The early headline in this morning's Sun-Times reads:
Is City Violence Hurting Tourism? By 10 a.m. the mayor's overstaffed spin department was doing damage control. Go online now and the
new headline reads:
Official backs down from claim crime hurting city’s tourism effort. But Fran Spielman's story remains the same.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office swung into full damage-control mode Wednesday after Chicago’s convention and tourism chief was quoted as saying that a 38 percent spike in the city’s homicide rate and a troubling return to mob attacks downtown was hurting efforts to promote the city.
Don Welsh, president and CEO of Choose Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board, "... We hope this sunsets quickly because all the good work we’re doing regionally, nationally and internationally, if this is not contained in a reasonable period of time, it will have an impact/”
After a poke from the mayor's office, Welsh is claiming that his remarks had been “misinterpreted” and “taken
