78 Comments - MurMan - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:30 pm: ===the role the media are playing in challenging these anti-reform forces=== Should read: the media’s role in acting as a Rauner mouthpiece…. What a joke - And I Approved This Message - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:30 pm: Maybe there’ll be a hurricane. - Big Ern McCracken - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:30 pm: I was waiting for a topic which is kind of a snoozer. Why is Oswego Wily’s name in a red font? - Anonymous - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:30 pm: Echo chamber? Yep… - Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:31 pm: The ==media== editorials supported Rauner over Madigan on AFSCME’s 1229 override attempt. Is that also ==anti-reform== to IPI? Sheesh. - Bogey Golfer - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:31 pm: I’m sure some of you can dig up $20 for a ticket to this “fair and balanced” discussion. Maybe she can expound on her Katrina analogy? - Linus - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:32 pm: Also from the IPI invitation, this McQueary quote: “It’s time for a good Samaritan to blindfold House Speaker Michael Madigan and escort him to the governor’s office. Promise him an apple, sliced thin, and a Palermo’s pizza. He’ll comply.” Actually, it’s time for a good Samaritan to blindfold the Trib edit board and escort them to the state budget stories written by their own news reporters. Promise them actual facts, on which truly informed opinions could be based. They likely won’t comply. - Frenchie Mendoza - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:34 pm: Drinking game: Reform. - thunderspirit - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:34 pm: == The Chicago Tribune editorial board’s Kristen McQueary is the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms. == Thanks, I needed a laugh today. - Anonin' - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:35 pm: @0 bucks don’t get much anymore KuzinKatrina and the Uline stooge - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:35 pm: ===The Chicago Tribune editorial board’s Kristen McQueary is the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms.=== If you call wanting a devastating natural disaster to take hundreds of lives, and displacing thousands of others as a person seen as the … “state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms.” Then Kristen McQueary is your voice. Oh. @KevinAllman: Just had coffee with @StatehouseChick. Difficult conversation at times. She opted not to go on record. Kudos to her for having guts to meet. Kevin Allman is from NOLA… You stay classy… “Statehouse Chick” - Flynn's Mom - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:36 pm: It’s time to blindfold the Tribune editorial board. That’s all. - T.T. - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:36 pm: “Merged” is absolutely correct. Finally all false pretense is dropped. At some point, shouldn’t all the Democratic General Assembly candidates decide not to participate in the Tribune’s endorsement process? The wouldn’t sit down in front of the Illinois Policy Institutes board and grovel about for an endorsement, why participate in the process with one of the IPI’s sister organizations? - Blago's Luxurious Grey Mane - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:37 pm: Might as well make it official, I guess. - CrazyHorse - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:39 pm: ==Kristen McQueary is the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms.== Now I know what my father meant when he said: “Commonsense isn’t that common.” - northshore cynic - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:41 pm: You missed the best part of the invite….open bar!!! - sonny chiss - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:45 pm: “I was waiting for a topic which is kind of a snoozer. Why is Oswego Wily’s name in a red font?” Been wondering the same…. - Honeybear - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:46 pm: Wow, I feel bad for real journalists. McQueary is to journalism as Dr……nope I’ll stop there with the analogy. This is so in the unreal. Is this what people in certain countries felt before it went really really bad? I’ve begun to wonder that lately. - AC - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:46 pm: ==Kristen McQueary is the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms== Reality is the hurricanes first victim - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:48 pm: “The Chicago Tribune editorial board member, and Rauner shill, Kristen McQueary is the Editorial Board’s leading voice in destruction and tragedy for think-tank-y-ness, and ivory tower ignorance. She’s not afraid to be on a roof, waiting to be rescued from Rahm Emanuel, or scared being caught covertly rewriting columns while ignoring that she’s getting called out on her failing metaphors.” Better. - Anonin' - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:49 pm: Hey the City Club is offering McKinney and Eric Madir on the 24th — they will share their expertise on pensions too - too obvious - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:50 