Eric Zorn (born January 6, 1958) is a former American

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...

and daily blogger for the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' who specialized in local news as well as politics.

Early life and education

Zorn is a graduate of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he majored in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

and

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

. He is the grandson of

Max Zorn Max August Zorn (; June 6, 1906 – March 9, 1993) was a German mathematician. He was an algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst. He is best known for Zorn's lemma, a method used in set theory that is applicable to a wide range of m ...

, author of Zorn's Lemma.

Career

After serving a four-month internship at the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...

for it since 1986. About four times a year for some years, Zorn and fellow ''Tribune'' columnist Mary Schmich wrote a week of columns that consisted of a back-and-forth exchange of letters. Each December since 1999 (except for

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

2020), Schmich and Zorn have hosted the "Songs of Good Cheer" holiday caroling parties at the Old Town School of Folk Music to raise money for the Tribune Holiday Fund charities. Zorn co-wrote the 1990 book ''Murder of Innocence'', about

Laurie Dann Nicholas B. Corwin was an eight-year-old boy murdered by Laurie Dann, a mentally ill woman, in a Winnetka, Illinois elementary school on May 20, 1988. Dann also shot several other students, all of whom survived, then took a family hostage and se ...

. The book served as the basis for a 1993

made-for-TV A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

movie with the same name. Since 2003, Zorn has penned "Change of Subject", the ''Tribune''s first blog. When Alden Global Capital took control of the Chicago Tribune in the spring of 2021, Zorn was among the many columnists and other journalists who accepted a buyout offer from the company. His final column appeared on June 27, 2021. In September of that year he began writing "The Picayune Sentinel," https://ericzorn.substack.com/ a newsletter named after the newsletter once published by his grandfather,

Max August Zorn Max August Zorn (; June 6, 1906 – March 9, 1993) was a German mathematician. He was an algebraist, group theorist, and numerical analyst. He is best known for Zorn's lemma, a method used in set theory that is applicable to a wide range of ...

https://ericzorn.com/index.php/2021/11/29/the-story-behind-the-title-of-the-picayune-sentinel/

Political views

Zorn is a Democrat and has stated, "I’m a Democrat because I think man-made climate change is real, that it’s vile to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, that access to quality health care should be a right, that the death penalty should be abolished, that income inequality should be diminished and that we shouldn’t privatize public education. I’m a Democrat because I believe it should be hard to buy a gun—especially if you’re on a

law-enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

watch list—and that every firearm should be registered, licensed and easily tracked ... organized labor and 'big government' interventions are needed to smooth out the roller-coaster ride of free-market capitalism."

References

External links

Archive of columns
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zorn, Eric Chicago Tribune people American columnists 1958 births Living people Writers from Chicago American male bloggers American bloggers University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 21st-century American non-fiction writers