10/09/2026
Chicago - The American flag drapes the iconic Chicago Tribune Tower, standing prominently along Michigan Avenue at the gateway to the Magnificent Mile and overlooking the Chicago River. For generations, the Tribune has been one of America’s most influential newspapers, while its landmark 1925 neo-Gothic tower became a physical monument to journalism and the power of the press. In today’s climate, the image carries an unintended tension: a symbol of American freedom literally covering a building built to exercise one of our most essential freedoms—the freedom of the press. At a time when America’s media voice is increasingly challenged, pressured, questioned, and sometimes muted, the photograph asks us to consider what the flag represents. **It should never become a covering that silences the freedoms it was meant to protect.
