9/26/2003

SKINBACK . . . I would say scratch that reference to Daleys related to Duff-Greens on mother's side, as in today's posting and mailing. Wiser people than I have tried to verify it, to no avail. Sorry.

CHI TRIB LIVES! . . . 9/26/03, feast of N. Amer Martyrs, Sts. Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf & Companions, all S.J., Chi Trib's day to shine, in that its people exposed the Duff Family Pseudo-black some time back for posing as minority contractors and the Dist. Atty. announced indictments. Columnist Jn Kass crows on Don & Roma, and his enemies have no grounds to gainsay him. I take back at least 5% of what I have said about Chi Trib.

Seriously, folks, it's a Day to Remember for the once world's greatest newspaper, which is doing more than shooting loafing street crews, an important element of municipal investigation in the Colonel's day, a long time ago. Kass has been on the case, and now he can write in his sleep the column that zeroes in on Mayordaley II as Foney Baloney. Let us hear it for him and his ilk on the other side of Michigan Avenue.

THIS PLOT BE THICK . . . And let us hear it for Republicans and Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, without whom we would not have a D.A. who would go where his duty pointed him in re: Daley and Friends. Glory be to God for not necessarily intended consequences.

This is why Daley et al. plump constantly for Dem victories, including Bill as Gore campaign mgr. going to court in Florida. Bill was standing up for the Family as much as anything else.

In more ways that one: A caller to Don & Roma (WLS-AM, a.m. drive-time) said Mme. Duff is related to Rich on his mother's side. She would be Patricia Green Duff, 75, indicted with her son, a figurehead black man, and others. She is listed as president and sole owner of Windy City Maintenance, the allegedly fraudulently minority-owned company that "sprang from nowhere to garner approximately $100 million in city-related work since Mayor Richard Daley took office," per Chi Trib.

Her husband, John Duff Jr., 78, is former director of Windy City Maintenance and former executive in a liquor union known as Local 3. "He has been tied to organized crime, and in 1982 pleaded guilty to federal charges of embezzling union funds," again per Chi Trib.

Did we think the Duffs sprang from nowhere on the political scene? Blood tells. Tribalism will out. The saga of politics Daley-style goes on and on and on.

CLOSER . . . And by the way, this trenchant critic sharply distinguishes between hard-news-oriented city-side reporting by Chi Trib and the me-too liberalism that shows in national political and cultural coverage, where former elite-college students of tenured radicals hold sway.

There. Got that off the old chest.

9/19/2003

HIS BRITCHES GOT TOO SMALL?

"The Tribune's not much for promoting its people; it doesn't want to treat anybody as bigger than the paper. But [demoted-to-page-two columnist David] Greising was the best evidence of the stylish, provocative, savvy section that Business editor Rob Karwath presumably wants Business to become," said Chi Reader's Michael Miner last July -- http://www.chireader.com/hottype/2003/030725_1.html

Better late than never (from me) with this percipient observation by M. Miner. Greising, who followed weeks later by declining, like Melville's Bartleby the scrivener, to write for page two and got a reporting assignment instead, got too good at annoying rich and powerful CEOs, is my bet. He was too good, is the point. Mother Tribune likes you good but not too good. It makes her nervous.

HIS BRITCHES GOT TOO SMALL?

"The Tribune's not much for promoting its people; it doesn't want to treat anybody as bigger than the paper. But [demoted-to-page-two columnist David] Greising was the best evidence of the stylish, provocative, savvy section that Business editor Rob Karwath presumably wants Business to become," said Chi Reader's Michael Miner last July -- http://www.chireader.com/hottype/2003/030725_1.html

Better late than never (from me) with this percipient observation by M. Miner. Greising, who followed weeks later by declining, like Melville's Bartleby the scrivener, to write for page two and got a reporting assignment instead, got too good at annoying rich and powerful CEOs, is my bet. He was too good, is the point. Mother Tribune likes you good but not too good. It makes her nervous.

9/18/2003

9/18/03 SUN-TIMES . . .

DISEASE CONTROL . . . Page 3: "Heartier" germs develop from overuse of anti-biotics, says headline. No. Hardier, i.e. more hardy = more likely to withstand nullification by medication. Heads are done by copy desk, I assume; copy deskers are supposed to know better. Tsk, tsk.

CORRUPTION CONTROL . . . Page 9:

1. Connected city employe holds two city jobs, Chicago-style. He is brother-in-law of late Ald. Fred Roti, who did federal time.

