Politics: Hunting down Burris with the press pack in Peoria

I haven’t been a member of the pack in a long time.

Back when I was slaving away in the mainstream media, I attended my fair share of press conferences. They could be boring and they rarely generated news. But it was fun to schmooze with fellow newsies. It’s one of the things I miss about the life.

So I was watching WGN’s noon news today and they said that U.S. Sen. Roland Burris would be having a press conference in Peoria at 1:30 p.m.

I knew that I had to go. Not just because I wanted to schmooze, but there was a question I was dying to ask. More on that later.

An email later, and I found out it was to be held at Kelleher’s. Off I went.

It’s always depressing to go to Kelleher’s. The restaurant is fine, but my route always takes me past the Sears block, which is surrounded by the ugliest fence imaginable. Caterpillar is using it for a parking lot.

I walked into Kelleher’s to be greeted by a pathetic site: A bunch of reporters and cameramen with pissed-off looks on their faces. Apparently, a bunch of them had been given a time of 12:30 p.m. Well, Burris apparently was there, but he was having some private meetings. He left and was to return for the presser.

I ran Shaun Newell of WMBD 1470. Then DeWayne Bartells of the Peoria Times Observer wandered in. Kelleher’s owner Pat Sullivan stuck his out in and made jokes abut having free food and drinks waiting for the press. I assured him that we were all ethical journalists and didn’t go for that payola stuff. One reporter who I didn’t know — his suit and tie marked him as an out-of-towner — said “speak for yourself.” Ah, camaraderie.

So guess who shows up? Dave Dahl, former WMBD radio newsie and current state capital reporter for the Illinois Radio Network. We didn’t much chance to chat, as a Burris staffer came out to say that he was on his way.

The word was that Burris would read a brief statement and not take any questions. Fine, I mumbled to myself, that doesn’t mean I can’t ask my question.

In the back of Kellerher’s, I discovered there was NO food and NO drinks waiting for the press (I’ll get your for that, Pat). But WCBU’s Tanya Koonce brought her own mug of coffee (hey, she was up late doing journalist stuff).

Also waiting in the back were former Peoria City Councilman James Polk and General Parker, now a candidate for mayor of Peoria. I shook hands with both, didn’t didn’t have time to pump them for info about local politics.

So, finally Burris shows up, along with a couple of humorless guys in dark suits.

First he says he’s not going to take any questions.

Then he says he believes in transparency.

Then he says he never did anything improper.

Then he says he will meet with any of and all of the three government entities looking into whether or not he actually did anything improper.

Then he says “I will answer any and all questions to get that point across.”

Then he bolted, ignoring the questions he was being asked.

Reporters being who they are, those questions were about why Burris wasn’t asking questions, along the lines of ‘If Burris is on a listening tour, why won’t he listen to reporter’s questions?’ I thought that was a good one. I managed to belt out MY question. I had intended to ask Burris why he always insisted on speaking about himself in the third person. But in the spirit of the occasion, I managed to yell out ‘If you are being transparent, why not answer local reporter’s questions?’ I bet my original question would have gotten a bigger laugh.

But Burris wouldn’t play along. He ducked out a side door and out to the street, chased by a pack about about a dozen reporters and photographers. Burris got into a white SUV and drove off. I was park of the pack, but in my defense, I walked slowly and was making ironic comments about pack journalism the whole time.

Left behind was poor little aide Audrey Till. The word was that she has been employed by Burris for about two weeks. Many of the press there described her a spokesman for Burris, but she told me later she doesn’t have a title yet.

Well, when Burris got into the SUV and drove off, there was just poor little Audry answering all the questions with “I have no information. I have no information.”

This really infuriated the camera guy from WAND 17 in Decatur/Bloomington, who made a snide remark about how she as going to loose her job if Burris lost his job. I understand the frustration, but I’m wondering how verbally beating up on someone who looks like, maybe three years out of college informs anyone about government corruption.

