Chicago - A message from the station manager

The Week in WTF

By David Rutter

1. Sam Hurd, WTF?
Talk about a drug deal going really bad, this one will be a fiery, exploding snotball of magma for the NFL. Radio talk guys are suggesting Hurd was dealing to other players. This makes failing to make the playoffs the least of the Bears’ troubles.
Consider these reported details: “Hurd’s three-year contract with the Bears had a maximum value of $5.15 million ($4.15 million base total), and Hurd received a $1.35 million signing bonus. His base pay this season was $685,000. The Bears could pursue trying to recover some of the signing bonus.” He starts life in Chicago as a millionaire, but he still needs a few extra bucks to tide him over.
Gives you some idea about the financial horsepower of selling coke.


2. Craig and Janet Gossett, WTF?
Yes, we are happy with this pre-Christmas news, or at least as happy as we can be because it’s not us but the realization they just won $11 million hasn’t seeped all the way down into the brain cells of this couple.
Here’s proof from the Tribune that winning millions doesn’t cure a case of low ambitions: “Gossett said he and his wife Janet plan to move out of their mobile home in Minooka and buy a home in nearby Morris. And they’re already planning a modest vacation trip to Minnesota. ‘See the Little House on the Prairie,” Janet said, jumping up and down. ‘That’s what we’re going to do.'”
At least they could have planned a night out in Coal City.
3: Blago’s monkey, WTF?
In his weekly presentation, “Explaining To My Daughters Once Again Why I Am Not a Scummy Governor,” Blago suggests he doesn’t really have a drug problem except for the hair gel. But he just has to pretend and pretending is such a small lie. Pretending is one of Blago’s strong suits.
4. Bo, WTF?
Oh, no, they ate Bo.
5. Lake County, WTF?
The journalistic convention in stories like the Juan Rivera Railroad to Injustice tale is to assume the prosecutors guilty of such creepy indifference to truth are ashamed of themselves. They’ve been caught. They’ve been judged. They’re ashamed.
Another embarrassment.
But WTF has some personal/professional dealings with this crowd of legal maroons, and never sensed them capable of embarrassment. We’d say it’s more genetically enhanced arrogance. Even under duress of harsh peer criticism, self-doubt is a reflection of thoughtfulness. Sorry. That’s the not the bag in Lake County.

David Rutter is the former publisher/editor of the Lake County News-Sun, a Sun-Times Media property. He welcomes your comments.

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Posted on December 16, 2011