Year In Review 2022
Join us for an inside look at how we covered 2022 and how we’re approaching coverage in 2023.
Old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting in three Illinois cities before the midterms helped me quickly dispel assumptions about voters.
One of my latest “what’s that all about?” moments began with a mass shooting in May outside the McDonald’s at State Street and Chicago Avenue.
ASHLEE REZIN: After a video of drivers doing doughnuts in the middle of a West Loop intersection went viral, reporter Manny Ramos and I spent several nights trying to find out who was behind the drifting events that had become the talk of Chicago.
Gazing into the media crystal ball is a sham, but we keep doing it anyway. 2022 was no different.
This year, I and the other members of the Sun-Times Editorial Board learned so much more about our readers — because we made more of an effort to solicit and publish opinion pieces and letters to the editor.
And there will be much more to come in 2023.
A whirlwind year saw a string of City Hall denizens bow out, thousands of families reel from ongoing violence and a wave of new arrivals looking to find their footing.
Pat Foley’s departure signified the end of an era in Chicago sports broadcasting. He began with the Hawks in 1980 and was the last link to a golden age.
Read some of our favorite answers to the “question of the day” this past year.
MARK BROWN: I don’t remember a lot about the night I almost died in a hospital bed, except for desperately wanting one more chance to tell my wife and kids that I loved them, but not wanting to unduly alarm them by waking them.
Our photographers covered everything from the mass shootings in Chicago and Highland Park to Chicagoans’ protesting the war in Ukraine and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Take a look at some of the top images they captured.
STEFANO ESPOSITO: Sure, I’m a middle-aged soccer-mad dad, but I’m not embarrassed to say that I really do like a good love story. The marriage of Jeanne Gustavson and Stephen Watts in October was truly one of those.
As Sun-Times journalists dug into 2020 U.S. census data about the city, we searched for the neighborhood that most closely reflected Chicago’s racial makeup. We found it on the Far North Side.
Sun-Times visual journalists reveal which images they were most proud of from this past year.
TOM SCHUBA: Becoming a father during the pandemic has changed my outlook toward covering public safety — particularly when crimes involve young children. So when a woman was accused of drowning her nephew, a sense of doom stuck with me.
MOHAMMAD SAMRA: Although their sons were killed years apart and in entirely different areas, I was struck by the resolve of Rosa Sanders and Carmela Richardson in my reporting this year.
BRETT CHASE: As an environmental reporter, I dig for documents through open records requests and court filings, and I interview experts. But the most invaluable lessons come from spending time with families who say they just want clean air and a healthy place to live for their kids.
My vision for the Sun-Times is all about connecting with and serving our community, especially among marginalized groups that have historically been left out or underserved by the news.