Chicago Tribune’s Propaganda Against Mayor Brandon Johnson Has Reached New Heights

The Tribune says Mayor Johnson is hurting business. Corporations keep choosing Chicago anyway, 12 years in a row.

This week legacy media showed once more why they’ve lost the trust of the American people.

The Chicago Tribune editorial board—which has zero Black members in a city that’s 30% Black—just published one of the most embarrassing pieces of billionaire propaganda imaginable. Why? To attack Chicago’s Black progressive mayor, Brandon Johnson. The board claims Mayor Johnson’s use of “corporate” is a slur, and that it’s hurting business. Yes, a slur, like the N-word.

Let me break down exactly why it’s wrong, why it matters, and why the Tribune needs to stop the lies and gaslighting. And ultimately, why this is yet another example of the need for independent media that serves working people, not corporate interests. Let’s Address This.

Mitt Romney Redux

First, the Tribune is recycling Mitt Romney’s infamous “corporations are people” propaganda, and it’s just as stupid now as it was then.

Corporations are not people. They are legal entities that exist on paper. Human beings have rights. Corporations do not have human rights, because they are not human. (Shocker.) To claim “corporate” is a slur is itself deeply stupid and offensively out of touch. Actual slurs are what Black people, brown people, Jewish people, Latinos, and other marginalized communities face daily. Equating “corporate” with those slurs doesn’t just trivialize language—it trivializes the actual dehumanization that marginalized communities endure. It trivializes the real violence they face as a result of those slurs. The Tribune’s argument is so fragile it embarrasses itself. The Tribune should be embarrassed too, if they had any self awareness. But it gets worse.

“Corporations are people, my friend!” Romney told hecklers at the Iowa State Fair in 2011. (Source: Politico)

The Tribune’s “Evidence” that “Corporate” is a Slur

Second—and I cannot stress this enough—the Tribune’s primary evidence that Mayor Johnson is being “mean” is that bank CEOs said so.

WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE BILLIONAIRES!

I wish I were exaggerating. The Tribune quotes the CEO of Northern Trust—a global bank—to make the case that a mayor demanding economic justice for working people is the same as calling a Black person the N-word. Right now, 62% of Americans cannot make ends meet. We suffer the most extreme wealth inequality in modern American history. Working families are being crushed. But the Tribune is platforming the grievances of bank CEOs as if they are the victims.

The whining is weak. And the self-victimization reveals exactly how fragile they actually are. If holding exploitative banks and corporations accountable is a “slur,” then the mayor is using exactly the right vocabulary. Sadly, the Tribune’s argument gets even worse from here, because it is built on a sand castle of lies.

The Tribune Flat-Out Lies to Chicagoans

Third, the Tribune’s entire premise, that Chicago’s business environment is suffering under Mayor Johnson, is not just wrong. It is the opposite of the facts.

For example, while the Tribune claims that Mayor Johnson is hurting business, per World Business Chicago, Chicago has been named the #1 city for corporate relocation for 12 consecutive years. Twelve. In a row. The last 3.5 of these years were under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s leadership.

Likewise, in 2024 alone, the region recorded 140 pro-Chicagoland business decisions—110 expansions and 30 relocations or new market entries—resulting in over 14,800 new jobs. Consider the case of PsiQuantum, one of the most significant quantum computing investments in American history. PsiQuantum chose Chicago’s South Side as the home for its first utility-scale quantum computing site in the US. The company specifically cited the “seamless collaboration between the state, county, and city” and called Mayor Johnson’s leadership “a masterclass in execution.” In fact, due to this move, people on the left were critical of the Mayor for being too “pro” business.

Yet, ignoring the reality of the Mayor’s tenure, the Tribune shamelessly accuses him of “harming business.” Meanwhile, the Tribune also conveniently ignores what this administration has actually built:

• Build Better Together: a $625 million investment in community development grants, small business capacity building, and workforce training—investing directly in the people who make this city run.

• Chicago 2050: a long-term economic growth plan developed in partnership with World Business Chicago itself—the same organization whose data shows Chicago is the #1 relocation city in the country.

• Cut the Tape: a program that streamlines permitting, licensing, and internal bureaucratic red tape—making it easier to do business in Chicago, not harder.

These are not the actions of a mayor who is anti-business, but of a mayor who understands that a city works best when economic growth serves everyone—not just the people who can afford to donate to the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club.

The Bottom Line

The Chicago Tribune editorial board spent an entire column making billionaires into victims, corporations into vulnerable “people,” and a mayor demanding economic justice into a villain. All while 62% of Americans fail to make ends meet. All while Chicago’s working families fight for wages, housing, healthcare, and basic economic security. All while the mayor demands more of the extremely profitable corporations who make their wealth on the backs of working Chicagoans.

And observing this reality, the Tribune’s answer is: why won’t the mayor be nicer to the CEO of Northern Trust? (A CEO who by the way is worth $109 million and saw a 27% increase in his portfolio last year).

Yeah, 27%. That’s almost as high as Americans’ trust in legacy media at 28%, and falling (per Gallup). Corporate media like the Tribune Editorial Board does not hold power accountable. They protect corporate power—dress it up in civic language, quote it respectfully, and run editorials on its behalf as mindless sycophants.

This is not journalism, it’s a violation of their duty as the fourth estate.

Mayor Johnson is not using “corporate” as a slur, because “corporate” is not a slur. It is an identification of the entity that must do more to elevate the Chicagoans who made corporate success possible. Mayor Johnson is leading by example in demanding economic justice for all working people in this city. That isn’t anti-business. That’s basic economic justice. Under Mayor Johnson’s leadership, corporations continue to thrive, and he’s simply demanding the workers who made that success possible enjoy the resulting prosperity.

No amount of pearl-clutching or billionaire bootlicking from the Tribune editorial board changes the data: corporations are thriving under Mayor Johnson’s administration. Mayor Johnson is doing his damn job. Maybe the Tribune Editorial Board should stop being corporate hacks, and do their damn jobs as well—for once.

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