Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes


The antidote to cheerleading local media, from the excellent Chicago-based but independent-thinking Evan Silva:

Overview: Khalil Mack should be included in this haul because he represents Chicago’s first-round pick. GM Ryan Pace used this year’s second-rounder to acquire slot WR Anthony Miller, although that move was graded as part of last year’s class.
In a deal with the Patriots, Pace surrendered a 2019 fifth-rounder and 2020 fourth-rounder to climb 14 third-round slots for Montgomery, who will compete with Mike Davis for lead-back duties with Tarik Cohen continuing to change the pace. Montgomery offers plus versatility and led the nation in missed tackles forced last season, but his big-play ability is extremely limited. I’ve never seen a college running back so consistently caught from behind.
Riley is another subpar athlete whose game boils down to route-running chops. I suppose he could upgrade on Taylor Gabriel.
Denmark stands out among Chicago’s day-three picks as a gargantuan (6’3/220) converted wide receiver who picked off seven passes over the last two seasons, then blazed 4.46 with a springy 43-inch vertical at Valdosta State’s Pro Day.
Whyte was a backup at FAU.
The Bears should be very pleased with Mack and Miller, but forfeiting two picks to trade up for a third-round running back with 4.63 speed was unnecessary, and it’s entirely possible Chicago gets very little from the other four players Pace selected.

Silva concludes by giving the Bears a draft grade of “C,” which is quite a contrast to some other giddy folks in these parts who can’t find enough “+”s to add to their As.
The Road To Unfreedom
In response to my post last week about America’s autocracy, a friend brought Timothy Snyder’s The Road to Unfreedom to my attention. Somehow, this book escaped me when it came out a year ago. From the Guardian:
“In this culture war, disinformation was critical. Russian TV and social media would create a climate in which news became entertainment, and nothing would quite seem factual . . . The more outrageous the official lie was, the more it allowed people to demonstrate their faith in the Kremlin.”
The New York Times adds that “Snyder set out to write a book about Russia and its relations with Ukraine and Europe, but he found the trail led to Western Europe and the United States as well. Russia spreads false information, like the story – that never took place – of a German schoolgirl’s gang-rape by Muslims, or Obama’s supposed birth in Africa.”
Or, one might say, the story of an American general executing Muslims with bullets soaked in pigs’ blood, or Obama’s supposed birth in Africa.
CSO Dragging
“Consultant Drew McManus, in an analysis of the strike settlement, reckons that the musicians got none of what they struck for – neither pay parity with LA and San Fran, nor an unchanged pension deal,” Norman Lebrecht of Slipped Disc notes.
Here’s McManus’s analysis.
*
Of course, the angle Crain’s takes is How Rahm Ended The CSO Strike.
“The mayor is a trained ballet dancer and fan of the arts, and the end of the strike is clearly a feather in his legacy cap as the end of his tenure approaches next month.”
You mean the legacy of being chased from office so utterly unpopular as to not be asked for an endorsement by a single one of the 14 candidates who made it onto the ballot – or even any of those who didn’t?
The only people feathering Rahm’s cap are his media pals – after eight years of abusing them.
–
New on the Beachwood today . . .
SportsMonday: Cubs Dessert In The Desert
Babe Chatwood.
*
Soul-Sapping Innings Eaters
In The White Sox Report.
–
ChicagoReddit

Are Craigslist apartment ads just misleading prices? from r/chicago


–
ChicagoGram


–
TweetWood
A sampling.


*


*


–
The Beachwood McRibTipLine: Something for nothing.

Permalink

Posted on April 29, 2019