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* Lynn Sweet has the Tribune’s full response to Friday’s post here about the Mark Kirk campaign’s preemptive strike against one of the paper’s reporters…

Tribune Editor Gerould Kern said in a statement Friday, Kirk’s “campaign and the conduct of his office are subjects of legitimate inquiry, and the Chicago Tribune stands fully behind our reporter, Todd Lighty.”

“We will not comment on unpublished reporting, but we can say that the Kirk campaign has wholly mischaracterized Lighty’s diligence and thoroughness.

“Lighty has been direct, open and honest at all times with the Kirk staff in his reporting. He is a meticulous and professional journalist. Good reporters ask tough questions.

“We will not allow the Kirk campaign to attack unchallenged the professionalism and integrity of Lighty and the Tribune.”

It’s routine for campaigns to dispute negative stories. It’s rare to do it before anything has been published.

* Also, at least one commenter claimed yesterday that Kirk’s campaign sent out a fundraising e-mail about the story. From Kevin Artl…

I noticed some commenters said we pushed out an email on this issue. That’s not true. We did no email or social on it.