We won’t see “Exposing Daley” anytime soon

WBBM-TV seems to have found a new franchise – “Exposing Xxxx Xxxxxxxx.”

It was a few months ago (Nov. 29, 2007, to be exact) that the CBS-owned television station in Chicago aired “Exposing Rod Blagojevich,” a nearly 8-minute report (or about one-third of the total newscast) that detailed just how unpopular Gov. Rod Blagojevich has become.

Monday night, we viewers of WBBM got to see political reporter Mike Flannery (with help from producer Ed Marshall – a long-time Chicago broadcaster who did a brief stint as former Illinois Comptroller Loleta Didrickson’s press secretary) do another similar report. This time, it was “Exposing Todd Stroger” – a 6-minute report that told us just how unpopular Cook County President Todd Stroger has become.

There wasn’t anything terribly new – or at least nothing that those of us who pay attention to the Chicago Sun-Times or other newspapers didn’t already know. Todd has several relatives and friends in mid- to high-ranking positions on the Cook County government payroll, all of who receive salaries of at least $100,000.

About the most interesting tidbit I got out of the WBBM report was that Stroger works out of a fancy office with an incredible view of Lake Michigan – just like a lot of other people who work in downtown Chicago.

The logical next step would be “Exposing Daley.” If one is going to go after the governor and the county board president, then “getting” the mayor of Chicago would be the natural completion to the trio of political powerhouses.

Somehow, I doubt there will be any such report.

Getting people to take pot shots at Blagojevich and Stroger is ridiculously easy. In fact, the trick for a reporter-type is to figure out which critics actually know what they’re talking about – and which are just sore losers.

Taking shots at Daley is a different matter – Hizzoner Jr. has the ability to crush anybody who tries to speak out against him, which will inhibit the number of people willing to go on camera and talk political trash. WBBM would literally have to resort to putting Daley critics in the shadows and distorting their voices to even consider getting them to talk.

In short, it isn’t going to happen.

We have a better chance of seeing “Exposing Madigan” (take your pick, Mike or Lisa) or “Exposing Obama” before we see anyone go after the Man on Five.

-30-

EDITOR’S NOTES: For those who missed it, “Exposing Stroger” will live on forever (http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/exposing.todd.stroger.2.722376.html) on the Internet.

“Exposing Blagojevich” was entertaining by television news standards, but it hardly broke much (http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/exposing.rod.blagojevich.2.598424.html) in the way of new ground.

(Originally published at http://www.ChicagoArgus.blogspot.com/)

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An argument against the "Fairness Doctrine," Lar Daly

A liberal blogger, Rob of Illinois Reason, is having fun at my expense because I'm against the renewal of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine." The misnamed broadcast requirement became part of the regulatory swagger of the Federal Communications Commission in 1949 stating that broadcasters "afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance."

The broadcast airwaves were viewed as a scarce resource then. Since 1949, the number of television stations and radio outlets has grown dramatically, shooting the scarcity argument in favor of the "Fairness Doctrine" down.

In the 1980s the Reagan administration, no fan of government regulation, steadily chipped away at the "Fairness Doctrine" until 1987, when the FCC, stocked with Reagan appointees, abolished it altogether.

Well done, Gipper.

And shortly thereafter, conservative talkers such as Rush Limbaugh and a whole bunch of others put down stakes in the dying AM band of the radio dial, and helped engineer the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.

The Democrats, whose supporters dominate the other media, plotted almost immediately after the it long overdue cancellation to put the "Fairness Doctrine" into law. But Republican Congresses and presidents have stood in the way since then.

The "Fairness Doctrine" is anything but fair. Pundits have rightfully remarked that re-instituting such constraints on freedom of speech is analogous to Hugo Chavez shutting down opposition television stations in Venezuela.

But the libs claim all they want are "equal voices" on the airwaves.

Be careful what you wish for.

Chicagoans my age and older may remember Lar "America First" Daly. Sometimes he ran as a Democrat, sometimes as a Republican, other times for his "America First" party.

