By Steve Rhodes

1. I was tipped to these Chandler Bigelow nuggets:
“His mother is the director of Chateau des Enfants, a private school in Lugano, Switzerland,” his New York Times wedding announcement reports. “His father is a vice president at the Cronheim Mortgage Company in Morristown, N.J.”
And:
“Encouraged by former Tribune Chairman John Madigan, a family friend, he applied for an entry-level job in Tribune’s finance group in 1998,” Crain’s reports.
Too perfect.

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Posted on August 6, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Welcome back to The Chandler Bigelow Show.
Today’s episode: Cash Flow Is For Closers.
Let’s watch.
“Although only confidence flowed from deal participants in 2007, the report shows that what held the complex, two-stage transaction together was mostly fear of getting sued if it fell apart,” the Tribune reports.
“The banks that had agreed to finance the deal wanted out, the documents show, and in the offices of Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate magnate who orchestrated the LBO, debate ensued over whether to bail.”

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Posted on August 5, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

A news organization’s business side is (theoretically) separate from its editorial side, but when the business side doesn’t conform to the editorial side’s values – which in large part establish a media company’s brand – the organization loses its moral authority.
For example, it’s hard to take the Tribune’s carping – as agreeable as I am to the rationale – about Pat Quinn giving raises to his staff during a time of great financial distress (see “Clueless in Illinois“) when the Tribune Company wants to hand out exorbitant bonuses as well as golden parachutes to its top executives even as it languishes in bankruptcy court.
Yes, there is a difference between public money and private. But greed, self-dealing and financial mismanagement stinks no matter who is perpetrating it, and a news organization opens itself up to charges of hypocrisy as well as simply damaging its own credibility.
When a U.S. bankruptcy trustee says the Tribune Company doesn’t understand “shared sacrifice,” it sounds like a phrase ripped from a Tribune editorial pointing a finger at everyone but themselves. Breathless reporting, however justified, about shenanigans in corporate suites rings hollow when reporters seem oblivious to what is going on in their own.

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Posted on August 4, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

“Ask people what they like most about living in the Chicago area, and the answers aren’t much different than what you’d expect from the millions of tourists who flock here each year – cultural activities, the lakefront and restaurants,” the Tribune reports.
And yet, we wasted time, effort and resources doing it anyway!
Tomorrow: What’s your favorite month? Oh wait . . .
Geez, what’s next, reprising the Sun-Times’s hottest fan contest?
Oh wait . . .

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Posted on August 3, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

1. Wow, what’s next, Blackhawks drop Chief Blackhawk?
2. “When he arrives at the Markham courthouse, Adam receives a hero’s homecoming,” the Tribune reports. “It’s one of his first appearances there since the trial began, and seemingly everyone wants to talk to him. Sheriff’s deputies and defense attorneys hug him and offer their congratulations, while a fully robed judge steps off the bench and goes into the hallway to shake his hand.
“Another judge welcomes him back, then criticizes some rulings that Zagel made against the Blagojevich defense team.”
Isn’t that, um, inappropriate?
Name that judge!

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Posted on August 2, 2010

By Natasha Julius

Um, we’re maybe not the best guides for this weekend’s biggest stories. Apparently, we missed out on a significant chunk of contemporary American culture. We’ll do our best for you.
Market Update
Growth on the Celebrity Gossip exchange slowed dramatically this quarter as analysts projected the market is dramatically over-developed.

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Posted on July 31, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Sorry for not being excited about the return of Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson to the Channel 2 anchor desk, but neither has any rightful place in a newsroom anymore.
From the Trib last December:
“Dignitaries at an announcement today for the new French Market at the Ogilvie Transportation Center were treated to a bit of political theater featuring a deep-voiced announcer, heckler and a mayor irked at some aldermen.
“It all began with Chicago TV legend Bill Kurtis, mustering his best baritone voice to introduce Mayor Richard Daley: ‘The king of public-private partnerships, who of course makes all this possible. . . . Ladies and gentlemen, with a tip of the hat today to Paris, let’s give a big Chicago welcome to, how we say, the greatest mayor in the greatest city in the world, Mayor Richard Daley!'”

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Posted on July 30, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Sam Adam Jr. and his mentally ill client reached out to the jury through the media again on Wednesday, hoping to God the panel is disobeying the rules and watching TV coverage of the case that is now in their hands.
Adam broke down in tears describing how Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids program saved his premature child’s life. Apparently Adam, one of the city’s elite defense attorneys in business with his father, another of the city’s elite defense attorneys, was broke and without health insurance just four years ago.
Without All Kids, Adam told a media throng on the day the case went to the jury, doctors “would’ve probably recommended an abortion,” Adam said.
What?

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Posted on July 29, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Notes from a trial – or Why Sam Adam Jr. Sucks.
1. “[Sam] Adam started [his closing argument] by taking the heat for not making good on his promise that the former governor would take the stand,” the Sun-Times reports.
“I gave you my word, and I meant every word of it,” Adam told the jury. “I had no idea, no idea that in two months of trial they would prove nothing.”
Wait. So Adam thought prosecutors would prove something?

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Posted on July 28, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

It’s not that Sam Adam Jr. is willing to go to jail for his client. It’s that he’s willing to do anything to win his case. Think of the acclaim; think of his future earning power.
What happened in court yesterday was as much about Adam, if not more, than Rod Blagojevich. Adam wants to win bad – and not for all the right reasons.
“Adam argued he should be able to tell jurors that the government mentioned 35 people in its case – including Tony Rezko and Stuart Levine – but never called them as witnesses,” the Sun-Times explains.
“‘You cannot draw an evidentiary inference from the fact a witness was not called by the other side when you had an equal right to call them,’ [Judge James] Zagel told Adam.”
Case closed.

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Posted on July 27, 2010