Emily Chan
In the late 1970s, reporters from the Chicago Sun-Times bought a run-down tavern in River North, Chicago.
The building was filled with leaking pipes, frayed electrical wires, and a number of other obvious code violations, but it didn’t really matter because the bar wasn’t supposed to be a real business.
It was just a front for an undercover operation—one of the most elaborate in the entire history of American journalism.
The phony bar was only up and running for a few months in 1977, but that gave the investigative team more than enough time to document evidence of unlawful activities for a 25-part series that was published in January 1978.
During the 1970s, reporters constantly received calls from small business owners claiming that city inspectors were shaking them down for bribes.
However, the business owners were too afraid to go on the record since it might come back to bite them.
So, Pam Zekman, a reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times, decided that the only way to catch the corrupt city inspectors in the act was to pretend to be a small business owner herself.
Her boss agreed, and with help from the Better Government Association, she was able to purchase a bar.
Bars and taverns were their best bet because they were subject to more regulation and inspections than most other small businesses.
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