pm: The Program will conclude with all joining in prayer for a Category 5 hurricane. - Norseman - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:50 pm: *** They’ll discuss barriers to union-busting reform and the role the propaganda hacks media are playing in challenging these union anti-reform forces. *** There, I fixed it for you. - Tournaround Agenda - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:53 pm: @StatehouseShill - Secret Square - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:55 pm: “Why is Oswego Wily’s name in a red font?” I had thought maybe because it was a link to a personal blog or webpage but the link doesn’t seem to be working. - From the 'Dale to HP - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:55 pm: I thought the circus came to Chicago in November? - Elliott Ness - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:55 pm: Now I know where I will NOT be on the 24th, thank you - Joe M - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 1:59 pm: I am shocked! They are not calling “journalist” Scott Reeder the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms. - blue collar - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:04 pm: Volataire is credited with the first “common sense is not that common” - Wensicia - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:13 pm: I encourage all the homeless to attend this insightful conversation led by Katrina Kristen. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:13 pm: Journalists should not be headlining at fundraisers for lobbying groups. - pool boy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:16 pm: Rich is the owner of this blog, Willy is the CEO and Vanilla is the PR. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:17 pm: ===Journalists=== Using that a lil loosely, - YDD -? lol - Wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:17 pm: Who knew that Tillman had “transformed” the state? He better hope the boss doesn’t see that. The boss will do the “transforming,” the hired help will do what they’re told. Katrina M. might want to avoid the Biblical references. For some reason, people have a difficult time understanding her. It’s great writing that crams a misunderstanding of the Good Samaritan parable, a blindfold, an apple and a pizza all in one sentence? - Tournaround Agenda - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:18 pm: @YDD, you’re right. But McQueary ceased being a journalist a long time ago. It’s just too bad she still tries to wear the job title. - Four - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:23 pm: The invite is missing a line: “Come see Kristen audition for her next job.” - Yobagoya - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:27 pm: Somebody mentioned something about an echo chamber up top and I can’t help but to laugh after reading all the way to the bottom. bottom. ottom. ottom. - Norseman - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:28 pm: I was going to respond to YDD’s journalist point, but I see others have beat me to it. - IPI lie - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:28 pm: Open bar? Well, sort of. Only one type of drink will be served. Hurricanes! Seriously, I think this is one of the most transparent things I’ve seen. Katrina McQueary has been working with IPI for a long time now. They might as well have a coming out party. - IPI lie - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:30 pm: I did the name in red there as a tribute to our good friend Willy. - cover - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:33 pm: = Drinking game: Reform. = Too bad the venue isn’t located in a neighborhood where the Chicago police conduct those “safety checks”, could be a real money-maker for the City… - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:38 pm: I consider McQueary to be a journalist of the finest order, even though we may disagree on many points of public policy. But this is an event that charges $20 admission. That clearly makes it a fundraiser in my view. Others may view it differently. - A Jack - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:38 pm: She did have a good article warning the Governor not to force a strike. - nona - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:41 pm: What are the odds John and Kristen will honestly discuss whether the State needs more revenue? Between little and none? - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:43 pm: ===I consider McQueary to be a journalist of the finest order…=== Yesterday. That was yesterday… - 360 Degree TurnAround - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:43 pm: Will the audience be given little bags to throw up in? - Tec - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:43 pm: As a great man once wrote, “I just don’t know what to say anymore.” - steve schnorf - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:47 pm: Dog, I’m glad you made the point above. My experience is that McQueary is an excellent journalist, though she clearly misstepped big time on the Katrina comment. I enjoyed reading her reporting whether I agreed or not. - sal-says - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 2:58 pm: == The Chicago Tribune editorial board’s Kristen McQueary is the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms. == ANOTHER bad joke. All too common today. - Carhartt Representative - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:05 pm: ===The Chicago Tribune editorial board’s Kristen McQueary is the state’s leading voice in journalism for commonsense, free-market reforms.