A reader sends the above screenshot:
You might note the contrast between American and Canadian reporting on the Ottawa shooting. I listened to CBC on my drive in to work (I live in Los Angeles), and I was impressed by just how measured the reporting was, even with the crisis still ongoing. The attached picture probably goes a long way to explaining why Americans are terrified that tomorrow ISIS will be invading and imposing Sharia, and that we’re all going to die of Ebola, even though the chance of that actually happening is about 1/100th the chance of getting hit by lightning.
Meanwhile, there is a truly disturbing blog-post out there by Chicago Sun-Times reporter, Dave McKinney. It’s simply his letter of resignation to the chairman of the paper, Michael Ferro, after his reporting of a tough story on the GOP candidate for governor, Bruce Rauner. According to McKinney, the Rauner campaign was furious at the story – it detailed an ugly dispute with a business associate, Christine Kirk, in which Rauner allegedly threatened to “bury her”. The editor of the paper defended the story and McKinney in the strongest terms, but McKinney subsequently found his beat curtailed, and some of his reporting excised from the paper:
I was told to go on leave, a kind of house arrest that lasted almost a week. It was pure hell. Kirk told me that his bosses were considering taking me away permanently from the political and Springfield beats. He offered up other potential jobs at the paper, all of which I considered demotions. Because of my unexplained absence from my beat, colleagues started calling, asking if I had been suspended. Or fired.
Eventually, he was allowed back – but then told not to pursue the story any further, as he was intending to. He asks the chairman of the paper, Michael Ferro:
Was all this retaliation for breaking an important news story that had the blessing of the paper’s editor and publisher, the company’s lawyer and our NBC5 partners? Does part of the answer lie in what Kirk told me – that you couldn’t understand why the LeapSource story was even in the paper? Days later, the newspaper reversed its three-year, no-endorsement policy and unequivocally embraced the very campaign that had unleashed what Sun-Times management had declared a defamatory attack on me.
Readers of the Sun-Times need to be able to trust the paper. They need to know a wall exists between owners and the newsroom to preserve the integrity of what is published. A breach in that wall exists at the Sun-Times.
The race between Rauner and the Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, is currently too close to call. Stay tuned.
Today, we published both a riposte to our readers’ defense of #gamergate and an apologia of sorts by a self-described nerd. This topic clearly touches a whole bunch of nerves all round, judging by the avalanche in the in-tray.
So too did my citation of the inebriated tale of Bristol Palin in the now-famous brawl in Alaska. I’m sorry of some of you thought I was belittling a woman claiming she was attacked; my point was merely the sorry, Springer-style language and general mayhem of the moment, captured by one quote. I could have used others. But I have to say I’ve tried mighty hard to restrain myself with respect to the fantasist and fabulist whom John McCain thought could be president at a moment’s notice. I treat the Palins these days a little like an alcoholic would treat a Jäger shot. I sip. And put it down. Don’t I get any props for that? Or do you secretly want me to get all obsessed again?
Four other posts: the growing evidence that the Obama administration is going to bat for the CIA on torture; the news – surprise! – that intervening in Syria can sometimes help the people we’re trying to defeat; an homage to Shia LaBoeuf of viral proportions; and a stunning fall view from St Paul, Minnesota.
The most popular post of the day was Bristol Palin’s quote and John McCain’s shame; the runner up was Vengeance of the Nerds, Ctd.
Many of today’s posts were updated with your emails – read them all here. You can always leave your unfiltered comments at our Facebook page and @sullydish. 22 more readers became subscribers today. You can join them here – and get access to all the readons and Deep Dish – for a little as $1.99 month. Gift subscriptions are available here. Dish t-shirts are for sale here, including the new “Know Dope” shirts, which are detailed here. One reader really wants one:
Please keep up the “Know Dope” shirts for sale as long as possible. I’m broke right now, but I know I’ll have some money around tax season (Jan-Feb) so I can re-new (for the second time!) and buy one of these shirts. I know supplies are limited, but I just wanted to say that IF they are still available then, I will cop one, so I hope you don’t take them down once November 4th passes.
Also, I’m looking forward to the November 2016 California versions!
Know hope. And see you in the morning.
(Photo: A sign is displayed at the Ottawa City Hall, 4 blocks away from National War Memorial where a soldier was shot earlier in the day in Ottawa, Canada on October 22, 2014. By Mike Carroccetto/Getty Images.)
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