By Steve Rhodes

1. Tribune public editor Timothy McNulty responds today to Bill Moyers’ Buying the War program, which aired Wednesday night, by examining his paper’s performance in cheerleading the Iraq War instead of questioning the basic presumptions that were so obviously false even to many at the time. McNulty also talks to the Trib’s editors and reporters about what went wrong and why; the Trib staff was remarkably cooperative in the interest of the transparency, honesty, and truth they say their paper is built on – and which they demand of the subjects they write about.
Oh, wait. That didn’t happen. Instead, McNulty served up a bunch of mush.
2. John Records Landecker was forced by 104.3 management when he was on the air there to stop playing a version of the National Anthem sung by the Dixie Chicks. See comment No. 2 in yesterday’s column.
3. The best analysis of last night’s debate in South Carolina between the Democratic presidential candidates happens to be ours.

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Posted on April 27, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

It wasn’t news to those of us who have been paying attention, but Bill Moyers’ Buying the War on PBS last night was still enough to make me want to ring up Tony Peraica and lead a drunken midnight march on the Tribune, Sun-Times, and the local television stations for their role in leading this country to a historically tragic war. They have blood on their hands.
And they still haven’t owned up.

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Posted on April 26, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

1. “Meanwhile, an Obama staffer, sent to watch us, nimbly Blackberried our movements to someone inside,” Carol Marin writes today. “Suddenly, bodyguards pulled the SUV down into a parking garage, grabbed Obama, and with wheels squealing, sped out and away.”
Maybe he was just fleeing from cynicism.
2. What’s fascinating about Marin’s account about her and Sun-Times reporter Tim Novak seeking answers from Obama about dilapidated low-income housing built in his state senate district by his self-described political godfather Tony Rezko is how patient they were – how many opportunities Obama had to explain – and how he still hasn’t done so to any degree of adequacy.
Maybe he’s campaigning on the hope that the whole thing will just go away.
3. Marin points out that Michelle Obama just got done telling the Tribune how scrupulous the man is about the details of his life. And yet, he seems to have a problem remembering the details of his stock portfolio, the purchase of his own house, the events of his childhood and young adult life, and the existence of government-financed ghetto buildings in his district that were built with help from his law firm and were the target of several city lawsuits.
Maybe he really did learn everything he needed to know about America in Springfield.

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Posted on April 25, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

Barack Obama and his campaign spurned questions from the Sun-Times for more than a month about dilapidated low-income housing built in his state senate district by political patron Tony Rezko.
At a South Side campaign stop on Monday, Obama finally spoke: “Should I have known that these buildings were in a state of disrepair? My answer would be that it wasn’t brought to my attention.”
Of course, complaints about slumlords are usually directed at aldermen and/or the city housing department, as Obama noted in separate comments to the Tribune.
Once again, though, Obama is skirting the issue.

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Posted on April 24, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

The insurgency in my throat has been largely put down, but things here at Beachwood HQ are still in a state of postwar chaos. I’ll get caught up as the week goes along.
Being Barack
The Sun-Times expands today on Barack Obama’s relationship with indicted political wheel Tony Rezko in the first of a two-part investigation, this part called “Obama and His Slumlord Patron.”
The paper reports that “new facts [have] come to light that paint Rezko as a landlord overseeing dilapidated housing in the middle of Obama’s former state Senate district,” and that “Obama did legal work on some Rezko deals.”
As the paper acknowledges, the scope of Obama’s work remains unknown. But his involvement at some level is unmistakable – as is the absence of evidence Obama ever spoke up for the low-income citizens in his district whose lives were made miserable by the crappy housing Rezko built for them, even as he was taking campaign contributions from Rezko. On that score, the campaign would only say – in a written statement – that “Senator Obama did follow up on constituency complaints about housing as a matter of routine.”

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Posted on April 23, 2007

By Natasha Julius

In the wake of a shocking public split, we would like to point out that the Weekend Desk has been gum-free and well bathroom-oriented since 2006.
Axing Upset
Vegas will be licking its wounds for quite some time after 25-1 long-shot Frank Kruesi sailed to victory over heavy favorite Alberto Gonzales in this year’s Doing a Heckuva Job Derby. Experts note, however, that while this first jewel in politics’ triple crown was a shocker, a return to form is almost certain in the Empty Threats Stakes and the Tasteless Pandering event.

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Posted on April 21, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

On the road to recovery, but not quite ready to pump out a regular column. I’ll catch up sometime today and/or over the weekend and, for sure, things will be back to normal by Monday. In the meantime, I can assure you that all the people who usually lie to you are still doing so, and all the suck-ups and posers who enable them continue unabated.
In the meantime, new material is posted throughout the site. And remember, the archives for each section are available by month in the upper left rail of each section front. We’re working on design changes and other site improvements we hope will be ready soon. You can find the archives for this column and The Weekend Desk Report here.

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Posted on April 20, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

So here’s something interesting: apparently only kids get strep throat. I do, however, have some other kind of virus attacking my throat and it’s quite painful. OWWWWWWW! Did you feel that? It’s like that when I swallow.
I have a bit of a history with this stuff. A few years ago I wound up in the emergency room after I couldn’t take the pain anymore, and I was diagnosed with pharyngitis, which I think is Greek for “really bad sore throat.”
My friends were a bit skeptical, and even my doctor at the time said during a visit a few days later, “You went to the emergency room for a sore throat?”

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Posted on April 19, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

So I was trying to avoid watching coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy on Monday night but still managed to come across cable news broadcasters, including Keith Olbermann, citing a Michael Sneed report on the Sun-Times website that the shooter was a Chinese national.
I had a feeling then that I would be writing this now.
The shooter, of course, was not a Chinese national. He was a South Korean.
When will Michael Sneed be held accountable?

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Posted on April 18, 2007

By Steve Rhodes

I have nothing insightful to say about the Virginia Tech shootings. Except that you’ll be hearing from a lot of other people who also have nothing insightful to say in the coming days, but will insist on saying it anyway.
Suburban Spy
“A Des Plaines man accused of spying in the United States for the regime of Saddam Hussein was convicted in U.S. District Court Monday and faces up to 40 years in prison,” the Tribune reports.
“He spied on this community, judge,” federal prosecutor James Conway said in court. “It’s very, very serious. We’re talking about a spy.”
That’s what I say. We’re talking about a spy! The real deal, it seems, unlike, say, the yahoos in Miami with delusions of blowing up the Sears Tower who sparked a media frenzy. I guess the absence of alarmist gibberish and the words “Sears Tower” dampens the enthusiasm of editors for a story like this, but here’s the kind of guy who actually might have been activated to do real damage. After all, this case actually held up.
And guess what? He worked as a gate agent at O’Hare.
“Prosecutors had called the case remarkable, a ‘sleeper spy’ sent by Iraq to settle in the U.S. and await orders,” the Tribune account says.
Remarkable indeed. Perhaps even front-page news – in an alternate Chicago universe.

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Posted on April 17, 2007