Chicago Tribune College Football and Basketball Reporter Shannon Ryan likes to promote her own liberal politics with her sports reporting. | Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune College Football and Basketball Reporter Shannon Ryan likes to promote her own liberal politics with her sports reporting. | Chicago Tribune
A Chicago City Wire analysis of the public voting histories of 57 Chicago sports journalists found that 35 have cast votes in Democrat primaries, versus 14 in Republican ones.
All told, the 57 journalists have cast four times as many Democrat primary ballots-- 117-- as they have Republican, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.
The analysis comes amidst a hard push left nationally by sports journalists, who are increasingly supplementing game analysis and reporting with their own political opinions.
Chicago sports journalists have offered public support for ESPN commentator Jemele Hill, who called President Donald J. Trump a “white supremacist” last week.
In between tweets about University of Illinois' football season, Chicago Tribune college football and basketball reporter Shannon Ryan defended Hill for making the comments.
Ryan frequently comments on race and politics, decrying NFL general managers as racist for not signing former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and claiming Indian sports mascots-- like U of I's Chief Illiniwek-- should be banned because, she believes, they cause Indian Americans to have low self-esteem.
State voter records show she, not surprisingly, votes Democrat. And in the Chicago Tribune sports department, she's in good company.
Chicago City Wire looked at the voting histories of 14 current Chicago Tribune sports journalists. They have cast a collective 38 Democrat primary votes, versus two Republican.
Both Republican ballots were cast by Associate Managing Editor Joe Knowles, who also cast four Democrat primary votes.
The Tribune's most determined Democrats: Sports Editor Tim Bannon (10 Democrat/0 Republican), Bulls Beat Writer K.C. Johnson (6 Democrat/0 Republican), Cubs Beat Writer Paul Sullivan (5 Democrat/0 Republican), and White Sox Beat Writer Mark Gonzalez (5 Democrat/0 Republican).
In Chicago sports journalism circles, Bannon's primary voting record is only rivaled by WSCR-AM's Dan Bernstein, who has also voted in ten Democrat primaries, and none for Republicans.
ESPN 1000 host Dave Juday (7 Democrat/0 Republican) and WSCR-AM's Brian Hanley (7 Democrat/0 Republican) ranked closely behind Bannon and Bernstein.
Hanley's on-air partner, Mike "Mully" Mulligan, was one of only three sports journalists analyzed to vote in more than one Republican primary, and zero Democrat ones.
Mulligan has voted in five GOP primaries and none for Democrats. Fox 32's Corey McPherrin (2 Republican/0 Democrat) and the Chicago Sun-Times' longtime high school sports reporter Daryl Van Schouwen (2 Republican/0 Democrat) were the only others.
ABC-7 Sports Anchor Dionne Miller, WBBM's Jeff Joniak and three ESPN 1000 hosts-- former Chicago Bear Star Tom Waddle, Marc Silverman and Fred Huebner-- are all on record as having cast one GOP primary ballot and no Democrat ones.
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How does your favorite Chicago sports journalist vote?
Chicago City Wire analyzed the voting patterns of
| Name | Outlet | D Votes | R Votes |
| Dionne Miller | ABC 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Mark Giangreco | ABC 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Andrew Seligman | AP | 2 | 0 |
| Megan Mawicke | CBS 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Baker | CBS 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Daniel Wiederer | Chicago Tribune | 0 | 0 |
| Colleen Kane | Chicago Tribune | 0 | 0 |
| Christopher P. Hine | Chicago Tribune | 0 | 0 |
| Mary Shannon Ryan | Chicago Tribune | 1 | 0 |
| Liz Fitzgerald | Chicago Tribune | 1 | 0 |
| Steve Rosenbloom | Chicago Tribune | 1 | 0 |
| Rich Campbell | Chicago Tribune | 1 | 0 |
| Christopher J. Boghossian | Chicago Tribune | 2 | 0 |
| Philip Thompson | Chicago Tribune | 2 | 0 |
| Joe Knowles | Chicago Tribune | 4 | 2 |
| Mark Gonzales | Chicago Tribune | 5 | 0 |
| Paul Sullivan | Chicago Tribune | 5 | 0 |
| K.C. Johnson | Chicago Tribune | 6 | 0 |
| Tim J. Bannon | Chicago Tribune | 10 | 0 |
| Leila Rahimi | Comcast Sportsnet | 0 | 0 |
| J.J. Stankevitz | Comcast Sportsnet | 1 | 0 |
| Dan Hayes | Comcast Sportsnet | 1 | 0 |
| Chuck Garfien | Comcast Sportsnet | 2 | 0 |
| Luke Stuckmeyer | Comcast Sportsnet | 2 | 0 |
| David Kaplan | Comcast Sportsnet | 3 | 3 |
| John Lemon | Daily Herald | 0 | 0 |
| Kevin Schmit | Daily Herald | 1 | 2 |
| Scot Gregor | Daily Herald | 1 | 0 |
| Mike Imrem | Daily Herald | 3 | 0 |
| Aaron Gabriel | Daily Herald | 5 | 0 |
| Orrin Schwarz | Daily Herald | 6 | 2 |
| Dave Oberhelman | Daily Herald | 6 | 0 |
| Tom Quinlan | Daily Herald | 6 | 0 |
| Tom Waddle | ESPN 1000 | 0 | 1 |
| Marc Silverman | ESPN 1000 | 0 | 1 |
| Fred Huebner | ESPN 1000 | 0 | 1 |
| Nick Friedell | ESPN 1000 | 0 | 0 |
| John Jurkovic | ESPN 1000 | 0 | 0 |
| Carmen DeFalco | ESPN 1000 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave Juday | ESPN 1000 | 7 | 0 |
| Corey McPherrin | FOX 32 | 0 | 2 |
| Lou Canellis | FOX 32 | 3 | 1 |
| Daryl Van Schouwen | Sun-Times | 0 | 2 |
| Gordon Wittenmyer | Sun-Times | 0 | 0 |
| Brian Sandalow | Sun-Times | 1 | 0 |
| Jeff Joniak | WBBM-AM | 0 | 1 |
| Mark Grote | WBBM-AM | 0 | 0 |
| Jarrett Payton | WGN TV | 0 | 0 |
| Pat Tomasulo | WGN TV | 1 | 0 |
| Dan Roan | WGN TV | 2 | 5 |
| Mike Mulligan | WSCR-AM | 0 | 5 |
| Jason Goff | WSCR-AM | 0 | 0 |
| Laurence Holmes | WSCR-AM | 1 | 0 |
| Matt Spiegel | WSCR-AM | 1 | 0 |
| Les Grobstein | WSCR-AM | 6 | 0 |
| Brian Hanley | WSCR-AM | 7 | 0 |
| Dan Bernstein | WSCR-AM | 10 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 117 | 29 |
Source: Illinois State Board of Elections
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