Is the Tribune Using Front Page Newspaper Article to Pimp for an Income Tax Hike?

by Cal Skinner

You may have noted that the Chicago Tribune is putting a story with the logo

“STATE OF
CORRUPTION"

on its front page.

Everyday, I guess, but I only looked at Friday's and Monday's papers for this article.

Friday the upper right hand story was entitled

Reform
heads for
frenzied
Friday

It was by Springfield Bureau Chief Ray Long, with the assistance of Ashley Rueff and Robert Becker.

It probably tilts toward the reformers' point of view a bit, but it tells what's happening in the State Capitol.

Monday's article, by Rick Pearson, is not so objective.

Reform
may be
cover for
tax hike

Pearson starts with the premise that reform could be linked to an income tax hike.

As if taxpayers would willingly accept a 50% income tax hike for any change in the way of doing business that led the Democrats to hike spending by a billion dollars a year since they took control of all three branches of state government, thus, getting the state into the mess it now has.

Did you know

“rank-and-file legislators may decide the more reforms they enact, the more it could give them cover for raising the state's income tax...”

Didn't think so.

Having established the theme of his article, Pearson goes around and asks whether such a quid pro quo is likely.

Needless to say, he found someone to agree with the strategy he advances. And he got quoted first.

But others, like Senate President John Cullerton and House Republican Leader Tom Cross disagreed.

House Speaker Mike Madigan is the only significant voice to support Pearson's thesis.

And the “let me continue doing what I've always done, but limit what others (excluding newspapers) can spend” approach to finance reform is not meaningful reform.

Pearson doesn't even point out that most of the so-called reform folks are liberal enough to be in favor a massive income tax hike anyway.

Keep an eye the Tribune's coverage of this strategy for passing a huge tax hike this week.

Posted first on McHenry County Blog, where I wonder why Ed and Anne Burke's real estate tax bill is lower than mine.

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Why Blagojevich Won't Resign

by Cal Skinner
So the Chicago Tribune runs a full page editorial Wednesday entitled,

Governor Blagojevich:
RESIGN

It will have as much impact as the editorials calling for a constitutional amendment allowing the recalling of public officials.

This governor is not rich.

He needs his pay check.

He has a mortgage and other household bills to pay.

His wife and daughters need health insurance.

And Blagojevich needs the mental health benefits of his health plan (although he is unlikely to use them unless his lawyer tells him to create a record of seeking help for mental instability).

His campaign fund had $3.6 million in the bank at the end of June.

But it owed $750,000 to Jim Thompson's law firm, Winston & Strawn.

Even if the Governor has raised a couple of million since, who thinks that will be enough to pay his attorneys?

So, anybody think he is going to leave office voluntarily?

Published first on McHenry County Blog.

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Obama All the Time

I'm tired of it already.

Must I see President-Elect Barack Obama on the front page of my Chicago newspapers every day?

What you see are Wednesday's Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times.

Maybe the editors haven't picked up on how tired folks are of political stuff.

Oops.

McHenry County Blog is a political blog.

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Radical Make Over for Chicago Tribune

WBBM-Radio has posted a mock-up of a new front page for the Chicago Tribune.

I don't know if you have noticed, but the Tribune has been running more feature stories, articles with human interest angles.

Less hard news.

It's looking more and more like the revised a couple of years ago Chicago Sun-Times.

Fold the picture in half to see what it would look like on the news stand or in a box. Think it would compete with Sun-Times' front pages?

Although I have only seen the Red Eye give away paper the Tribune publishes for people who aren't really interested in hard news, its editor has been named head woman at the Tribune.

Portents of things to come, it seems.

The Tribune told WBBM it is a “work in progress.”

You can also see today's front pages of the two Chicago newspapers. The one from the Sun-Times came from its web site. In the version delivered, the photo of Hillary Clinton on TV is no where near as good. I could not find a copy of the front page of the Tribune on its web site.

WBBM gives the photo credit for the mock-up to Joe Strupp, Editor and Publisher, so I shall, too. Click to enlarge.

Meanwhile, Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Joe Mariotti resigned, according to the Chicago Tribune, saying,

"...sports journalism had become 'entirely a Web site business. There were not many newspapers there.' He added that most of the journalists covering the Games were 'there writing for Web sites.'"

Posted first at McHenry County Blog.

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More unbiased, objective journalism from the mainstream media

One of the constant gripes from the practitioners of the mainstream media's brand of commercial journalism is that bloggers and citizen journalists are biased and don't practice objective journalism.

Kudos to Rich Miler for pointing out two instances in which a members of the MSM demonstrate failed to live up to these lofty goals.

In the first case, the Chicago Tribune was so eager to make a case for a so-called "pardon backlog," they trumped up the case of a man jailed for a rape he didn't commit and buried details about his conviction for a different rape, one based on a witness identification.

