Chicagoland

Since I now live outside of Chicago, I have been eagerly watching CNN's "Chicagoland" series so I can learn more about my new community. I read criticism of the series before it even aired, mainly that the series episodes are very pro-Rahm Emanuel---and they are! This week's episode was particularly Rahm-friendly in that it showed Chicago's Mayor mentoring a young black man and attending community workshops designed to help young black men. Not to say that Rahm doesn't care about inner-city kids, but as I watched Rahm and his young black protégé get out of his SUV limo and walk together to City Hall, I felt like the entire scene was a photo-op for the mayor. As he greeted folks on the street, I felt like he was thinking, Look at me out here on the streets of Chicago with this black guy! I'm helping him! We're friends! Take a picture of us together! Also, when he met one-on-one with the principal of a failing Chicago high school, I wondered how he had the time to meet with this woman. Maybe he meets with public school principals all the time. Or maybe he just had time for her because she's featured in the CNN series. Likely, it's the latter of these two scenarios.


I like Rahm, but I'm critical of this series and the way he's presented in it. "Chicagoland" does seem, at time, like one long campaign commercial for the mayor.