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Konkol out at Chicago Reader after “tumultuous ten days”

Saturday, Feb 17, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

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* The Chicago Reader has been suffering serious turmoil since its new executive editor Mark Konkol took over. Konkol fired the paper’s editor by phone just after the editor got off a plane returning from his honeymoon, killed the transportation writer’s respected column, nixed a couple of columns by longtime Reader columnist Ben Joravsky and lost another columnist after publishing a racist front page cartoon featuring JB Pritzker sitting on a black lawn jockey ornament. Word from inside was that the paper itself could be in peril.

Sun-Times Media owns the Reader and here’s its CEO Edwin Eisendrath…

I am announcing today the departure of Mark Konkol from the Reader. Mark came to the publication bringing great hope for a new direction and a new life to a storied brand. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned. A tumultuous ten days culminated in the publication of a Reader cover that we believe was not in line with either our vision for the Reader or that storied history. We wish Mark well.

While controversy is sometimes seen as part and parcel of the alternative weekly world, we believe it’s necessary in this instance to apologize to anyone who was offended by this week’s cover. The published cover in my view distracted from the publication as a whole.

The reporters at the Reader work hard to be great journalists. They can and will take on the toughest stories — including issues of race, injustice and people struggling to be heard.

We will put in place interim leadership and plan for the future.

* From the Reader’s own Twitter feed…

Ding dong the witch is dead! https://t.co/Npx1zAehpR

— Chicago Reader (@Chicago_Reader) February 18, 2018

Ouch.

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Madigan asks Bustos, Mendoza and Ammons to “develop a plan for elevating the status of women in the party”

Saturday, Feb 17, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

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* The Sun-Times broke a story earlier today about Speaker Madigan’s new letter to members of his state party’s central committee. Most of the letter restates what he told his own House members on Friday (click here to see a copy of that letter). The new Madigan letter is at the bottom of the Sun-Times story (click here). What’s new is in the excerpt below…

Dear Members of the Democratic State Central Committee:

I am writing to address the recent situation and call your attention to the issue of harassment and gender equality in the workplace. […]

As a first step, I have asked Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Comptroller Suzanna Mendoza, and State Representative Carol Ammons to take the lead on facilitating a statewide discussion about the role of women in the Democratic Party of Illinois, both as elected officials and campaign personnel (including contractors, employees, interns, and volunteers), and how we can work to change the culture of politics. Their mission is to develop a plan for elevating the status of women in the party and a strategy for making the party and campaigns more inclusive. This requires changing the culture and recognizing we can no longer employ the “business as usual” mentality with our campaigns or our political offices. Persons within our party should be rewarded for their value and contribution, regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. It’s time to move beyond our current way of thinking. I recognize this change must start at the top, which means it starts with me and with each of you.

I am committed to working to find ways to change the culture and move the Party forward. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or need further information.

With kindest personal regards, I remain

Sincerely yours,

MICHAEL J. MADIGAN
Chair, Democratic Party of Illinois

* Rep. Ammons is an independent progressive Democrat who earlier this week called on the state party to come up with anti-sexual harassment procedures and “have a conversation about this issue.” She also said this, which likely got Madigan’s attention…

Ammons said all accusers need to come forward.

“Wherever they are, they need to come forward,” Ammons said, “so that we can clean the complete house of this issue of sexual harassment.”

* Comptroller Mendoza had this to say about the sexual harassment issue…

“Yeah, the state central committee should look into that,” Mendoza said, “but so should every single elected officer, whether they’re a statewide constitutional [officer], or just someone at home running for state [representative] to make sure there’s a policy in place for any of your employees, male or female, to be able to seek a thoughtful ear and know that there’s going to be a path to a resolution, one way or the other. I think that’s the biggest issue that’s failing right now.”

* US Rep. Bustos helped introduce the “Congressional Accountability and Hush Fund Elimination Act.”

