How Midwestern newspapers covered yesterday's tornadoes
Yesterday evening, a system of tornadoes swept through northern Illinois. It swept through Fairdale, a small town south of Rockford (the second-largest city in Illinois) and continued north hitting the cities of Rochelle and Belvidere and several smaller towns and farms before turning northwest, dissipating in Chicagoland's McHenry County.
So far it seems that Rochelle and Fairdale got the worst of it. Thankfully, it was nowhere near as bad as last year's tornado in Washington, Illinois. The property damage wasn't as severe, and only one person died.
As reports of the disaster came in, I couldn't help but wonder how the newspapers - both in the affected area out outside the affected area would cover it. So I turned to Newseum, which, as I mentioned before, puts some (but hardly all) newspaper front pages up on its website.
Unfortunately for my purposes, Rochelle News-Leader isn't one of those newspapers. But Newseum does have front pages of some other newspapers from the affected areas.
[Normally, it also posts front pages of Rockford Register-Star, but, for some reason, it didn't today]
Quad City-Times primarily covers the eponymous area (a group of cities on two sides of Illinois/Iowa border), but it also does some coverage of rural areas further east - which were affected by he tornadoes.
For Journal Star of Peoria, which is located southwest of Chicagoland the tornadoes were a near miss.
Northwest Herald, the biggest newspaper in McHenry County, breathed a sigh of relief.
Daily Herald covers Chicago's northwest and west suburbs. For their coverage area, this was a pretty close call.
And, of course, the Chicago newspapers couldn't ignore it. Though the way they treated the story was very different. Chicago Tribune had it displayed prominently on the front page
While Chicago Sun-Times relegated it to a bottom-left corner
In last two months, the Sun-Times has tried to double down on being a local paper, so that may be why. I know they covered it fairly extensively online, though.
So far it seems that Rochelle and Fairdale got the worst of it. Thankfully, it was nowhere near as bad as last year's tornado in Washington, Illinois. The property damage wasn't as severe, and only one person died.
As reports of the disaster came in, I couldn't help but wonder how the newspapers - both in the affected area out outside the affected area would cover it. So I turned to Newseum, which, as I mentioned before, puts some (but hardly all) newspaper front pages up on its website.
Unfortunately for my purposes, Rochelle News-Leader isn't one of those newspapers. But Newseum does have front pages of some other newspapers from the affected areas.
[Normally, it also posts front pages of Rockford Register-Star, but, for some reason, it didn't today]
Quad City-Times primarily covers the eponymous area (a group of cities on two sides of Illinois/Iowa border), but it also does some coverage of rural areas further east - which were affected by he tornadoes.
For Journal Star of Peoria, which is located southwest of Chicagoland the tornadoes were a near miss.
Northwest Herald, the biggest newspaper in McHenry County, breathed a sigh of relief.
Daily Herald covers Chicago's northwest and west suburbs. For their coverage area, this was a pretty close call.
And, of course, the Chicago newspapers couldn't ignore it. Though the way they treated the story was very different. Chicago Tribune had it displayed prominently on the front page
While Chicago Sun-Times relegated it to a bottom-left corner
In last two months, the Sun-Times has tried to double down on being a local paper, so that may be why. I know they covered it fairly extensively online, though.