WGN video

Elise Crawley

From wgntv.com Palatine looks to leave Cook County
This story is about how the tax increase in Cook county (the county containing the city of Chicago) has caused more talk from outlying municipalities in the county specifically Palatine, about seceding and forming their own county.
One thing that I thought that this story should have even as I saw the headline was a map graphic. While there was a map show at one point in the story, it was a bad map and it was difficult to make out which municipalities they were talking about. Instead I was treated to a lot of the reporter standing “live” outside of a gas station near the county border.
The one thing that this video did well was show how Palatine citizens are shopping elsewhere because of the tax increase and what they think about seceding. Because you saw these people that the reporter had clearly caught at the gas station giving these opinions, it did make it seem more like a grass-roots movement than a political scuffle.
I think this story could have been done well, perhaps even better as a written piece with some kind of map or chart of sales taxes in the area. You would sacrifice some of the authentic quality of people giving their opinions out of a gas station but this story isn’t breaking, it’s been going on for a while, and with the video and focusing on Palatine they weren’t able to get the other side of the story with the opinion of someone on the Cook county board for instance.