…Adding… Chris Kennedy’s running mate responds…

Step one, elect new Chairman #Twill #ILGov https://t.co/mBfOtOK9ml

— Ra Joy (@Ra_Joy) February 18, 2018

* Related…

* Speaker Madigan: ‘I take responsibility’ for not doing enough on sexual harassment issue

* Harassment allegations roil Illinois politics

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Saturday quick hits: Mendoza wants Quincy veterans moved; Biss and Raoul report big bucks; Reader cover fallout intensifies

Saturday, Feb 17, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller

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* Arguments to keep the Quincy veterans’ home residents at the facility just make less sense with every new revelation…

These residents need to be relocated. https://t.co/UDBBc8kCOY

— Susana A. Mendoza (@susanamendoza10) February 17, 2018

The daughter of Gov. Rauner’s Legionnaires’-stricken State of the State guest from the Quincy veterans’ home: “If something is not done, I feel that I need to move him.” https://t.co/nOpnZC9mUA

— Dave McKinney (@davemckinney) February 16, 2018

* Meanwhile, a couple of big hauls were reported Friday after business hours…

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Daniel Biss reported $759k in contributions, including $250k donations from Charles Ashby and Stephen Schuler, and a $100k donation from Steve Silberstein. https://t.co/AqbJoSq9ad

— ILCampaign (@ILCampaign) February 16, 2018

$308,682 A1 to Raoul for Illinoishttps://t.co/t0CVS0XzSA

— Illinois Sunshine (@ilsunshine) February 17, 2018

* Meanwhile, that Chicago Reader cover could’ve been even worse. From the Reader’s own transportation columnist John Greenfield…

A credible source told me that @Konkolskorner's original plan for this week's @Chicago_Reader cover was to show @JBPritzker in blackface. He also pressured columnist @Public_Ade to write out the N-word in a headline. pic.twitter.com/K6Pymr9S8U

— John Greenfield (@greenfieldjohn) February 16, 2018

I confirmed the “blackface” idea, by the way. Reader columnist Adeshina Emmanuel claims he has written his second “and last” column for the publication because of the cover and other issues. He explained on Facebook…

If I had known my first articles in the Chicago Reader were going into an issue with a black lawn jockey on the front, I would have bailed. Quick, fast, and in a hurry, as my mom says. But I was not consulted about this cover. I would have said I don’t like it. I would have said more than that.

I would have said reducing black people to an inhuman object, a racist trope, propping up a white man could easily be interpreted as racist, aside from being a bit too on the nose. I would have said this isn’t effective satire. I would have said this was a great opportunity to give an artist of color, not a white man, the opportunity to visualize what my articles addressed — the indignities African-Americans suffer in an unequal partnership with the Democratic establishment, and the coded racial language that reflects that racist power dynamic.

And longtime Reader columnist Ben Joravsky called the cover “a disgrace” in his own Facebook post.

* Other stuff…

* Estranged Wife of Ex-Madigan Aide Says She Warned of Alleged Abuse: In it, she wrote that she was contacting Mapes because she believed she was “out of options” when it came to their divorce proceedings that began roughly three months earlier. “I don’t think anyone knows the severity of the current situation within our family,” McKay wrote. “There have been 3 domestic situations at my home since February, the last on July 5, 2017, resulting in Kevin’s arrest.” … “The speaker did not receive letter,” Madigan’s spokesman’s Steve Brown said in an emailed statement late Friday night. “A review of possible locations where letter might be sent did not locate it.”

* Candidate says GOP Rep. Charlie Meier hired private eye to tail his wife; Meier says no way

* By State Rep. John Cabello and State Rep. David McSweeney: We must enact a bipartisan infrastructure plan now: Gov. Bruce Rauner should be quarterbacking our efforts. However, sadly for political reasons, Rauner has refused to meet with President Donald Trump and has shown no leadership on Illinois infrastructure. Unlike Rauner, we both have treated the president with respect.

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