Chicago Tribune Questionnaire
I used to love filling out the Tribune questionnaire. The questions were so slanted, just filled with false premises. I knew I would not get the paper’s endorsement, if it I were in a seriously contested race. In 1992, endorsements turned on whether or not one favored abortion, for example, and, in the "Year of the Woman," when everyone was going “pro-choice,” I went “pro-life.”
The cover letter is dated Dec. 30th; questionnaire due Feb. 13th.
Pretend you are a candidate for the legislature or governor or even a legislative staffer on the state clock. The questions are linked here at McHenry County Blog. See if you can figure out the Editorial Board’s agenda this year. (I don’t find them as slanted this year…and there’s not one question about abortion or any other social issue like gay marriage. No question about benefits for illegal immigrants. Nothing on gun control.)
Other recent posts: More Ethics in Illinois Than DC, McSweeney Donates $998,000 and sends Pro-Life Piece, Bean Abortion “Inoculation” Piece at Taxpayer Expense, analysis of Bob Churchill’s and Ken Arnold’s Web Sites, Teresa Bartels’ Mailing, the "Idiot Defense”, and the Beaubien Petition Challenge.
5 comments:
>I'm sorry, Representative Skinner, but I have more important things to do than try to figure out what an editorial board headed by that former college jazz show producer (Bruce Dold) is trying to say on a questionnaire.
>In case you didn't know, Dold and I worked at Northwestern's student-run radio station, WNUR-FM, back in the mid 70s. I was the leading reporter of governmental and political news, and Dold was the jazz show producer (eventually he would rise to the post of Music Director). Now while I'll concede that Dold knows more on matters of music than I do, the day he knows more and writes better on matters of politics than I can will be the day AFTER the Tribune runs my obituary!
RANDALL SHERMAN
Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government
Chicago
Wow Randall, from political reporter at a college radio station to Frank Avila coat holder in thirty years, quite the career path!
Wow, that is tough questionairre. You can probably pretty easily tell the intelligence level (or bs ability) of a candidate by reading their responses to those questions (that is not necessarily whether they say yes or no or whatever, but in the way that they explain themselves and their positions).
Speaking of Frank Avila, how many dang shows does that family have on Chicago Public Access? One of them is on like every night of the week, and I swear I remember something like Frank Sr on Channel 19 and Frank Jr on Channel 21 at the same time.
The answers do reveal something about the writer, but how does the Trib know whether party staffers wrote them instead of the legislators and would-be legislators?
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