July 2009 Archives

We like to think newspapers will be around for awhile. You can imagine why. But we like to think you appreciate the powerful importance of newspapers, too, even as you may find great fault with them. A fundamental recognition of the value of a newspaper -- and of professional news-gathering operations in general -- may have led you to this Sun-Times blog.

What then do you make of this Salon interview with Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, who seems to value twittering at least as much as he values the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal?

Twittering?

We're all for new social networking tools, but Anderson says it's time to dump the very vocabulary of serious professional journalism -- words like "journalism," "news" and "media."

Is Anderson's digital optimism brilliant or inane?

The working title of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's new book, due out in September, is The Governor.

If that doesn't grab you, he added this teaser: "The truth behind the political scandal that continues to rock the nation."

This scandal may be rocking Blagojevich's world. It's a bit of a stretch to suggest it's rocking the nation.

Any dissenter out there? Anyone got a better title?

If you have time and money (and brain cells) to burn, Amazon.com is offering pre-sales of the book. It has even dropped the price, from $24.95 to $16.47.

Here's the description:

THE GOVERNOR provides the most comprehensive look to date at the life of a twice-elected public official in the notoriously complicated world of Illinois politics. We take a tour through the segregated neighborhoods of Chicago, a city of great ethnic diversity, and see firsthand how those divides can evolve into cabals that rival anything found on the national political scene.

We follow the governor as he is awakened early one morning -his young daughter sleeping peacefully beside him - and unceremoniously arrested by FBI agents without knowing the charges being brought against him. We see the harsh glare of the spotlight, the media whirlwind already staking out his home and family, rushing to judgment before even the governor himself knew what crimes he'd been accused of committing. We follow him through the maze of political conspiracies that threaten to unseat and impeach the governor of the fifth largest state in the U.S. -forces brought to light by the ambition of an attorney general and the greed of her Democratic State Party Chairman father -as well as the zeal of a federal prosecutor and the manipulations of a disloyal lieutenant governor.

The behind-the-scenes workings to fill the Senate seat vacated by the most popular President-elect in decades becomes something much more incendiary when wiretapped conversations are used by authorities to commit the arrest. But, as the governor soon learns, those tapes are not allowed to be played at his impeachment hearings in the House or Senate. What is on those tapes? And why will the prosecution not let them be heard if they were the primary factor in initiating the arrest that started this political scandal in the first place?

Quoting from sources as diverse as Jim Wallis' God's Politics to Aeschylus , Shakespeare to The Purpose Driven Life, THE GOVERNOR provides not just an inside look at politics on a state and national level but a treatise on the proper place of government in the everyday lives of its people.

It is a mandate for healthcare reform, which the governor feels is the civil rights issue of our lifetime. It is a clarion cry, remarkably, against cynicism in modern governing and a return to a more thoughtful and informed sense of government that views its state budgets as "moral documents." It is a lament against the current state of the political landscape, one that too often is wracked by scandal and interwoven with a media-driven culture obsessed with scandal and snap judgments.

And it is a proclamation that one man will not be silenced, that his side of the story must be heard and that the fight for American liberties and freedom must sometimes occur within its own borders.

In case anyone has forgotten how much power a few families wield over politics in Illinois, the likely 2010 election line-up allows for a nice recap:

The first domino fell when Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's daughter opted not to run for U.S. Senate or governor.

Now, we're waiting to see if Bobby Kennedy's son will go for the U.S. Senate or Illinois governor.

If Kennedy goes for the governor's race, he may face the son of former Illinois Senate President and Cook County assessor Tom Hynes.

The younger Hynes, however, may have trouble in that race because the son of Old Man Daley has already heaped praise on the current governor, Pat Quinn.

Finally, the son of former County Board President John Stroger also will face voters.

Got it?

Anyone got a problem with that?

The Better Government Association, as of this writing, looks to have convinced Cook County Board President Todd Stroger to hand over the cellphone records of four former employees or employees -- himself included -- involved in the hiring of an ex-restaurant worker with a bad habit of breaking the law, Tony Cole.

This is good for the county. Good for honest government. And, we're happy to add, good for Chicago's deserved reputation as a town where public corruption investigations are aggressive and effective.

For this, credit goes to the media -- newspapers above all, but also to TV news. It goes to the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, which is traditionally more agressive than most of its counterparts around the country. And it goes to the BGA, which for many years worked closely with the media.

Most famously, the BGA partnered with the Sun-Times in the late 1970s to pull off one of the most celebrated newspaper investigations ever -- The Mirage. That was the name of a bar that the Sun-Times opened and ran with the BGA just to document how city inspectors and others put the squeeze on local businesses.

The BGA grew a little soft in more recent years, but under its new boss, former newsman Andy Shaw, it's obviously looking to make waves again.

And that can only be good.

So I read in the paper that Rod Blagojevich is going to try his hand at hosting a talk radio show, doing a couple of hours on Sunday afternoons on WLS-AM for the next two weeks.

Having co-hosted a Saturday morning show myself -- "Hayner and McNamee" -- on WLS for five years back in the 1990s, I thought I might offer the former governor a few pointers.

I could be cynical about this and suggest that he do what most of the biggest fish in the business do:

1] Pander
2] Bully
3] Demonize
4] Distort the truth
5] Make stuff up
6] Forsake all intellectual honesty

Or I could offer Blagojevich the most practical kind of advice:

1] Push the cough button before you cough
2] Get back from the men's room before the news break ends
3] Never spout poetry

But I've decided to take this seriously. Because talk radio really matters. Just look at how those spineless clowns in Washington suck up to Rush Limbaugh.

