By Ivana Rihter
To write about politics successfully, you must understand the inner workings of political systems and the motivations of the people that occupy positions of power. Lynn Sweet began her political career in Chicago. Now her political coverage offers a range of insights into the White House, Congress and current movements in legislation. To get to this level of reporting, Sweet advises that journalists master the basics.
“I always say, if you can’t cover your condo board you can’t cover Congress, if you can’t cover your Evanston city council board you can’t cover the White House, if you can’t cover the Cook County Circuit Court, you can’t cover the Supreme Court. It’s not all that different,” Sweet said.
Sweet is a veteran political reporter stationed in Washington as the Washington Bureau Chief of The Chicago Sun-Times as Washington Bureau Chief. She appears frequently on CNN, MSNBC and FOX and has become a staple of political coverage on a national scale.
Sweet is a Chicago native and a graduate from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism where she received her master’s degree. Sweet began her career at the Independent Register right after university and went on to be featured in a number of publications from The Hill to Politics Daily. While reporting on Chicago government, Sweet honed her thorough and meticulous reporting style.
“I was covering Cook County government and the Cook County Court system for The Sun-Times and I realized I couldn’t understand the totality of what was going on in Cook County if I didn’t understand the politics of the people that were running it,” Sweet said.
Sweet has immersed herself in the world of politics and writes with a deep understanding of the governmental systems at play. It shows in her work. She was inducted into both Northwestern University’s Medill Hall of Achievement and the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame for her contributions to Chicago and beyond.
In the 90s, Sweet broke out in Washington for her coverage of campaign finance reform. She covered the Clinton Administration, Congress and then Senator Obama when he began planning for a presidential campaign. She has been at the forefront of massive scoops and throughout her reporting in Chicago and Washington, her body of work can be categorized by its accuracy and integrity.
“Big stories are often grueling days,” Sweet said. “I’m single minded with the purpose of getting the story done and therefore if extraneous things happen, I have a sense of being able just to brush it off as I pursue getting the story.”
Her exemplary work has been widely recognized. Washingtonian Magazine named Sweet one of the capital’s “50 Top Journalists.” Sweet was also a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.
“It is very helpful to have knowledge of government because that is the point of political reporting at the end of the day,” Sweet said. “To make something happen or stop something from happening. It is very useful to understand the fundamentals of why politics exists.”
Sweet is currently the only Sun-Times journalist stationed in Washington and her editorial process is an independent one. Her columns give Chicago readers an in-depth look into the political dynamics in Washington. Under the complexities of the current administration, her work is rooted in integrity and insight that is essential to not only readers but the state of journalism in the present day.
“Journalism is coming under attack,” Sweet said. “I think in the next very short bit of time there is an emphasis on fact checking, explanatory journalism and a new awareness that when you see things on the web, you have to be very careful.”
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