About the Reporters
CJR was founded to keep close watch over instances of collaboration between the media and the city’s tightly knit political machine, its advertisers and commercial sponsors, and its own governing boards and executives. The Review inspired journalists in other cities to launch their own journalism reviews—as the movement to further professionalize journalists gained support from within and without the profession.
The CJR ceased publication in 1975.
Brian Boyer, Christopher Chandler, Henry DeZutter, Ron Dorfman and others contributed to the December 1969 issue of the Chicago Journalism Journal.
Boyer began as an investigative reporter for the Chicago Sun Times. He was an editor for the Detroit Free Press; Focus News producer at WBBM-Ch2; producer for ABC’s 20/20; chief speechwriter for the late Harold Washington and Assistant Director of the Illinois Arts Council. He is author of “Cities Destroyed for Cash” nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, five novels and a collection of interviews from his PBS documentary about marriage. Boyer’s honors include 3 Emmys, a shared Peabody for the Agent Orange TV series and news awards for investigative journalism. In addition to documentary production, he is media consultant for reform candidates in Illinois.
Chris Chandler (1938-2019)
Chris Chandler was a crusading journalist who worked in print and TV, founded new investigative publications, did exposes on the deadly 1969 Black Panthers raid, and worked in politics for Mayor Harold Washington, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, and Bobby Kennedy.
See interviews with Chris Chandler on YouTube.
Henry DeZutter
DeZutter was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News, from 1967 through 1970, writing about education, civil rights, and the antiwar movement. He helped found the Chicago Journalism Review in 1968 as a response to pressure from Chicago politicians and his editors to modify and somehow soften coverage about the battles between police and anti-war protesters at the 1968 National Democratic Convention. He won awards from the Associated Press for his coverage of the Kent State University anti-war protests during which four students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard, and attempts by the FBI to infiltrate the student anti-war movement. He left the Daily News in 1970 to launch a community-based journalism training program at Malcolm College and Columbia College—which led to his cofounding in the 1980s the Community Media Workshop. He also wrote regularly in the Chicago Reader about Chicago’s widely praised but oft-neglected Chicago neighborhoods and had a weekly poetry column in the Chicago Journal.
See a panel discussion featuring Henry DeZutter about the 1968 Chicago Convention here.
Ron Dorfman (1940-2014)
Ron Dorfman wrote and edited for several Chicago publications and news outlets, including the City News Bureau, Chicago's American, and Chicago magazine. He is best known for his role in response to the Chicago Journalism Review’s coverage of Chicago police actions against demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.