Cheap Seats 2025 By Rich Trzupek
Closing Time - 02/19
By Rich Trzupek
People often say it, but most people don’t believe it: The truism that goes “when one door closes another one opens.” Change – significant change – is often accompanied by anxiety. That’s understandable. But while change does not always lead to growth and improvement, it’s hard to achieve growth and improvement in the absence of change.
The way we receive information about what is going on in our world has always changed, is rapidly changing and no doubt will continue to change. We moved from oral traditions, through stone tablets and papyrus scrolls, through the printed word, through radio, through television, into today’s digital era. As older forms of communication fade away (doors close) new forms spring up (doors open).
It’s my sad duty to report that it’s now closing time for Examiner Publications. This is the last edition and the last time I’ll have the privilege of penning a column for Randy Petrik’s plucky publication. Communication enterprises depend on advertising in a free society. Advertising in turn follows popularity. Old style community newspapers like The Examiner are now an anachronism, although I’m proud to say we held out a hell of a lot longer than most. Today’s advertising dollars are increasingly heading toward new, independent media sources.
Though I’m sad to see The Examiner checking out, I’m awfully proud of having been along for the ride on this roller coaster. It’s been 25 years since I started writing the Cheap Seats for the Mighty Examiner. While I agreed with most, but not all, of every single editorial decision we’ve made, I am honored to have had a seat at the table when those decisions were made. I sure as hell feel that we’ve contributed a lot more to facilitating honest discussion than the clowns at outlets like CNN, MSNBC, WaPo and the New York Times, etc. Those outlets and so many, many more like them in the legacy media were so clearly working off the same pre-arranged script and employing the same talking points, over and over and over again that it became more and more difficult for ordinary Americans to believe in so-called “journalistic integrity” among the MSM.
Over the years, there were two reasons that readers angrily demanded that this free community newspaper cease appearing on their doorsteps and driveways: 1) an editorial they objected to, and 2) my column. The almost invariable complaint was that we didn’t offer “balanced” opinions. And no, we didn’t. We never intended to or thought it was our job to do so, no more than liberal media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, etc. attempt to give meaningful equal time to conservative voices. If a person wants “balance” in opinions, then they should (as I do) seek diverging opinions from sources who are honest enough to identify their agendas and philosophies. There is no such thing as an unbiased journalist. There are only journalists who lie about it and those who don’t. The Examiner was always among the latter group.
What baffled me, especially in my early years with Randy, was why people should be so disgruntled about our editorials or my columns, no matter how much they disagreed with this or that. That’s not what this publication was about. In its heyday The Examiner was a classic community news outlet in every sense of the word. On its pages you’d find out what’s going on at the local high school, find pictures of your kids participating in sports and plays, get tapped into new businesses coming and old businesses going, hear about what your village board was up to, scan police reports to find out what neighbors had been naughty, etc. Nowadays, the interwebs can provide all that information and more anytime you want it.
As for me, while this is the last Cheap Seats in The Examiner, it won’t be the last Cheap Seats anywhere or anytime. I’ll keep bloviating at SubStack, an on-line resource for writers of all sorts. If you’re interested you can follow me at https://trzupeks cheapseats.substack.com. Please note that if you want to follow me moving forward, there will be a subscription charge. I’m choosing to implement the charge for three reasons: 1) Creators use SubStack writers when developing their own projects. I have an expertise involving environmental and chemistry issues that has value. I’m not inclined to give that value away. 2) I’ll be donating 50 percent of any fees collected to Catholic Charities, the world’s largest charitable organization, and 3) the other 50 percent I’ll use to support family, friends and other needy causes as may pop up. That half won’t be used for my benefit. I make more than enough to support my petty indulgences.
Before I sign off on these pages for the last time, allow me to offer you readers who reside in Illinois a final, respectful message about change. I grew up in and lived in the Chicago metropolitan area for 60 years before I realized that I no longer had any connection to Chicagoland. This was not because I had distanced myself from the Chicago I knew, but because the Chicago I knew – indeed the Illinois I knew – had ceased to exist. That realization led me to the conclusion that it was, once again, time for change in my life. Was moving to Nebraska scary at some levels? Of course it was. But five years later I am absolutely sure this was another case where change was the right choice. My life, my relationships, my quality of life, my spiritual strength have all grown and improved by leaps and bounds. If you’re thinking about getting out of the disaster that Illinois is, make the leap. The water is just fine outside the borders of Pritzger’s Paradise.
As I ride off into the sunset – at least as far as some of you are concerned – allow me to leave you with a quote from a real American hero. My bride’s late uncle Tom Smith was a renowned Air Force pilot who flew fighters in Vietnam and was a test pilot on the SR-71 Blackbird. Among Tom’s good friends was Air Force legend Gen. Chuck Yeager. I am pleased to echo the last words of Yeager’s marvelous autobiography: “I’ve had a ball!”
I most definitely have.
Email:richtrzupek@gmail.com
