Yesterday I told you about how the Blagojevich campaign irked reporters by handing out a list of “questions” for Judy Baar Topinka before her press conference. Here’s the sheet (click for larger image):

       

23 Comments - Mississippi King - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:17 am: I didn’t know JBT was running for Governor of Massachusetts. I’m guessing Rod would like for her to go down the list of states alphabetically and comment on the major policy debates affecting each state. - Anonymosity - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:19 am: We are just helping the Blagojevich campaign get these questions in the public eye. While I disagree with their tactics, as a voter, I believe that these are questions that Topinka needs to answer. Boy, this is gonna be a rough campaign. - Marta Elena - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:28 am: Good one, Mississippi King- ha- ha! It appears that the Blago administration wants to let the media in Illinois do their dirty work for them. Last I heard the all kids program is not even up and running and the positions for these yet to be filled. It also appears that Blago wants to debate on principles of public policies - not the actual nuts and bolts of running a policy. More specifically how this program is going to be paid for. Difficult situation for the Topinka camp to come with just the right questions without sounding like she is against healthcare for children. But I do applaud them for asking how many days Blago has been in Springfield - and from my understanding - the Blago adminstration has yet to give these numbers. - Bill Baar - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 7:50 am: Has Blagojevich come out for Rommney’s plan? - Shallow Pharnyx - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:04 am: Filming is one thing; passing out Blago-biased questions is another. It seems kind of low-handed, but I think we’ll see a lot of these kind of tactics throughout the next few months (e.g., Quinn asking for data he can access himself). Save the questions for the debate. - Old Elephant - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:16 am: Irony Number One: If Blagojevich’s people had spent the last three years cultivating relationships instead of antagonizing the press corps, they wouldn’t have had to hand out questions. The basic premise was legitimate. But because they had to insult the reporters’ intelligence by trying to dictate the questions, they effectively guaranteed the questions would not get asked. Irony Number Two: Topinka and Romney were probably both primed to address this issue (you’ve got to expect questions like this whenever another Governor comes into the state). Now a question for the readers: How long will it be before the Blagojevich campaign starts planting their own “reporters” at press conferences to ask questions like this? - Cassandra - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:18 am: These are pretty standard questions and they are also easily answered by somebody with a competent campign policy staff. The national and local Dems must be nervous about Romney for stealing their thunder on health care. Maybe JBT could point out that Romney’s health care program was the result of bipartisan efforts. Since Blago can’t even get along with his own party, witness the current budget impasse, it’s clear that he will never, ever develop the maturity and skill for bipartisan solutions. And increasingly, it looks like only bipartisan solutions are going to solve the difficult problems facing government. - Anonymous - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:29 am: Re Allkids. Not only is it not funded yet, the staff doing the conversion are all from the old KidCare program. Anyone who knows workers in that program know they cannot make a decision on time to save their lives. Also thousands are being spent from various agency budgets to print Allkids forms, etc. with Blago’s name on them many, many times. Just another way to get the taxpayers to pay for his campaign. And so on and so on. - Wumpus - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:48 am: In response to number 5. A couple of different responses. 1. I have a job to which I actually show up. 2. Let’s have the debates in Springfiled does your helicopter pilot need directions? - grand old partisan - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 8:55 am: Cassandra, you are right: these are pretty standard questions. These are questions that the press probably would have asked Judy’s campaign during the course of the campaign. Now that doing so will make them look like mouthpieces for the Blagojevich campaign, do you think they will be more or less likely to ask them? This was a remarkably dumb thing to do from a supposedly media savvy political machine. - DOWNSTATE - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:17 am: I think now everyone will see why our state is in crisis.This is the people who are shaping state policy.Don’t get on hear and try to tell me that the campaign and the people next to Blago don’t talk and try to come up with a agenda that will get the gov. re-elected.Why don’t they want questions ask like.Hey why are we 46th in job creation?Hey you told us All Kids was going to cost 45 million and now we find out it will climb to 450 million where is that money going to come from.Hey you told us about all this revevnue growth and now it is only going to be about half.Hey why do you keep borrow 3 to 4 billion at a time when you claim we are in good fiscal shape.Almost everyone thing he talks about on these questions is a flop.One last question.Why is almost every plan you come up with the actual numbers are off, below if it is money or above if it is a head count, or gets shot down in court and we have to pay attorney fees. - scoot - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:18 am: Do the voters in Illinois care about Mitt Romney? His plan is paid for….Blago’s lil plan isn’t funded and not all the deatils are there if any. Pathetic - Gregor Samsa - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:31 am: Even a first-year student logician could slam-dunk these questions as complete crap, they look like they were cribbed from a telephone push-poll. Even an inexperienced reporter would never accept their premise or phrase them in this “have you stopped beating your wife” manner. If this is the best they can do, they are really