political community has really arrived. I think that the GLBT community will have really come of age when people can stand up and say, "Well, we're almost the majority in the ____ Ward, and we're going to have to elect one of our own aldermen."
Nationally the GLBT is too dispersed, I think, to effect congressional change. Nationally, yes, gays and lesbians are still a significant voting bloc, a significant power bloc. Enough to make a lot of headway with the Bush Administration ... Cheney's got a lesbian daughter. On the other hand, he seems to be anti-gay rights. So I don't know, on the national level it seems the most important thing that's happened in last decade, vis a vis gays and lesbians is that there's acceptance of the lifestyle rights of people and the political reality that results. I think that acceptance will continue to grow though there will be still be resistance to certain lifestyle elements such as gay marriages etc.
E-mail: DavdRonald@aol.com