Besides, it is entirely possible to get big in talk radio without selling your soul.

Case in point: Roe Conn.

When I first met Roe, he was doing the Saturday morning show on WLS just before Don Hayner and I came on. Now he's the station's hugely popular (and rich) afternoon drive host.

And how did Roe do it?

By being smart.

And funny.

And almost freakishly well-informed.

Roe Conn doesn't play the bluster game. He doesn't throw out red meat for the drool crowd. He doesn't rant or call people names or interrupt.

He just knows more than you do (or at least more than I do) about everything.

He brings to his game the logic of a lawyer and (when he's not forcing it) the timing of a standup comic.

And because he's a smart host, he gets smart callers.

Well, on average.

So that's my honest advice to Rod -- be like Roe.

Will Blago take it?

I'll believe it when I hear it.

In the hierarchy of wacko conspiracy theories, the claim that the United States never really landed a man on the Moon -- everything was faked in a TV studio -- traditionally has ranked somewhat below the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't really kill JFK and UFOs are zipping all all over the place.

But now you can pretty much count on "faked moonwalk" shooting to the top of the conspiracy theory charts, with a bullet.

Blame it on NASA, who admitted this week after a three year search that it either permanently misplaced or taped over the original videotape of the first moonwalk, on July 20, 1969.

Accident ... or cover-up?

And where was Obama?

Those of us who run the editorial page side of things here at the Sun-Times have what a researcher now tells us are NOT "bad boy" names. We've got a Tom, a Rich, a couple of Steves. We've also got a Kate and a Mary, which we suspect are "good girl" names, but the researcher didn't study that side of the gender fence.

But is a name really destiny? Is an Alec or a Luke really more likely to go wrong?

This is sensitive ground. Some years back, the late great Chicago columnist Mike Royko got into piping hot water when he suggested that African-American kids might have a better chance of success in the larger world if they were not given obvious African-American names. Angry readers pointed out that nobody would dare tell members of other groups -- such as the Irish with their Seans and the Italians with their Roccos -- to cool it on the ethnic pride. Royko quickly apologized.

All the same, there really is power in a name, right? As the blogger at Babble.com says, we all know from Johnny Cash that you can bet on a life of grief if you're "a boy named Sue."

We went to the Moon, took a lot of photos, gathered up a bunch of rocks, went home -- and after 1972 never went back.

A thoughtful essay by Ronald Bailey in the libertarian journal Reason says that's because the spirit of adventure will get you only so far. Earthlings won't go to the Moon again, Bailey says, until there's money in it, but nobody has figured out how to turn a profit on Moon dust or Moon tourism.

Our first thought was that Bailey puts way too much emphasis on the importance of money and free markets (as libertarians will do) to explain three decades of indifference to the Moon since the Apollo missions. But our second thought was he's probably right.

Reason has a nice way of cutting through the emotional clutter.

Our third thought, not to be crass, is that somebody out there must have a good idea about how to make a buck on Moon.

All suggestions are welcome.

The state legislature today (Wednesday) is expected to vote on legislation to regulate the now-largely unregulated business of running cemeteries.

In the aftermath of the Burr Oak Cemetery fiasco, everyone wants to get in on the regulating.

A set of proposals emerged late Tuesday out of Comptroller Dan Hynes' office, drafted with members of the Legislative Black Caucus and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. State Senate President John Cullerton and Gov. Quinn also are involved.

The highlights include:
- requiring all cemetery staff who sell plots to be licensed, just like doctors, barbers and cosmetologists.
- requiring cemeteries to provide "reasonable maintenance."
- requiring cemeteries to keep detailed maps and records and to file them with the county recorder of deeds.
- creating a consumer bill of rights.

For more detail check out Hynes' press release:

http://www.ioc.state.il.us/news/viewnewsrelease.cfm?id=2070837254

What do you think? Are these good ideas or will the rush to clean up after Burr Oak leave us with laws we don't need?

University of Illinois Trustee Lawrence Eppley was getting grilled Tuesday by the state commission investigating the scandal that is the school's admission policy.

In short, kids with clout were getting in over qualified kids without connections.

Eppley, as the former trustee board chairman, was at the center of the scandal at times, but was reluctant to admit using any clout.

Eppley said he would simply forward requests regarding students, no pressure involved.

Eppley said he was merely making "inquiries."

Abner Mikva, the head of the state commission and a former White House counsel, grew frustrated at Eppley's way with words and his implication that he was merely forwarding things along.

"You weren't the postman?" Mikva asked.

Eppley had to agree he was more than a postman.

So, OK, Judge Sonia Sotomayor finally confessed Tuesday, maybe she goofed when she uttered that now infamous line about a "wise Latina" reaching "a better conclusion than a white male."

It was "a rhetorical flourish that fell flat," she told the Senate Judicary Committee.
Sotomayor explained that she was trying at the time to play off an earlier comment by former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same results in a case.

"I was trying to play on her words," Sotomayor said. "My play afell flat. It was bad."
But in no way, she said, would she allow here "personal views and sympathies" to guide her rulings on the Supreme Court.

As we write in today's lead editorial, we think this whole thing has been overblown. As a jurist, Sotomayor has a 17-year track record of ruling according to the law.

But if you were troubled by her "wise Latina" comment before, has anything she's said to the Senate committee changed your mind?