Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

Campaigns are almost always referendums on incumbents, but in the case of Rauner vs. Quinn, it’s a referendum on Rauner. I explain in Beachwood Podcast No. 6, after our discussion of the latest episode of Chicagoland.
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Planning and production of a new, separate podcast, The Beachwood Radio Hour, is underway. This show will be a Beachwood week-in-review more tightly focused on Chicago and Beachwood content, while the current podcast while roam more broadly including overseas. If you’re interested in helping the new show, drop me a line.


Koschman Case
“Nanci Koschman used to lie awake at night, unable to sleep, because the police blamed her only child, David Koschman, for his own death,” the Sun-Times reports.
“Now, she can’t sleep because she’s angry since learning the police lied to her. So angry that she has decided to file a federal lawsuit accusing the Chicago Police Department of violating her son’s civil rights.”
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Of course, it’s not just the police who lied. R.J. Vanecko’s friends are accomplices to Nanci Koschman’s pain. Says Nanci:

Q: Do you think there are more answers you need to get?
A: I’d like to see some of the people face-to-face . . . I’d like to see these people and say, “Really? You know you all got together after he punched David, and none of you talked about it? You got in a cab? You went back to the bar? . . . Nobody mentioned a word of it? Come on. Look me in the eye, and tell me that.” The same with the police. “You took the file home?” . . . The state’s attorney who threw the file away. Isn’t that a legal document? . . . It’s been very enlightening.

And:

Q: What about Vanecko friends Bridget McCarthy and her husband Kevin, who lied to the police about Vanecko’s involvement?
A: The fact that they continued to lie, that he told his wife not to talk to people. You shouldn’t be able to lie to the police and say, “I’m not telling you,” or, “I don’t remember” . . . That’s very frustrating. Again, those are the kind of the people I’d like to see in their face and go, “Really? Really, you didn’t want to tell them it was R.J.? You didn’t think they were going to figure it out?”

They protected their friend. In their world, that’s more important than protecting the truth – no matter who gets hurt. That’s the Chicago Way.
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Exclusive 101
How in the world are interviews with the governor and the mayor “exclusives?”
Grow up.
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Also: Why even bother if your interviews are so lame you could just have the governor (or mayor) just type up his own quotes? Would save time.
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Better questions for Pat Quinn:
1. Why won’t you commit to a position on the “temporary” income tax?
2. Did you really believe it would be temporary when you signed it?
3. How do you justify cutting millions from social services while giving away subsidies to immensely profitable corporations?
4. Do you believe every company doing business in Illinois should pay taxes? Then why aren’t they?
5. Do you think Rahm Emanuel did the right thing closing 50 schools in Chicago?
6. Do you support shutting down public schools while opening charter schools?
7. Should Mike Madigan be prosecuted for election fraud for putting his own opponents on the ballot?
8. How can you support Joe Berrios when you talk so much about integrity in government?
9. You once advocated for term limits. What changed your mind?
10. Why are you so unpopular?
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One rule of good interviewing is to not ask questions that you can get the answers to elsewhere (Where were you born?) and to not ask questions that will merely elicit talking points that you have heard or will hear a thousand times before and after (What do you say about your opponents’ claim that . . . ?).
Go into an interview with a plan. Ask the questions you really want the answer to – and that haven’t been asked before. Don’t try to cover too much ground; never enough time.
And if you don’t get invited back, so be it. If an elected official only grants interviews to chumps, don’t be a chump. And if no one is a chump, an elected official will either have to give no interviews or take his or her chances. As it should be.
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Corollary: When an elected official looking for a free ride grants you an “exclusive,” you’re a chump.
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See also: Asking Axelrod.
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SportsMonday: Money Train
“Other than that fact that it is all fundamentally corrupt, the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament continues to be a remarkable sporting spectacle,” our very own Jim Coffman writes.
Burger King Kanye
Plus: Wicked Witches Of Food & Protruding Potbelly’s. In our Random Food Report.
The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Wild Child, Kingo Buzzo, Born Cages, and Guerilla Toss.
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BeachBook
* Coming Soon To A Divvy Program Near You.
* Benefit For SXSW Victims With Chicago Ties.
* Man’s Death Is 29th Cold-Related In Cook County.
* Sears And The Art Of Disclosure.
* School “Reformers” Love Choice Except When . . .
* Wealthy Man Who Gamed System Attacks Poor For Gaming System.
* $80 Million For Six Weeks’ Work.
* WXRT Does It Again.
* Exclusive: Pentagon Withholds Internal Report About Flawed $2.7 Billion Intel Program.
* Illinois Lawmakers Investigate Drop In Deer Numbers.
* U.S. Vet Nearly Killed By Police Bean Bag At Occupy Oakland Settles.
* MLB Insiders Rate At Least 14 General Managers Better Than Theo Epstein, Er, I Mean Jed Hoyer.
* People’s Gas Charges 75% More Than Nicor As Chicago Heating Bills Soar.
* Rahm Should Turn Over Police Files.
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TweetWood


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The analogy section was never Bebley’s strong suit.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: No shoes, no shirt, no problem.

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Posted on March 24, 2014