Chicago Tribune reporters Caroline Kubzansky and Sam Charles are facing backlash following an article they co-authored on firefighter Michael Altman, who died responding to a fire in Rogers Park.
Altman, 32, died after falling through a floor into a fully involved fire.
In the March 19 article, Kubzansky and Charles included details about Altman’s family history, including a decades-old controversy involving his grandfather.
“Altman was a fourth-generation CFD firefighter who joined the department in May 2024,” Kubzansky and Charles wrote. “His father served and climbed the ranks to become a battalion chief, and several uncles were CFD supervisors, too. A cousin is still with the department. In the 1990s, his late grandfather led CFD before he resigned amid controversy.”
A fourth-generation member of the Chicago Fire Department, Altman only served for less than two years. His death prompted support from city officials and the public, and a fundraiser for his family raised significant contributions.
The report added that in October 1999, Edward Altman Jr. resigned under pressure from then-Mayor Richard M. Daley.
“Though the Altmans have been a staple of CFD for decades, the family was at the center of a racially charged controversy that ultimately forced Altman’s grandfather, who died in 2020, to step down as head of the department,” Kubzansky and Charles wrote.
Some readers and members of the firefighting community responded to the inclusion of that background, arguing it detracted from Altman’s service and sacrifice.
Brian Houdek took to Facebook to criticize Kubzansky for focusing on historical family controversy instead of highlighting Altman’s service and sacrifice.
“Shame on Caroline Kubzansky from the Chicago Tribune for writing this article about Michael Altman, the Chicago Firefighter who lost his life in an arson fire leaving behind a young child and another on the way. Rather than focusing on his sacrifice, she decided to drag his family through the mud,” Houdek said in a post.
Erik Steinmetz, vice president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2, also rebuked the reporting in a letter to the editor.
“Be better at reporting the news to Chicago’s citizens. Be better than kicking a family in mourning while they’re down,” Steinmetz wrote.
Jim McGuire of Niles, questioned the overall editorial decision to include a decades-old controversy.
“I am extremely disappointed in the Tribune in regard to its reporting of firefighter Michael Altman’s death. The young man and his family have served Chicago for decades in the Chicago Fire Department, and Altman sacrificed his life for Chicago,” McGuire wrote.
“Was it necessary to bring up a story from a quarter of a century ago regarding a scandal that created a family tragedy, during another family tragedy? Dredging up old news degraded Altman’s heroism.”
Additional criticism came from commentators who argued the reporting introduced unrelated material.
“In the piece, Kubzansky and Charles included information wholly unrelated to Altman and his death,” the Chicago Contrarian said on X.
The Chicago Contrarian said it “appears as if the two were attempting to dredge up an old scandal and besmirch the deceased before he is buried.”
The Chicago Contrarian said the Chicago Tribune’s reporting is on brand.
“I was not surprised in the least to see Caroline Kubzansky and Sam Charles had written the article on Michael Altman the way that they did,” the Chicago Contrarian told Chicago City Wire. “Unquestionably, the two are very liberal writers. They had no compassion for the Altman family, and for them to include all this superfluous information, none of which was relevant to Altman’s career as a firefighter or his life, was not surprising. This is typical of the two. They are very liberal writers, and if they weren’t writing for the Chicago Tribune, they would probably be working for some non-violence prevention non-profit.”
They added that the issue extends to broader editorial oversight at the publication.
“Not only is it a failure of journalists, but it’s also a failure of the managing editor of the newsroom at the Tribune, who actually allowed this to be published,” the Chicago Contrarian said. “Even to this day, despite the outcry, it remains up.”
The response follows earlier attention to Kubzansky’s coverage of the fatal shooting of Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman, in which the suspect was described as a “Rogers Park man” without reference to his immigration status. The omission drew criticism from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and others, who said it excluded relevant context.