dumb, or think we are. This administration takes the cake for claiming glory for programs proposed but not yet executed, for savings not yet realized, for budgets not yet worked out. Blago must have a time machine where he can travel to the future and see how it all wonderfully works out, then he comes back to April 2006 to tell us all about it. Time to start trading the Elvis albums in for Frankie Yankovik, governor. The DeLorean is out of gas. - Skeeter - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:36 am: Reporters are irked? That is unfortunate. If they would do their research, or maybe get the guts to ask tough questions, then this would not be necessary. They should be thrilled that somebody has done their homework. The real shame here is that Chicago’s news coverage is absolutely pathetic. I haven’t watched a full 10:00 p.m. news in about 10 years. There is no point. “Fire on south side” is not exactly breaking news. These people would not know a follow up question if it bit them, in which case they would break into the news with a “Breaking News” story reporting “Reporter bitten by unknown person, object, or metaphor.” - grand old partisan - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 9:48 am: Skeeter, I’ll admit that the 10pm telecasts are often filled with things I wouldn’t remotely categorize as “news.” But before you start attacking people for not “doing their research,” perhaps you’d should go back to your own blog for a moment and consider how much research must have gone into a post claiming that the majority of residents in Hillside are staunch Republicans. If Blago’s people are so concerned that the important questions aren’t getting asked, there are many more appropriate ways to remedy that. Trying to turn the media into an extension of his campaign apparatus isn’t one of them (the press isn’t a state agency, you know). Furthermore, I’m surprised that someone who routinely blasts Fox News for being nothing more than a propaganda machine for the RNC would not take even a little umbrage at this. - SouthernBoy - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 12:45 pm: Someone suggested students answering these questions; I think a student wrote them. The first question uses “lead” inappropriately…a mistake that most high school English students would catch. - Skeeter - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 1:15 pm: GOP, If the reporters would report on issues rather than on fires or car crashes, or would ask follow up questions, then Blago’s people would not have to do the work for them. There is a difference between the editorializing you see on FoxNews and simply asking tough questions. I know Chicago reporters. I am friends with a few. Many are very nice people. But the vast majority of them do a lousy job of asking questions. I’m not sure if they are afraid of being denied sources in the future, or if they just lack talent, but either way it just doesn’t get done. When is the last time that you heard a reporter say “Congressman, that was a fine answer to some question, but it wasn’t the answer to my question. My question was …” When you start hearing strong questions and strong follow ups and you start seeing reporters call people on it when they get non-responsive answers, then I will have some respect for our local media. Until then, I may watch the news for the weather, but beyond that, I will find Chicago television news to be irrelevant. It is a sad day for the news when Comedy Central has better news coverage than CBS, ABC, WGN, and FOX. - Shelbyville - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 1:47 pm: Southern Boy - good point. Also, there is a lack of commas. - Establishment Republican - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 3:05 pm: Since Blagojevich is so wrapped up in the policy debates of the Bay State, he may get confused and thinks he needs to start spending more time in Springfield. Springfield, Mass. - B Hicks - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 6:00 pm: All questions are fair when it comes to a Gubernatorial campaign. The dreaded, have you ever smoked marijuana, question was fair when it was thrown at candidate Blagojevich in September 2002. I didn’t hear too many Republicans complaining about that silly, irrelevant question. I’m sure that she will be getting a slue of questions thrown at her in the VERY near future. Do you think Judy has ever twisted a Zig-Zag. - CK1 - Thursday, Apr 13, 06 @ 6:42 pm: Who is going to pay for all the Blago programs? - Skeeter - Friday, Apr 14, 06 @ 9:37 am: “Illinois leads the nation” — No, I don’t think the question should start that way. I do think the basic points raised by the questions are valid. JBT wants to be pro-family and pro-life. If so, then why would she oppose a health care plan that helps middle class and low income families? Does she view health care as government issue or is it completely a free market issue? I think those are legitimate questions and I don’t hear them being asked. I also think the Mass. questions are valid, as JBT has taken money from Gov. Romney. Does she approve of the way that he does business? On the other hand, I think reporters would do well to ask Blago questions about how he differs from people like Madigan — “Was Mike Madigan wrong on …?” As I said before, it is unfortunate that the Chicago media is doing such a poor job that somebody needs to write out questions for them. Perhaps you can enlighten me Rich, and I don’t mean this as a personal insult to you [I’m just not that familiar with your work], but why doesn’t the Chicago media ask follow up questions? I routinely see questions being asked, a completely evasive answer given, and then no attempt made to get a real answer. Is it lack of training or does it have to do with personal relationships? I understand on some level why fires and car crashes are considered news, but I can’t figure out what appears to be either a lack of ability to interview, or a lack of will to interview. I’m not one of these people who like bashing the media. However, I just don’t think the media here is doing the job it could, and given their record, they should take whatever help they can get. - Rich Miller - Friday, Apr 14, 06 @ 10:20 am: Skeeter, you’ve completely missed the point. These were handed out in Springfield, not Chicago, and the Statehouse reporters ask all sorts of follow-up questions. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.