2. Cicero ex-cop sues ex-mayor, now doing Fed time, and ex-police supt. for trashing his reputation for cooperating with FBI re: attempt to frame opposition mayoral candidate. Ex-Chi Ald. Ed Vrdolyak, acting as lawyer for ex-mayor et al., who years ago with current Chi Ald. Ed Burke led war vs. Mayor Harold Washington, played key role in ex-cop's troubles, getting very angry with him about helping FBI, says suit.

3. Gov. Blago may close troubled-minor home Maryville off to wards of state, this the day after a Fed. investigation into Maryville is reported. Investig. has to do with falsifying records of lead-up to a ward's suicide.

Fran Spielman in on the first story, of course. She monitors Daley and his people very well. John Kass of Chi Trib also does this, and Chi Trib columnist Denny Byrne too. Should this sort of coverage not be a preoccupation of city desks?

REST OF STORY? . . . Meanwhile, the boyish and irrepressible Richard Roeper discusses the disappearing dog whose loss well nigh broke the heart of the owner couple. This is Roeper's contribution to covering corruption in the city and suburbs.

Left unexplained is how this apparently yuppie couple (white, at that?) has come to live in East Garfield Park. Nothing about how that happens. What's going on there?

DETAILS OF THE CASE . . . Page 13 has Chi cop testifying in wrongful-death suit, admitting he was out of line when he smashed rear driver's side window with a tire iron after he and other cops finally curbed the car after a chase on the Dan Ryan some time back. (He also poked inside with his gun, shooting the driver dead, without meaning to do it, he says.)

But the windows were tinted, which meant he could not see inside; so smashing them makes sense. Also: the driver had arrogantly sped away from a traffic stop. He was NU BMOC footballer and decided he did not have to obey the law. He did not deserve death but deserved something, it would seem.

MORE DETAILS: CITY IS FULL OF SAME . . . Page 18 has 18-year-old found guilty in 2001 cop killing in alley in Pilsen. Defense said he misstook the cop for a rival gangster. But other gangsters said a white (non-Hispanic) man in their neighborhood wearing a bullet-proof vest and a badge on his belt was obviously not one of them, Plus, the kid, then 16, kept plugging him as he lay there.

This Ambrose vs. La Raza. Defendant faces life in prison, having proven himself as a gangster. But in prison he will be one less threat to life on the street.

GET 'EM, ED, DOROTHY, DICK . . . 9/2, Sun-Times, Ald. Burke, Ald. Tillman, Mayor Daley hit reparations trail, another case of good govt. being good politics. See justice-seekers, govt. types ready to sock it to businesses for sake of votes.

3. CHICAGO NEWSPAPERS, http://chicagonewspapers.blogspot.com/

9/18/03 SUN-TIMES . . .

DISEASE CONTROL . . . Page 3: "Heartier" germs develop from overuse of anti-biotics, says headline. No. Hardier, i.e. more hardy = more likely to withstand nullification by medication. Heads are done by copy desk, I assume; copy deskers are supposed to know better. Tsk, tsk.

CORRUPTION CONTROL . . . Page 9:

1. Connected city employe holds two city jobs, Chicago-style. He is brother-in-law of late Ald. Fred Roti, who did federal time.

2. Cicero ex-cop sues ex-mayor, now doing Fed time, and ex-police supt. for trashing his reputation for cooperating with FBI re: attempt to frame opposition mayoral candidate. Ex-Chi Ald. Ed Vrdolyak, acting as lawyer for ex-mayor et al., who years ago with current Chi Ald. Ed Burke led war vs. Mayor Harold Washington, played key role in ex-cop's troubles, getting very angry with him about helping FBI, says suit.

3. Gov. Blago may close troubled-minor home Maryville off to wards of state, this the day after a Fed. investigation into Maryville is reported. Investig. has to do with falsifying records of lead-up to a ward's suicide.

Fran Spielman in on the first story, of course. She monitors Daley and his people very well. John Kass of Chi Trib also does this, and Chi Trib columnist Denny Byrne too. Should this sort of coverage not be a preoccupation of city desks?

REST OF STORY? . . . Meanwhile, the boyish and irrepressible Richard Roeper discusses the disappearing dog whose loss well nigh broke the heart of the owner couple. This is Roeper's contribution to covering corruption in the city and suburbs.

Left unexplained is how this apparently yuppie couple (white, at that?) has come to live in East Garfield Park. Nothing about how that happens. What's going on there?

DETAILS OF THE CASE . . . Page 13 has Chi cop testifying in wrongful-death suit, admitting he was out of line when he smashed rear driver's side window with a tire iron after he and other cops finally curbed the car after a chase on the Dan Ryan some time back. (He also poked inside with his gun, shooting the driver dead, without meaning to do it, he says.)

