By Michael Miner
On Wednesday, November 12, he says, publisher David Harrison called him into his office. Harrison told Biermann a Hollinger paper was facing a strike in Chicago. In the event one was called, trained reinforcements would have to step in to keep the paper going. Harrison wanted Biermann to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Chicago learning to run the Sun-Times computers.
It was a lousy choice, but to Biermann a clear one. “My parents were both prounion, my mom especially. My parents never talked politics to me very much. But it seems where I was taught the line between right and wrong divides, it leaves the union side on the good-guy side.”
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“The only reason I agreed to talk to the South Bend Tribune,” says Biermann, “was because I naively thought that if I told the newspaper and they published the story, it would make the American Publishing Company think twice about canning anybody else over this.”
Some grousing Daily Herald reporters–I don’t know how wide or deep their resentment goes–think their paper’s advertising department has given aid and comfort to the enemy.
“Don’t allow yourself to be put in a defensive position.”