For many years Daly campaigned in an Uncle Sam suit, until a tragedy of sorts struck--someone stole the costume and Daly never bothered to replace it.

Daly was opposed to public schools, supported casino gambling (he was ahead of this time on that one), and he was supporter capital punishment for members of the Communist Party, along with a whole bunch of other extreme causes.

In 1975, while my brothers and tuned in to WGN-TV early for a Saturday night Chicago Black Hawks hockey game, we caught in-progess Lar Daly instead. Daly, we learned at the end of the broadcast, had commandeered airtime from WGN as a result of the "equal time" provision of the "Fairness Doctrine."

This was not the first time Daly knocked the puck at the back of the net, so to speak, as Time Magazine described in 1959 and 1964.

After several presidential runs and attempts to win the office of Mayor of Chicago from the incumbent Richard J. Daley, the legendary "Boss of Chicago," "No 'E'" Daly threw his hat in the mayoral ring once again. And he forced WGN to air a half hour of his mindless ramblings before the Black Hawks hit the ice.

I can't remember his precise political positions for that campaign, but it was standard, for him that is, whack job stuff.

But what stands out to me 32 years later was the "Lar Daly Curse." During on Channel 9 rant, Daly explained in his resonant baritone that he had placed a curse on the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert of course, for knocking him off of the Democratic ballot in the 1960 New Hampshire primary.

I can't remember his precise words, but he said something along the lines of "Both of them are now dead."

Both men of course were assassinated, and the Kennedy killings in 1975 were still fairly recent events. To put it into perspective, 9/11 happened six years ago--seven years to prior '75, Bobby Kennedy was shot to death.

Daly then went on to place a new curse: This time on Mayor Richard J. Daley.

Read closely now supporters of the "Fairness Doctrine": Because of that ditched regulation you want put into law, it's by no means a stretch of the imagination that you'll have a crackpot like Lar Daly on television implying a death curse on a leading public official. Or worse, a Jihadist nut.

Is that your idea of "fairness?"

Be careful of what you wish for.

Mayor Daley did die, of natural causes, a year later. Not to be outdone, Lar Daly followed him to the next world in 1979. History has not recorded if he had been cursed beforehand.

Of course Richard J. Daley's son now rules Chicago, the Daley family, with an "E" that is, one-upped Lar Daly.

And if Lar Daly was around today, he probably wouldn't think that was fair.

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Mike Wallace, onetime host of Chicago's "Miss Tavern Pale Beauty Pageant"

This is my Mother's Day post. With Mike Wallace being fresh in the news with tonight's already controversial interview with Mitt Romney airing this evening, now is a good time to hop in the "Wayback Machine."

A few years ago I was at the Marathon Pundit boyhood home in Palos Heights, Illinois, and "60 Minutes" came on.

There was a report by Mike Wallace, and my mother remarked, "You know, that Wallace is so smug, but I remember when he was the host of the 'Tavern Pale Beauty Pageant.'"

Space considerations were undoubtedly the reason this important part of Wallace's career were left out of his official CBS biography.

She explained in the early days of Chicago's WGN-TV, pro wrestling, hosted by Chicago Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse, was one of its most popular programs.

During the intermissions of that show, WGN switched over to the beauty contest. Tavern Pale, a now-defunct local brew popular with blue collar folks, sponsored both the matches and the the Wallace-hosted beauty pageants.

The pageants, my mother told me, usually took place in bars in industrial neighborhoods such as South Chicago and Belmont-Cragin, and featured gum-smacking women, probably named Angie or Stella, competing to become Miss Tavern Pale for a week.

My mom's recollections of Wallace as pageant host are pretty clear--she says he was an enthusiastic emcee, and at the time, it seemed to her an impossibility that he'd be the serious journalist he became just a few years later.

Tonight I'll be at at my mother's house watching Wallace ask Governor Romney and his wife if they had pre-marital sex, I'll be wishing Romney replied back, "Hey, Wallace, didn't you used to host the Miss Tavern Pale beauty pageant....and did you ever...you know...with one of the contestants...."

Or can ask. So Mike, "Did you?"

Oh, Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thanks for the inspiration for this post.

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