=== Wow! I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. - sonny chiss - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:06 pm: Funny how the Rauner team always attaches “without reform” after “Democrats want to pass a massive tax hike”. - sonny chiss - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:07 pm: little embarrassed by how easy that was - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:08 pm: Kristen McQueary was a talented journalist with the Southtown and in her early time with the Tribune. No matter how nice or swell she is, once Kristen McQueary went to the Editorial Board, and wrote things someone who covered the statehouse would never believe, and decided to be complicit in writing a column that was covertly rewritten but keeping its insensitive narrative in place… with no apology… but blamed the reader… That’s not a journalist. That’s just a shame. Yesterday. McQueary was a journalist, yesterday. - anon - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:21 pm: Kristen McQueary made her rep writing tough against Madigan and Rahm. She then started believing her own bs. Now she has become so arrogant and condescending that she makes light of the suffering of so many and her ego never allowed her to apologize for her lack of empathy. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:26 pm: Willy - “Nice” and “swell” are not words I would use to describe her. She is tough, but she also cares a lot about what is happening to those in Illinois who don’t have someone like John Tillman to lobby for them. I disagree with her assessment of what is ailing communities in rural Illinois, small towns, medium size cities, and most neighborhoods in Chicago without a Pritzker or a Daley living in them. But that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t care. - Norseman - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:32 pm: YDD, I’ve not seen that caring. On this we’ll have to agree to disagree. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:32 pm: ===“Nice” and “swell” are not words I would use to describe her.=== I thought “daft” and “simple” was too harsh… ===But that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t care.=== A person who tweets about Haiti children and weeks later thinks and writes, consciously, that the deaths of 1800 people is a “reader’s error”… that really doesn’t seem like someone too self-aware or caring. - Jake From Elwood - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 3:46 pm: That invitation is just inviting scorn given the Katrina column. Poor decision to use that language on the invitation. Some of you need to ratchet down the McQueary hatred. She is hardly the first journalist or columnist to write something regrettable. She is not an evil or sinister person no matter what she writes. Time to forgive or move along… - In a Minute - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 4:36 pm: Malcolm Gladwell has no dog in the fight in the world of Illinois and Chicago politics, but two weeks after McQuery printed her piece on the rebirth of New Orleans following Katrina, Gladwell reached many of the same conclusions that McQuery did in a New Yorker essay. Link below http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/24/starting-over-dept-of-social-studies-malcolm-gladwell - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 4:43 pm: - In a Minute -, What would you say was “learned” in the article? - In a Minute - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 4:59 pm: Its complicated, but a few things can be taken from the articles. First, a natural disaster in the form of Katrina forced change on a community beset by economic and educational disparities. Time will tell if all that change was for the better for those that stayed. But according to the Mayor of New Orleans things look promising. Second, when things get bad enough, either by man made or natural disaster, people will leave where they live in search of better opportunities. Illinois has had a torrent of out migration in response to the man made distaster of the state’s incredibly horrible finances and lousy economic conditions. Finally, the man made economic and educational disasters in Illinois can be changed with creative approaches. My belief is that these creative approaches should be implemented because what the state has been doing for the last 15 years will not work. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:01 pm: - In a Minute - Interesting, but did you omit any demographic? - In a Minute - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:03 pm: Not intentionally - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:09 pm: - In a Minute - So where there demographics that were effected more than others? - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:11 pm: ” … were… “ - In a Minute - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:16 pm: Of course. Yes, how silly of me. Norwegians have been completely spared from any ill effects of Katrina or the man made economic and educational disaster wrought on Illinois over the last 15 years. