“We cannot continue the fight without destroying the Reader,” Goodman mentioned in a press release first revealed by the Chicago Tribune. Goodman, its proprietor since 2018, had held up the newspaper’s transition after a workers backlash to a column he revealed elevating skepticism about childhood coronavirus vaccines.
The Reader’s different proprietor, Chicago developer Elzie Higginbottom, and Bob Reiter Jr., a member of the Reader’s nonprofit board, instructed The Washington Post they each acquired discover Tuesday that Goodman had permitted the paper’s transition. Goodman didn’t instantly reply to The Post’s inquiries.
“It’s been so much anger and anxiety and frustration,” mentioned Philip Montoro, a longtime Reader editor. “People have been really worried about their livelihoods and their health — and that’s been lifted off them.”
Tuesday’s news ends a bitter, months-long dispute that started with Goodman’s column in November.
“We have been kept in the dark about vaccine safety and efficacy by our government and its partners in Big Pharma,” he wrote. “As a parent, I will demand more answers before simply taking their word.”
But Goodman additionally cited a number of questionable sources that raised crimson flags for Reader staffers. In response, writer Tracy Baim employed an exterior fact-checker, who flagged greater than a dozen of Goodman’s claims as deceptive or false. Goodman resisted any adjustments, Baim mentioned, and in the end his column remained untouched with no corrections or clarifications.
Still, Goodman’s allies on the newspaper’s board known as it an try at censorship and raised considerations about free speech and governance on the paper. They insisted on adjustments on the Reader associated to censorship that delayed the alt-weekly’s transition to a nonprofit. The dispute culminated final week with Reader staffers and supporters mounting a protest rally in entrance of Goodman’s dwelling.
Goodman, a outstanding Chicago lawyer, and Higginbottom purchased the Reader in 2018 from the Chicago Sun-Times for a nominal $1, with the goal of saving the newspaper from closure. Higginbottom sided with the workers of their dispute with Goodman. An announcement from his workplace Tuesday mentioned that Higginbottom “greatly appreciates everything Len Goodman did to save The Reader for the last several years and he’s looking forward to what the nonprofit will deliver.”
Three board members aligned with Goodman additionally mentioned they’d step down, in accordance with the Chicago Tribune.
The nonprofit arm of the Reader might resume fundraising efforts and the seek for grants, Baim mentioned. She mentioned she anticipated the Reader’s transition to a nonprofit to be accomplished throughout the subsequent week.
Reader staffers, in the meantime, spent the day getting ready the following print version — and known as off plans to stage one other protest in entrance of Goodman’s dwelling.
“We’re not going to get burned here,” Montoro mentioned, sounding virtually in disbelief. “It’s really over. We really won.”