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The major non-political story of the day came from Chicago. All three newscasts assigned a reporter to a triple-murder of a South Side family. All three correspondents tried to negotiate the uncomfortable straddle between a genuine crisis--that Chicago's murder rate is out of control, even exceeding the death toll of larger cities like New York and Los Angeles--and the unfortunate truth that these killings were only newsworthy because a celebrity was bereaved as a result. Jennifer Hudson, American Idol singer and Oscar winning actress, happened to be the Chicagoan whose mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew were murdered. Yet the murders seem to have had nothing to do with Hudson's fame. They may have been inspired by family matters, instead, since her estranged brother-in-law is being questioned by police. "Sadly gunshots are so common here that when they rang out Friday morning no one bothered calling 911," shrugged CBS' Cynthia Bowers. "Neighbors here say they heard the gunshots but did not call police. Gunshots here, they say, are nothing out of the ordinary," ABC's Barbara Pinto (no link) pointed out. And from NBC's Kevin Tibbles: "The murders were not reported for hours even though residents say they heard gunshots."
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