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| “This,” Ellis later said “was in reference to the current state of journalism” | Twitter |
If we told you that the chief spokesperson for a powerful politician offered a personal opinion that journalism is about clicks over quality and sensationalism over integrity, you might think we were talking about you-know-who. But we’re not.
Instead, those insights were made in a tweet sent Tuesday morning by Kiera Ellis, the chief spokesperson for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Ellis’ tweet said her disheartenment caused her to not pursue journalism post-college. “There’s a bottom line that most of these outlets are beholden to at the end of the day.”
There was no indication in the tweet about what prompted Ellis to share her personal views of the industry to which she serves as Kim Foxx’s top liaison.
We contacted Ellis to see if she could elaborate and provide some specifics about which sensational stories or which specific journalists she was speaking of. We didn’t get much:
“I have a degree in journalism,” she said. “I am allowed to have a personal opinion about journalism that is separate from my job as a spokeswoman.”
And, of course, she is right.
But we don’t like kale, and we’d certainly not want to go to work with it every day.
In an unsigned statement, Foxx’s office said, “Since the opinions expressed in the referenced Twitter account are those of that user, the SAO has no comment on the matter.”
Ellis has since set her Twitter account to “private.”
Recused
Meanwhile, an official message from the State’s Attorney press office had heads turning later on Tuesday.
Kim Foxx had recused herself from the ongoing Jussie Smollett hate crime case “out of an abundance of caution…to address potential questions of impartiality based upon familiarity with potential witnesses in the case.”
No further specifics were given, and no elaborations were made.
Multiple sources within the local journalism community have indicated that reporters are currently working to reveal more information about Foxx’s involvement in the Smollett case and the timing of her announcement. We’ll see if those reports pan out. If they do, it probably won’t improve Kiera Ellis’ opinions of journalism.
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