Also, Miller points out that all it takes to get favorable treatment from the Chicago Sun-Times is hire a public relations company that wines and dines^* the newspaper's bosses.

Feh.

The only difference between bloggers/citizen journalists and the MSM is that we proudly announce our biases and our conflicts of interest. We have to, because the Blogosphere won't let is hide them.

If you work for a newspaper or a broadcaster, you've probably attended journalism school, where they teach you how to trick yourself and your audience into thinking you don't have biases and practice "objectivity." This class is called "Journalism Ethics 101." They have another class that teaches the media how to say things they suspect might not be true, but still avoid libel. This is is called "Communication Law 101."

Throughout my former career as a journalist is that newspapers small and medium-sized, daily and weekly are filled with editors and reporters who had friends they propped up, enemies they attacked with glee, and causes they promoted. They selected stories based on their biases regarding race, religion and politics. They added and removed information based on these biases.

In other words, they practiced a form of journalism that looked like it followed the unbiased, objective model. Hell, they even won awards doing so. But it was advocacy journalism. In stealth mode.

Publishers? They didn't give a rat's ass, as long as money came in and their pals down at the country club didn't bitch too much.

Blogging doesn't pay much. But at least it's honest.

^* In the interest of full disclosure: Peoria City Council member Gary Sandberg let me have a slice of his pizza a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps if he hadn't, my criticism of the Library Board's plan would have been somewhat less severe than it has been. I leave it up to my readers to decide if I've been compromised.

Cross posted to The Blog Peoria Network.

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Taxpayer's Shouldn't be on the Hook for Wrigley Deal

Not long after Mayor Daley soundly rejected the publicly-financed purchase of Wrigley Field, someone over at Zell Corp. is floating a new trial balloon.

They are putting naming rights on the table, which the city could then turn around and sell and us the proceeds to pay off the bond. Presumably, the city will be left with a little extra annual cash windfall from the deal. Member initiative money for the members of the City Council to fulfill their annual wishlist.

If such a deal is struck, the city and its taxpayers should not be left on the hook for needed capital repairs of the stadium.

Read the Crain's Chicago Business story here. Nice work by Mike Colias and Ann Saphir.

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Peanuts, Popcorn, Cold Beer

In the

Are They Nuts?

category is state officials considering that state taxpayers might buy Wrigley Field.

That’s what immediately came to mind when I saw the teaser on the top left of the front page of Thursday’s Chicago Tribune.

Is this some trade-off in which the Tribune would agree to support Governor Rod Blagojevich for a third term, if he rushed to the rescue of the Tribune?

I heard on the radio, but didn’t listen to carefully, that for the deal to sell the Tribune to go through, the company has to get rid of the Cubs operation by the first of the year.

Some of you know that I’m not a sports fan.

I figure politics has pretty much the same elements as sports, but could cost me money. Only rarely does sports cost me money.

I can think of state government’s building the new White Sox stadium. I can think of McHenry County College’s trying to put us taxpayers at risk by building a minor league baseball stadium for investors unknown.

So, I didn’t toss the Sports section on the floor for re-cycling today. I’m actually reading a story in it. Maybe it belongs in the business section of the paper.

“It is unclear how the state and ISFA (Illinois Sports Facilities Authority) would raise funds for such a purchase, which would fetch hundreds of millions if sold,” Jim Kirk's article says.

But it’s not just state taxpayers who would be at risk, the Tribune Company is talking to Mayor Richard Daley, too.

I can hear another big Tax Increment Financing district rolling through city council on this one.

Take the money from Chicago schools. Only the Chicago Reader will figure it out and they are laying off a higher percentage of reporters than the Tribune now that personals can be found on the internet.

And why would the Tribune want to sell the ballpark to the state?

To shift renovation costs from the Cubs prospective buyer. That would increase the price paid for the team.

There’s certainly something shifty here.

In my grad school public finance class at the University of Michigan, it was discussed in the class on incidence. It was about who really pays the cost of something.

With “public-private partnerships” all the rage, why wouldn’t the Tribune think the taxpayers would bail it out?

After all, when the Cubs finally do get to a World Series, wouldn’t all the (well, maybe, not the Cardinal fans) legislators want tickets?

I remember when the White Sox were almost in the World Series in the 1990’s, I had the opportunity to buy tickets for the play offs at face value.

That inducement would probably be enough to get state legislators to vote for such a deal.

= = = = =
The picture of Wrigley Field came from a State of Illinois taxpayer financed web site. This story was first posted on McHenry County Blog.