I don’t want readers to think the day was a total loss. I ran into my Aunt Bobbie, who was having lunch with friends. We hugged and exchanged pleasantries. I felt less like a member of the pack. When I left, there were still a few lingering members of the press, arguing with their editors on their cell phones.

That’s something I don’t miss.

Cross posted from Peoria Pundit

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Cutbacks up, morale down at Peoria Journal Star

Ugh. Morale is down, really down, at the Peoria Journal Star. And it's all tied to the loss of newsroom jobs.



Jerry Klein is out at the Peoria Journal Star. Klein retired several years ago, but the respected columnist and arts writer continued to write a column for Sunday paper (although frequency had dropped recently). He was told today that this column was being dropped. How much money GateHouse is saving by dropping a less-than-weekly column, I don’t know.

Also, Don Baker — former teacher who wrote sports on a part-time basic for decades — was let go as well. As my source says: “Baker covered almost everything kind of sport, an uncomplaining and competent guy in an industry run by weak whiners.”

Another source sells me today what I am hearing from almost everyone still working there: Morale is low because of the staff reductions, but a core of reporters continue to plug away out of a commitment to their profession.

GateHouse Media decided to not replace two reporters who have left: Erinn Deshinsky (night cops) and Frank Radosevich II (East Peoria and medical beat). This source used the phrase “downright depressing and scary.” Everyone is certain there are more reductions on the way. Right now, some beats are being handed out to full-timers who already have their own beats to cover, or they are going to interns.

Also — special sections like the Family and KJS pages — are being reduced or eliminated, my source says.

The newsroom is protected by a union contract, so if there are involuntary layoffs, senior staffers won’t be affected. But how many more reductions in staff can the PJS endure before it becomes impossible to perform acts of journalism at an even adequate level? When staffing is so low it’s a struggle to fill the newshole with any kind of copy whatsoever, how can readers expect reporters to be real watchdogs and make that extra phone call or two?

I am told a visitor to the newsroom would be greeted by a vista of empty desks. It’s a depressing scene.

Crossposted to Peoria Pundit, part of the Blog Peoria Project.

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The Dark Knight--and my critique of an idiotic Chicago Reader review

It measures up to the hype.

Last night, Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I drove to the nearest multiplex to see the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight. It's a masterpiece. I could do a full-blown review, but I don't think many people come to my blog for movie appraisals. Also, unlike a certain film reviewer--I'll get to him later--I don't take myself so seriously.

Chicago has never looked better--or more menacing--in this film. Oops, did I say Chicago? I meant Gotham City. But most of The Dark Knight was filmed in Chicago, much of it inside and outside the old downtown post office in the city's West Loop. I used to work across the street from the art-deco monolith.

Did you like the car chase scene from The Blues Brothers on Lower Wacker Drive? Well, I guarantee you'll enjoy the one in this movie better. (By the way, how did they get that 16-wheeler down there?)

The late Heath Ledger is fabulous as The Joker, and I sound like a homer here, but watching an Australian play a killer clown with a Chicago accent was worth the price of admission for me.

Why so serious? That's one of the best lines from The Joker.

But now it's time for a sour note, albeit one that also has a Chicago accent. A couple of times in the film, The Joker is called a terrorist--an accurate epithet.

J.R. Jones is the chief film critic of The Chicago Reader. Here is the opening paragraph in his Dark Knight review:

As the Bush era drags on, I seem to be developing an irrational hatred of summer blockbusters, those gas-guzzling, road-hogging, radio-blasting Hummers of the entertainment business. The fact that they get worse and worse and still make tons of money doesn't say much for the national character. New York Times columnist Frank Rich recently conjured up an image of Americans flocking to the movies this summer to escape their woes, as if we were all dust bowl farmers hoping to banish the Great Depression from our thoughts with flickering images of Clark Gable and Mickey Mouse. But while our leaders are waging preemptive wars, torturing innocent people to death, tossing out habeas corpus, and gutting the Fourth Amendment, we probably don't need to escape as much as the rest of the world needs to escape from us.

