The [Tuesday] Papers

Seeing as how "this reporter" has an "exclusive" about Barack Obama calling Emil Jones on Monday, the time is ripe to ask the candidate of a new kind of politics if he condones his self-described political mentor installing his son into his old job.

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Maybe at Chicago Night in Denver, which sounds an awful lot like Apalachin.

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"Emil Jones III, 31, worked for the state between May 1999 and November 2006, when he briefly left the payroll," the Sun-Times reports. "Despite not having a college degree, he was hired in April 2007 as an administrator for Gov. Blagojevich's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity - a job that pays $59,436. Attempts to reach him Monday were unsuccessful."

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"Give him a chance to prove himself," state Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island) says.

At the exclusion of everyone else?

This reminds me of rich kids who tend to say things like "My father got me the interview, but I had to get the job."

Yes, and getting the interview is half the battle. Plus, your father got you the job, too.

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State Sen. Ricky Hendon (D-Chicago), now vying for the presidency of the Illinios Senate, told Carol Marin last night on Chicago Tonight that "maybe three groups did it incorrectly out of a hundred" when she questioned him about a recent education grant scandal. In fact, Hendon bragged about what he called a 97 percent success rate.

But that's not what the facts show.

"[A] Tribune investigation found that nearly half of the 48 groups that got money this past school year were running dubious programs, or declined to show how they spent the money. Only 11 of the grants went to established programs with a history of tutoring or mentoring school-age children," the paper reported last month.

"All of the questionable projects share the same sponsor: West Side Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), who awarded many grants to campaign workers and donors, the investigation found."

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Illinois Republicans could do worse than to run Christine Radogno - who was also on the show last night - for governor. If she'd played basketball with Obama in Hyde Park like Alexi Giannoulias used to, maybe she'd be state treasurer right now.

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John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) are definitely running for the senate presidency. But this will impress Terry Link's colleagues.

Vote Clown
"The lone opponent [Emil Jones III] he'd face is perennial candidate Ray Wardingley."

Seriously, let's make this Wardingley's year.

Keeping Tabs
The Sun-Times's big front page story on Monday actually already appeared on page 40 of the most recent National Enquirer.

A faithful Beachwood reader writes:

"The Enquirer used the same photos, too - provided by the couple's wedding photographer.

"The actual wedding incident happened more than a month ago (in Lakeside, Mich.)

"None of the people arrested are from Chicago.

"I just find it interesting that the Sun-Times is using the Enquirer as a big news source - and running old news about a stupid wedding, that didn't even happen in Chicago, on its front page.

"Didn't anything happen in Chicago yesterday?

"Pretty lame."

Meet the Internet
Chicago Tonight host Phil Ponce and business correspondent Kris Kridel briefly discussed last night the launch of Huffington Post Chicago.

Kridel mentioned that the site includes content from a variety of sources, including the Tribune and Sun-Times.

PONCE: Why would the Tribune and Sun-Times allow their content on the Huffington Post?

KREIDEL: I think that, like Matt Drudge, they think it will send traffic to their own sites.

Um, okay, first, to turn on your computer you push this button right here . . .

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Just to be clear, HuffPo links to the papers but does not republish their content. First time on the Internet, guys?

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Speaking of HuffPo, Kevin Allman takes on Fred Armisen's lame post and we fact-check the mess that is John Cusack's insipid love letter to Chicago.

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Also, local pols now know they have an outlet besides the Sun-Times to publish their press releases.

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Memo to local HuffPo contributors: I'll pay you a dollar to write for me, which is a dollar more than multi-millionaire Arianna Huffington is paying you. Yes, I know I don't have the same kind of purchased glory that you can reflect in, but who knows, maybe in time . . .

Enquiring Minds
I guess it's too much to expect of oldstream media to understand something as basic as linking. After all, during the John Edwards saga the MSM (a term just now catching Neil Steinberg's attention; but then Richard Roeper recently wrote that he would finally stop using "LOL") repeatedly referred to the Enquirer as the kind of publication that writes about space aliens performing sex probes here on Earth, but the magazine is actually several years into a pivot toward celebrity and scandal news, having discovered that at least a gauzy version of the truth is far more fascinating than anything anybody could make up.

No, these days if you're looking for made-up stories about alien intervention, you can just turn to your daily paper.

Northerly Island

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