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Don't believe the call for reform by "Junior"

I've been writing at length about the worst govermental body in the nation, Illinois' Cook County goverment. In today's Chicago Tribune, I came across this gem of an op-ed:

From the Tribune, free registration is required:

Well, here it is: John Stroger, who is beloved and remains in our prayers, managed one of the largest fraud-ridden bureaucracies known to man, Cook County government.

That massive bureaucracy was handed down by vested interest to his son, Todd, whose sole focus is to protect a huge patronage army—an army fed by increasingly overtaxed citizens, who, ironically, are rewarded with a steady erosion of the health care and county services they deserve.

Stroger's outrageous $888 million tax hike plan would add 1,100 new jobs—after laying off hundreds of nurses and frontline health-care providers. It shortchanges the sheriff's police—but adds "administrative" jobs, apparently for Stroger's families and friends.

Hoping to obscure this ugly truth is dinosaurus-erectus, a.k.a. Stroger's floor leader and self-professed "hog with the big nuts," County Commissioner William Beavers. He seeks to deflect attention from bloated incompetent mismanagement by saying opponents to Stroger's taxes are racists.

Which Republican wrote that?

Trick question: It was a Democrat, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Chicago).

Great stuff, Junior. But Jesse's son also leaves out a couple of details. The Jackson clan and the Beavers clan have been feuding for over a decade. In February, Junior's wife, Sandi, defeated William Beaver's handpicked successor as Chicago's 7th Ward alderman, his daughter Darcel. In three months, Sandi Jackson will try to unseat William Beavers to become the 7th Ward Democratic Committeeman.

Junior has asked the Federal Elections Commission for permission to transfer funds from his political warchest into his wife's, just as he did in the aldermanic campaign.

Jesse Junior's plea for reform appears in the op-ed section of the Tribune, but that doesn't let the paper off the hook. The editorial editors should've prefaced Jackson's piece mentioning the upcoming ward race and February's aldermanic contest.

Amazingly, of the 43 Tribune commenters who've chimed in Junior's stirring but deceptive rhetoric, only one, "Merrill" sees Jackson for what he is.

Dear Mr. Jackson:

When you think of youself, your wife's, and familiy's own political ambitions, I hope that you factor in your own desires about replacing Todd's patronage people with your own. I have met you in person and found you to be super arrogant and self-absorbed. Now you are writing in a conservative newspaper to try and further your own political greed at the expense of the poor, sick and underemployed.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. is not a reformer.

To comment on this post, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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Walking Over Allen Lee

Maybe I’m missing something.

Maybe 18-year old Cary-Grove High School student Allen Lee is so important that his actions deserve to be foisted by the Chicago Tribune on the brains of readers all over the metropolitan area.

Again and again and again.

Allen Lee’s essay has been featured on the front page of the Chicago Tribune THREE days this past week.

Does that strike anyone but me as overkill?

Or is the Tribune’s attempt to attract a younger readership?

Not to be outdone, two Chicago Sun-Times columnists weighed in with ridicule Sunday.

Mark Brown might have discerned the motivation:

He’s got a 4.2 GPA and probably doesn’t think he’s going to get much benefit from these last few weeks of school. So, he got an assignment he didn’t lie, and he acted out.

Can you remember how irrelevant the last few weeks of high school were?

And were you going into the Marines or onto college?

Brown also hits on the racism angle (as does Neil Steinberg) that I touched on yesterday in "Walking Over Allen Lee":

Unless somebody is holding back some important fact, this young man is getting a raw deal. He doesn’t belong in the criminal justice system. And the main reason he was treated this way is that people are on edge because another young Asian-American student killed 32 people two weeks earlier in Virginia. (emphasis added)

Brown is not kind to McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi:

Maybe you are from the better safe than sorry school of thought.

If so, you have a champion in McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi, who told me Friday,

“If all of us hadn’t acted, we would be subject to criticism for not acting. We’ll never know if we saved lives in this situation.”

Oh, that’s cute. Well, then, Lou, maybe you should try to figure it out, because if lieves were truly in danger, then you haven’t really saved anybody yet with your disorderly conduct charge, which only served to muddy up the reputation of an 18-year old who was back out on the street a few hours later.

Neil Steinberg lists six reasons for Allen Lee’s arrest:

1. Lee’s essay contained disturbing, violent images.
2. There was a massacre at Virginia Tech two weeks ago.
3. Lee is Asian, like the Virginia Tech gunman.
4. Lee’s teacher is inexperienced.
5. Her superiors suffer from the advanced form of stupidity particular to school district administrators.
6. Bumbling “where’s-the-bullet-Andy?” police work by the suburban cops.

Nothing more need be said. Lee, the supposed culprit, is actually the only one who has a valid excuse, bring 18 and green in judgment. The charges against him of course will be dropped, as soon as anyone with a brain gets involved.

More, of course, at McHenry County Blog.

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