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Lest anyone miss the connection to 9/11 and the so-called War on Terror, Nolan has (Note...I edited a bit out for people who haven't seen the movie) an overhead shot shows a building that covers an entire city block collapsing into rubble. The Dark Knight may be a state-of-the-art popcorn movie, but its Gotham City is a fun-house-mirror image of America, its democratic institutions crumbling and its people perched between anarchy and totalitarianism.

Whoah! Who got up on the wrong side of The Daily Kos? Sometimes, J.R., it's just a movie. Let me repeat, sometimes, it's just a movie. Of course you probably call movies "cinema."

In his loathsome review, Jones issues a spoiler alert, but he apparently isn't aware, or just doesn't care, that people sometimes skim articles. Readers skim my blog posts. Jones gives away the ending of The Dark Knight. Sorry Jones-ey, but the world isn't hanging on every one of your words.

Why so serious?

Let me use my best Chicago accent to issue my opinion on Jones:

What a douchebag!

To comment on this post--serious responders only--please visit Marathon Pundit.

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Times of London: Conrad Black could get just a five year sentence

Former newspaper baron Conrad Black, former CEO of the Hollinger Group which once published the London Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, and Canada's National Post, could receive a surprisingly light prison term of five years when he is sentenced in Chicago next month, according to an exclusive report by the Times of London.

The rump of Hollinger is now called the Sun-Times Media Group, which publishes the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Southtown and a whole bunch of suburban newspapers, including the Morton Grove Champion.

Lord Black was found guilty of fraud and corruption charges in a federal court earlier this year, the office of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald prosecuted the case. The prosecution is asking for a sentence of 24-30 years, a possible death sentence for a 63 year-old man.

The Hollinger case was a major story in Great Britain and Black's native Canada, but not so here. Authors Dominick Dunne and Mark Steyn were regulars in the visitors section of the courtroom during the trial.

Former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson is a former Hollinger board member.

To comment on this post, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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Being up-front with readers ‘no long applicable’ at the Journal Star

From today's Journal Star:

A statement released Tuesday by the Dahlquist* family did not run in full in Wednesday editions. Sports Editor Bill Liesse felt it appropriate it run now. We have deleted a third paragraph regarding Danny's wake and funeral that is no longer applicable.

Well, thank you PJS from saving readers from having to read a whole paragraph that's no longer applicable. I'm sure readers will appreciate you for not wasting a whole 30 seconds of their day. But for those of us who are curious, what WAS that paragraph? Thanks to blogger Peoria Illinoisan, we can read it:

“Based on the intrusive behavior we have experienced the past two days, we will be very disappointed to see television cameras and reporters at the visitation and funeral for our son, Danny.”

Of course, the Journal Star sent reporters to attend both services (here) and had photographers outside both (here and here), making sure the grieving faces of friends and family members are recorded for posterity.

This is probably going to mark me as a heretic at the Church of the Public's Holy Right to Know, but I've never really agreed there's a need for the media to attend these things. The news media's job, in my humble opinion, is to increase the public's knowledge and understanding of the world so that they can better function in and promote a free society. I'm not sure how looking at photos of people's faces as they are crying over their dead relatives makes America a better place.

Someone is sure to say that media coverage is these events is a way for all Peorians to cope with the grief over this tragedy. I'm thinking that gawking isn't about helping people grieve. All the people who do need to grieve are already there.

The sad truth is that the media often hides behind claims of the public's right to know when all the media is doing is satisfying consumers urge for voyeurism.

These were services for one young man. The family's request for privacy should have been honored. Just because it was possible for reporters to attend and physical possible for photographers to stand across the street and snap pictures, that doesn't mean it SHOULD have happened.