But the windows were tinted, which meant he could not see inside; so smashing them makes sense. Also: the driver had arrogantly sped away from a traffic stop. He was NU BMOC footballer and decided he did not have to obey the law. He did not deserve death but deserved something, it would seem.

MORE DETAILS: CITY IS FULL OF SAME . . . Page 18 has 18-year-old found guilty in 2001 cop killing in alley in Pilsen. Defense said he misstook the cop for a rival gangster. But other gangsters said a white (non-Hispanic) man in their neighborhood wearing a bullet-proof vest and a badge on his belt was obviously not one of them, Plus, the kid, then 16, kept plugging him as he lay there.

This Ambrose vs. La Raza. Defendant faces life in prison, having proven himself as a gangster. But in prison he will be one less threat to life on the street.

GET 'EM, ED, DOROTHY, DICK . . . 9/2, Sun-Times, Ald. Burke, Ald. Tillman, Mayor Daley hit reparations trail, another case of good govt. being good politics. See justice-seekers, govt. types ready to sock it to businesses for sake of votes.

Copyright Jim Bowman, 2003

9/02/2003

PRAISE INDEED . . . "Washington, like Chicago, is a great news town," said Vickie Burns, a news show producer on her way to a Washington job. As opposed to what? Boston, where clergy abuse has been exposed in spades? Omaha, where the Boys Town financial scandal was exposed decades ago? Los Angeles? Cincinnati? Where is this city that is not a great news town and what is the meaning of such a statement except to butter people up?

COUNTING THE WAYS . . . Sun-Times item-purveyor Michael Sneed 8/28 has "I'm going to leave him in . . .able hands . . . " said Judy Baar-Topinka. But "I'll be taking one of the final voyages [on QEII]," chirped Judy. And "quoth [Warner] Saunders: "He kept saying . . . " Said, chirped, quoth? What's going on here? To keep up with that, a thesaurus is required.

DISSEMBLING . . . Robert McClory tore into the RC church in Chi Trib Perspective page one Sunday 8/17, contrasting its peremptory officialdom with that of the Episcopal Church U.S.A., where things are discussed and voted up or down. Perspective gave the other side, of course. [Just kidding.] But it also failed to identify McClory in a way to distinguish him from the dozens of academics/book authors to whom it gives space: he's professor emeritus of Medill journalism school, Northwestern, yes. He wrote the book Faithful Dissenters, etc., yes.

But he's also a founder and board member of Call to Action, the Chicago-based dissenting Catholic's national organization par excellence and long-time if not still a reporter for National Catholic Reporter, the liberal Catholic's vade mecum. Would not this be worth telling Chi Trib readers, even if McClory makes an iron-clad case vs. RC Church, including a history-oriented shot at the Galileo debacle?

CORRECTION . . . The further trouble is, McClory, also a long-time contributor to Chicago Reader, got in over his head with the Galileo business, specifically by claiming that some RC churchmen declined to look through Galileo's telescope, saying it was not necessary. McClory used the Galileo business to buttress his contention that the church's condemnation of homosexual activity is subject to change, no matter what today's churchmen say.

Not so fast, said Robert Bireley, Loyola U. history prof (and for truth in packaging here, a Jesuit and Renaissance historian, author most recently of The Jesuits and the Thirty Years War:
Kings, Courts, and Confessors (Cambridge U. Press, 2003) but also of The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450-1700 (Catholic U. Press, 1999), which is required reading at the U. of Missouri and maybe other places in Religious Studies 204: The Reformation to the Present, and of three other books, in a letter which Trib ran eight days later, 8/25.

That was no churchman who wouldn't look through the telescope, said Bireley; it was an atheist philosopher (whom he named), if it was anyone, and that's in doubt, there being no record of it. The Galileo case was bad enough, he said, but "let's not oversimplify."

McClory also aimed his peashooter at the church over slavery, in a short list of familiar grievances. But the church "had a lot to do with" ending slavery, medievalists agree, said Bireley. Indeed, a 1537 papal statement provided backup for anti-slavery work by churchmen in Latin America.

History, he said, in a closing rapping of McClory knuckles, is "messy and complicated," as any freshman knows. But McClory "ignores . . . circumstances" surrounding events and so "raises questions" about his trustworthiness in judging "contemporary matters."

And there you had a Medill professor emeritus not only inadequately identified by the once world's greatest newspaper, but also rebutted by a Loyola historian, in broad daylight.