17-Aug-18 – Its Mag Mile shopping mall the scene of recent police-involved incidents, a public relations manager for GGP, formerly known as General Growth Properties, has taken the arguably direct approach of asking a local crime blog not to include a photo of the mall in a story about crime at the mall.

CWB Chicago, which covers crime news throughout Chicago, published a story on August 13 about recent gun-related arrests in which the accused were allowed to post bail in seemingly low amounts.

One of those charged was 20-year-old Reginald Tyus, arrested by Chicago police outside of Water Tower Place on August 3. Tyus had a 9mm gun in his right pants pocket and a loaded extended ammunition magazine in his left pants pockets, according to prosecutors. His bail set at $5,000, Tyus was released pending trial after paying a $500 deposit.

What bothered the Senior Manager of Public Relations about this story was that a photo of Water Tower Place, owned and operated by GGP, was used to illustrate where the arrest occurred.

“Please edit your blog post to remove the photo of Water Tower Place,” wrote Lindsay Kahn in an email on August 14 to CWB Chicago. “Thank you very much.”

Except for a link to the story, the words were the entirety of her email (left).

“Her email is so casual, it sounds routine,” wrote CWB Chicago the next day. “From Kahn’s tone, it seemed like there should be no question about what she was instructing us to do.”

A spokesperson for CWB Chicago says it was Kahn’s “presumptuous approach” that was especially alarming.

“There was no ‘hello.’ No introduction. No half-hearted attempt to break the ice. Just some corporate executive that we’d never heard of before telling us what to do. It’s the sort of email that guys in suits send to their workplace underlings. ‘Do this. Thanks.’”

According to CWB Chicago, just 45 minutes before Kahn’s email was sent, police were called to Water Tower Place due to about 50 disruptive young people. The crime blog says that on May 5, a “brawling teen mob” left Water Tower Place and “joined other teens to attack each other and passers-by on the streets around the mall.”

CWB Chicago refused the request and told Kahn it would be writing a story “about her company’s attempt to manipulate the news.”

GGP calls use of photo ‘misleading’

Reached for comment on Thursday, Kahn told Loop North News that the use of the photo of Water Tower Place is “misleading.”

“The incident did not happen inside our property and, according to the police report, it was at 11 p.m., long after our shopping center closed,“ said Kahn (right). “Our guests and tenants were never impacted by this incident and the photo implies a different story.”

Kahn says her request “was never intended to be interpreted as a demand or an instruction.”

CWB Chicago says they had questions for Kahn, too, but she did not respond.

“We asked if she sends these editorial instructions to other media outlets. You know, the big, corporate outlets that rely on the advertising dollars provided by Water Tower Place and its retailers. We asked how other news outlets handle her similar requests to edit photos and, presumably, unfavorable news copy. But, as we said, she didn’t answer.”