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:19 pm: Now, - In a Minute -, Was there a demographic effected more than others? I mean, you brought up the article, to defend Kristen McQueary, so, was there one? - In a Minute - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:31 pm: I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. George Bernard Shaw - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:34 pm: - In a Minute - It’s a simple question. Thought you read it. Any demographic effected more? Why can’t you answer? - walker - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:34 pm: Can a “great journalist” be described as a “leading voice” for the political and ideological stances of IPI? I think Tillman did McQueary a disservice describing her that narrowly. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:45 pm: Willy: Your point is well taken. There are those who think neither the failings that led to the Katrina disaster, the failure in the wake of the disaster, and the failure in the rebuilding of NOLA…many people think race had nothing to do with it. And so, just as with “All Lives Matter”, they discuss Katrina while omitting any discussion of race. I know very reason people, people I like, who insist on the “All Lives Matter” approach. It doesn’t make them bad people. Fortunately, we don’t have to imagine how things might have turned out for the people of the Lower Ninth Ward if the looked more like the people of Martha’s Vineyard. All we have to do is read how Martha’s Vineyard fared during Hurricane http://www.mvtimes.com/2012/10/31/sandy-takes-bite-out-marthas-vineyard-13133/ - Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:54 pm: That said, I think it is worth noting that McQueary was quick to admit that the writing was on the wall for SB 1 based on the earlier SC ruling on pension rights. And the Tribune was quick to criticize The Rauner budget for attempting to bank and spend savings from his goofy pension privatization plan to fill the budget gap. That move destroyed the linchpin of what I suspect was Rauner’s initial budget plan: hold the whole budget hostage, including K-12, to try to pass the pension privatization plan that would have lined a lot of pockets of a lot of his finance industry pals. Whatever the Tribune has written since then has had minuscule impact on the budget process compared to that one deft move. All Rauner is left holding is a few measly planks in a hobbled together Turnaround Agenda that as we can see, gives him no real leverage. - vibes - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 5:59 pm: >>”I encourage all the homeless to attend this insightful conversation led by Katrina Kristen.” … Sounds like a good kickstarter campaign. At $20/head this could get interesting … - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 6:09 pm: - YDD -, Your attempted rehabbing of McQueary is yeoman’s work, I appreciate you trying on her behalf. But, when it came down to apologizing, like a professional, she blamed the readers when it mattered most, like a rank amateur. Sometimes apologizing gets your credibility back quicker than pretending it’s others who read what you write are to blame for your word choices and metaphors. There was no apology. McQueary owns that too. McQueary was a credible journalist yesterday, but yesterday is past. (Well done on the Martha Vinyard point.) - Anonin' - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 6:59 pm: Pre KuzinKatrina the Tribbie edit board had some clout. Now they barely matter in GOPie primary - anon - Thursday, Sep 10, 15 @ 9:34 pm: Still shocked, or should I be, that the Trib is keeping McQueary on their Editorial Board. Her insensitivity concerning the whole Katrina ordeal is mind boggling to me. She never even said she was sorry. That’s just terrible, and especially so for folks that had lost loved ones. She has no credibility whatsoever. Who would go to this event? - Yellow Dog Democrat - Friday, Sep 11, 15 @ 9:04 am: Willy- first, the follow-up read like something written by a corporate lawyer. Secondly, what I am much more curious about from that whole debacle - a question not yet answered - is what was the mayor of New Orleans doing in Chicago meeting with an editorial board to push the charter school agenda and who was paying for it? Because NOLA sure doesn’t have the money to fly him around the country. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Sep 11, 15 @ 9:15 am: - YDD -, If you’d like, I could be more critical and less collegial, lol. I don’t know what the Tribube or the NOLA mayor could/did cook up. Usually the Trib’s Editorial Board is as subtle as a sledgehammer when spearheading “their” doctrine, “disguised” as a coincidental… coincidence… to their Patrons. It’s “their” paper, but it’s their credibility too, those Edit Board members. It’s a choice to be complicit, and if inviting the NOLA mayor helps the Patrons, we’ll know more and more soon enough. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.