By Steve Rhodes
A couple of pieces I forgot to include in yesterday’s column about the Olympic bid:
* The Olympic Myth. “A European report concludes that the games do more harm than good for local tourism,” the Reader reports.
* Sliding Off Piste. “[A]lready it is clear that the Vancouver Olympics, like most of their predecessors, will not ‘break even’ without big taxpayer subsidies,” The Economist reports.
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The evidence is pretty overwhelming, isn’t it?
But just writing down what Pat Ryan says is so much easier on the brain cells.
Media Message
Facebook friend Tom Gaines posted this status update on Monday afternoon:
“hey, CBS2: adorning your building with ‘Chicago 2016 banners/electronic ads is not anyone’s idea of objective journalism. Same goes for that thing on the front of the Sun-Times.”
Insurance Inanity
The Tribune takes a shot at explaining the Olympic insurance policies Chicago 2016 officials insist will protect taxpayers, but the story is mostly filled with the official explanation instead of an examination by independent experts.
Compare and contrast.
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It’s all speculation, anyway. As I understand it, the policies won’t actually be drawn up unless or until Chicago wins the bid.
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It is nice, though, to see noted sports economist Brad Humphreys appear – if ever so briefly – in the Trib’s piece.
“Cost overruns are the way these things happen,” said Brad Humphreys, an economics professor at the University of Alberta. “If it was so easy that just by putting the appropriate clauses in contracts you could prevent overruns, don’t you think it would’ve been done before?”
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A mayoral blast from the past from Humphreys.
Either/Or
Sun-Times: “Hillary Clinton fund-raiser indicted in alleged scheme.”
That’s funny, the paper could have saved space by using Barack Obama’s name and still have been accurate.
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Even “President Obama” would have been a wash.
Blurred Lines
Local Fox News contributor Anne Kavanagh continues her side job as Betty Loren-Maltese’s press agent today by crying a river to an all-too-willing Michael Sneed.
What a tangled web the media does weave.
The Milton Bradley Files
* How Milton Bradley Will Spend His Suspension.
* Hendry’s Folly.
And from the Beachwood vault:
* Our very own Jim Coffman got it right last February when a large segment of the Chicago sports media was buying the company line and getting it wrong:
“It isn’t just that Bradley hasn’t won,” Coffman wrote in Milton Bradley Madness. “He’s barely played even half the time during his plain, old, undistinguished career. As for his temperament, well, when he has lost it, Bradley hasn’t lost it because he was pissed off about losing. He’s lost it because he is still too immature to control himself in situations most pro athletes figure out how to shrug off in their first couple of years in the Bigs. An announcer isn’t properly deferential or a heckler gives him a hard time or an umpire disrespects him (that tantrum, which started with a man in blue cussing out Bradley a couple years ago, was actually more justified than any of his other antics) and he can’t handle it.”
See also:
* Milton The Martyr, George Ofman’s piece from last month.
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* Via Facebook: “Matt Farmer wonders how soon President Obama will be overheard (accurately) describing Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley as a ‘jackass’.”
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But seriously, Milton Bradley is not a good person but he is also very likely literally a sick person. Immaturity alone does not explain his inexplicable anger, seeming inability to connect with other humans, and his ego-centric persecution complex. Combined with reported marital problems this season and dramatic mood shifts in short periods of time, he just may be suffering from depression, bipolar disorder or some other such malady.
Yes, it seems impossible now that Bradley will be back in a Cubs uniform – even if he mends himself over the winter. But he just might want to look into the team’s employee-assistance program and get himself some help. Who knows what could happen after that.
Not The Ticket
McKenna & Murphy: Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Red Light Revenge
Grab the pitchforks and head to Lombard, there’s a protest a-brewing that could morph into a movement.
Blago [Hearts] NY
They can have him.
Michael Jordan [Hearts] Chicago’s Olympic Bid
Would rather gamble and yell at kids to get off the lawn.
Patrick Swayze’s College Football Report
Only in the Beachwood.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Self-insured.
Posted on September 22, 2009