But people can respectfully disagree on this issue. So let's put aside the issue of the morality and ethics of photographing a funeral against the family's wishes. There also the issue of the Journal Star's deliberate decision to keep its readers from knowing that they've been doing this against the stated wishes of the family. How ironic that the public's right to know doesn't include facts that make the PJS look bad. It's somewhat short of a lie, but not by much.

It would have been one thing to not report on the family's statement. It's quite another to report on it, but leave out that stuff that makes your news organization look bad.

Twenty years ago, they would have gotten away with it, because the good-old-boy media industry frowns on one news organization criticizing another. Sure, it might have ended up in some media review that the public never reads. But this is the age of the Internet. There's no way that bloggers weren't going to catch this and report on it. Did the journalistic brain trust at 1 News Plaza really think for one moment that bloggers wouldn't find out and call them on this?

The Peoria Journal Star: Unethical AND stupid. What a sad combination. And, how sad that this is what is becoming of Peoria's one and only daily newspaper. We need something new in Peoria.

* Background: Four Bradley University students face aggravated arson charges stemming from the death of their friend and roommate Danny Dahlquist. They have told police that the fire started as the result of a prank that went bad.

Cross posted to Peoria Pundits.

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Schakowsky wants to reinstate "Fairness Doctrine"

The Chicago area has six daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Defender, the Daily Herald, the Daily Southtown, and Northwest Indiana's Post-Tribune. Most metro areas get by with just one or two dailies.

However, from anywhere in the Chicago area, a listener can easily tune into at least a couple of dozen radio stations. Some are talk stations, some just play music, some are foreign language outlets. There are no shortage of options on the AM or FM dials.
If you hear something you don't like, you move on, or turn off the radio.

Unless you're a leftist Democrat like Jan Schakowsky, who represents me, sort of, in Congress. Then you propose legislation to permanently silence voices you don't agree with.

What Schakowsky wants to do is to bring back what was became known as "The Fairness Doctrine" to broadcast media. Always controversial, the "doctrine," in short, stipulated that TV and radio stations should allocate equal time to opposing points of view in regards to major issues and public policy. The FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 for a variety of reasons, among them was that the doctrine may not have survived a court challenge--Anyone heard of the First Amendment?

Once the Fairness Doctrine was gone, it allowed for the growth of talk radio, dominated by conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. AM stations, considered dinosaurs in the 1980s, now had something besides sports play-by-play to attract listeners to its less-than-perfect frequencies.

Of course, liberals got into the act, but with almost no success. (Could it be that their ideas stink?)

Schakowsky doesn't see it that way, telling CBS 2 Chicago:

Look, we want to make sure that all positions are represented and we feel that there is an overwhelming bias right now.

Is there bias on NPR, Jan?

In Chicago, many of the conservative talkers broadcast on WLS-AM. Roe Conn, who hosts a popular issues-of-the day show each weekday afternoon, isn't happy about enacting what I call the "Unfairness Doctrine," telling the same CBS 2 reporter:

There's bias in everything.There's bias in government. I mean everybody has a point of view and perspective. Shouldn't the consumer decide what's right and what's wrong?

Makes sense to me. And he elaborates:

You gonna tell Rush all of a sudden he's got to have Hillary Clinton on to counterbalance him every step of the way?

Chicago has an Air America outlet, and its general manager is against the "Unfairness Doctrine" too.

What do you think of that, Jan?

And yes Schakowsky, an Evanston Democrat, is a committed leftist. The independent political site GovTrack produced a graphic that puts her on the extreme left end of the congressional dial, along with better known lefties such as Dennis Kucinich, "Baghdad Jim" McDermott, Lynn Woolsey, and Henry Waxman.

The left loves diversity of opinion. Along as they agree with it.

Related Marathon Pundit posts:

Cong. Schakowsky's husband enters federal prison

Chicago Tribune's John Kass on Schakowsky and Creamer

Cong. Schakowsky: Choosing her "anti-semitism" battles

Obama and Schakowsky: Sometimes no picture is best

To comment on this post, please visit Marathon Pundit.

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