"Adding the finishing touches to Grant Park" by James Janega

An extremely informative piece that is written in a Question and Answer format, with a quirk.

Tuesday is the big day for senators Barack Obama and John McCain. Tuesday will be the day that their campaigning will be put to the test, and the public will vote for who they believe should be the next president of the United States. Obama being a senator from Illinois will be in his home state on the night of the election and he'll be having his rally in Chicago's Grant Park. This article discussed some of the logistics of what the event will entail. For instance, how transportation will be worked out, the hours of operation, security, etc.

In most Q&A style stories you are given upfront who is answering the questions. In this piece, there was no such statement. It felt like the writer was answering these questions for the readers by pulling from information that was available to him. This made the article simple and straightforward to read, but I wonder if he couldn't have spoken to someone who really had all these answers, like an event coordinator who could just answer these questions for us. It would have been nice to have an idea of a specific person answering. There were sources who's answers were used, among them police superintendent Jody Weis and Mayor Richard Daley, but they were not many.

It seems like this article was almost list like in that it made its points and moved on to the next issue. Since the questions were answered readers got their information, and quite a bit of it, but I'm not sure if the Q&A format was the best one for the content of this piece. I think it would've read better as just a news feature, but maybe I'm alone in that belief.

There were no holes, everything that was asked was answered, and there was fair coverage because the story itself lent itself to not being affected by bias. Was someone going to say that event wouldn't be held in Grant Park?

As the election is drawing nearer the Tribune seems to have more articles that explain/inform readers about what is happening and how, rather than what the candidates are doing in preparation; they can't do much more to be honest. It seems the only thing left to prepare is Grant Park.

For video that enforces the points of this article visit the Chicago Tribune. Then click on the "Presidential Race" tab, and select the "Grant Park Rally Prep" video.