Hot Type, for the week of January 16, 2004 -- continued This week in an editor's note, "Speakout" took up Bailey's column for the third time. The note said, "We have pretty much excoriated Mike Bailey for his (unoriginal) Dec. 28 column, which he mistakenly assumed everyone knew came from the Web. He assures us that were he to pilfer something and claim it for his own, it would be something of greater literary value." So Bailey had caught it at work. But from whom? His publisher hadn't excoriated him, and Bailey's the top editor. Did he excoriate himself? Bailey explains that he was excoriated by readers who didn't like the column. I'd say the editor's note was trying hard to give readers a different impression. But Bailey should know. He wrote it. It's usually a mistake to nonchalant a screwup. A quick dip to hands and knees is shorter, sweeter, and a lot more coherent. Flack's Wet Dream On the front page of this week's Windy City Times is something I've never seen before -- a long, important article on a controversial subject that confesses at the get-go it was written by a publicist. Under the headline "Chicago to Bid for Gay Games in 2006," in the space where a byline would normally go, there is instead the announcement, Chicago Games, Inc., Press Release. The press release was written by Kevin Boyer, managing partner of Third Coast Marketing and a board member of Chicago Games, Inc., the body that was formed to try to bring the 2006 games to the city. Another board member (so identified in the press release) is Tracy Baim, publisher and managing editor of Windy City Times. For five years Baim has been campaigning to bring the 2006 games here. In 2001 the Federation of Gay Games chose Montreal instead, but because the FGG couldn't work out a licensing agreement with the Montreal sponsors, two months ago it reopened the bidding process. This background was explained at great length in the front-page story that was actually a press release. Why a press release? "We're in an awkward position," Baim allows, "like the Tribune owning the Cubs." But the Tribune has never covered the Cubs by press release. Baim says opponents of the games have had their say in her letters section, and Windy City Times columnist Rex Wockner has been free to argue for Montreal -- which intends to host its own sports festival regardless. Even so, she's been writing pro-Gay Games analysis pieces for Windy City Times and working 30 hours a week to get the bid, and she recognizes that her paper is so thoroughly identified with the Gay Games that nothing it publishes on them will be trusted as objective. "Last week was just the official announcement of the actual bid," she explained in an e-mail. "I felt the only way to deal with this was the press release. Any reporter would still be perceived as working for the publisher who is part of this effort." Maybe it's time to reconsider the merits of the oft-maligned press release. I'll give you that it's partisan. I'll give you that it's totally one-sided. But at least you know where a press release is coming from. You can't always say that about a newspaper. Some lesser papers actually run press releases disguised as articles. Baim wouldn't stand for that. She told readers up front that a press release was what they were getting. "I did it on purpose, absolutely, consciously on purpose, because of the critics," says Baim. "I said, 'It's this point of view.' This was a very conscious effort on my part." "I think that's honest," says Lisa Neff, managing editor of the competition, the Chicago Free Press, which has editorialized against the games. Even so, Neff takes the traditionalist's position that actual reporting would have been superior. "A better way to go," she says, "is to hire a freelance writer and say, 'I won't interfere with the story you turn in.'" The Free Press's front-page story on the Gay Games was written by a staff writer. Balance was achieved by quoting from the same press release that made up the totality of the Windy City Times coverage and from skeptics who think the games are a bad idea. News Bite • Do closers belong in baseball's Hall of Fame? Dennis Eckersley was just voted in, but he's only the third one to make it. Ron Rapoport, a fan of closers, wrote last week, "Oh, please, sniff the naysayers. Relievers are part-time players, one-trick wonders. The moral equivalent of designated hitters." I read Rapoport and realized that it was time to pose a different question. Do starting pitchers belong in the Hall of Fame? Today's starters strut out to the mound determined to go a full five innings come hell or high water. As coaches carefully tally each pitch lest (shudder) fatigue set in, these doughty moundsmen engage the opposing batting order once, perhaps even twice, and beat a retreat just about the time that enemy batters get a bead on them. Sometime next week they'll recover enough of their strength to attempt this ordeal again. Closers, on the other hand, show up only when there's no margin for error and it's kill or be killed. They're expected to be ready to go every single day. Send tips, tirades, and comments to hottype@chicagoreader.com Copyright © 2004 Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved.