Discussion for article #229199
Toe the line set by the corporate overlords, or you’ll be moved to writing obits from now on.
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The Sun Times endorsed Rauner without even interviewing him. Sad how far they’ve fallen.
Edit: it is worth reading McKinney’s blog post linked in the article above.
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“McKinney suggested that there had been a “breach” in the wall between the owners of the paper and the newsroom.”
Yeah, it’s called the advertising department. Money comes in from campaign ads, creates profit, which gets turned into dividends, which monetarily influence the reporting. Of course, I have no doubt the owners also “invested” in Rauner’s campaign for their own benefit and weren’t about to let truth get in the way of their expected “dividends” from Rauner.
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"broke a three year no-endorsement policy and backed Rauner. "
Gee boy howdy, I wonder what that cost Rauner.
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Ya know, I’ve long refused to subscribe to the online versions of the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times knowing they were gonna disappoint me and make me regret such a decision.
No more.
Update: I urge you to go read his resignation letter. Excerpt:
For guidance, I called Patrick Collins, a former federal prosecutor whose name is synonymous with ethics in Illinois. His involvement brought about an abrupt shift in the company’s tone from penalizing me to reinstating me. Ultimately, the company pledged I could return to the job with “no restrictions.”
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Seconded. A must read.
This is what a true journalist is made of-- integrity.
Rauner should be made to pay at the ballot box.
If only for the sake of Dave McKinney’s brave motives.
jw1
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He should trot right over to the Trib and write a tell-all for them.
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Also, this is the story that Bruce Rauner so desperately wanted to kill. Please share it widely.
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It’s really not a free country.
I was pigeonholed at a previous Fortune 500 company job because on my own time I protested against our invasion of Iraq in 2003.
A manager scolded me for being unpatriotic and not supporting our president at a time of war and when I told him why I did not agree with the invasion he scoffed at my predictions. As my predictions came more and more true I found myself more and more pigeonholed and had to resign/leave before I was laid off.
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Rauner campaigns on the story of not being a captive of the special interests. Funny thing is that he has enough money to be a special interest all by himself.
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The Sun-Times’ rationale for why they had to begin endorsing candidates this election cycle is even worst. If the editorial board had a shred of integrity, they would’ve sat out endorsements until the mayoral elections in February. I don’t understand how anyone at the Sun-Times would believe this made them look like they were anything but on the take. You haven’t endorsed candidates in years, but you just happened to decide to get back in the game just in time to give a gubernatorial endorsement to someone that’s a former member of the investment group that owns your paper. I can not wait until Saturday to vote.
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Royko must be spinning.
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So sad that Chicago no longer has any newspaper that actually does journalism, printing things others don’t want the public to see. Freedom of the press has become obsolete in the US given how much it self censors.
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Political pressure and money vs journalistic freedom!
McKinney should have gone out in a blaze of glory…ala the character “Howard Beale”:
Trib is also in Rauner’s pocket.
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Bless Ben Bradlee and rest in peace! He wasn’t perfect, but he was a titan compared to the corporate quislings that occupy so many of the editor’s chairs today. We rarely see his equal in the annals of journalism and he is sorely missed at times like these.
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This certainly answers the question: “If the Sun Times leadership can’t be bought, can it be rented?”
Yup!
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I’m not surprised a print jurno did this. I’d be shocked if one of those readers in electronic media did it.
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America you have much to learn about corruption. The seeds of corruption run deep in corporate America which will not survive this upcoming fight. If corporate America thinks it is ready for the fight that is about to move onto the stage, it is wrong. Our plans don’t include corporate America in it’s current form.