Tribune-Times-Mirror's Nixon Connection Historically

(The following article appeared in the April 13, 1994 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative newsweekly, Downtown).

After McCormick’s death in 1955, the Medill-McCormick-Patterson Dynasty’s McCormick-Patterson Trust—which controlled the Tribune Company—was placed under the control of the McCormick “Charitable” Trust for the next two decades, until the Tribune Company was re-organized in 1975. In the early 1980s it was again re-organized and in 1983 Tribune Company stock began to be sold to investors who weren’t either members of the Medill-McCormick-Patterson Dynasty or Tribune Company executives. In its Nov. 12, 1990 issue, the New York Times noted that the Tribune Company was now “run by men with a background in finance,” had “a buttoned-down culture untouched by the glitz of other media giants” and had three top company officials—Charles Brumback, Stanton Cook and John Madigan—who didn’t have any experience as working journalists.

But despite the organizational changes made following Robert McCormick’s 1955 death, the Tribune Company continued to support U.S. politicians like Richard Nixon during the 1960s and 1970s. As The `Chicago Tribune': The Rise Of A Great American Newspaper noted: “The Tribune was firmly against Kennedy for president” in 1960 and in 1968 "the Tribune began its campaign to insure the nomination of Richard M. Nixon for president.” The same book also recalled that after Nixon announced he was running for president again in 1968, an editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune which asserted that “Nixon’s announcement of his candidacy for president is welcome news” and “his intelligence and experience in government are unsurpassed.”

(Downtown 4/13/94)

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