* We all watched a video yesterday afternoon of Republican gadfly William Kelly at a Rahm Emanuel press conference. Kelly repeatedly insisted that he was a reporter for WIND Radio as he shouted at Emanuel and was shoved aside and yelled at by a couple of real live TV reporters. Turns out, Kelly ain’t a reporter…

In July, Kelly debuted a one-hour Saturday evening radio talk show called “The Kelly Truth Squad” on WIND-AM (560). But Kelly buys the air time on WIND and is not an employee of the station — an arrangement that the host argues gives him more leeway in what he can say and do on the show.

But that arrangement caused WIND general manager Jeff Reisman to take issue with one aspect of Monday’s video. “It was wrong for Kelly to call himself a reporter at WIND when he does not work for the station,” said Reisman

* The Drudge Report linked to Kelly’s video with this headline…

Chicago hometown reporters shield Emanuel from outsider’s questions

But the TV stations rightly backed up their guys…

Neither Levine or Thomas were available for comment, but a Channel 7 spokeswoman downplayed any suggestion the video might have captured an unflattering side of Thomas as street reporter: “What the video shows is Charles Thomas trying to get in position so that he could have his question answered,” said the station spokeswoman. A Channel 2 spokeswoman said the station stands by Levine. “Jay is an aggressive reporter, and we let his reporting do the talking for him,” added the spokeswoman.

So, to summarize, we have a loud, odd individual whose greatest claim to fame when he ran for comptroller was his attempt to goad state treasurer and US Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias into a boxing match showing up at a Rahm Emanuei press availability with a video cameraman while claiming to be a radio reporter (notice the problem right there), but he isn’t a radio reporter because he only buys time on the station once a week for his talk show, but he managed to get some national attention because a site that lives to whack Democrats used the worst possible spin in its link. And, boy, does this person have high ambitions…

“I’d like to be the conservative version of Larry King,” said Kelly, referencing the longtime CNN talk show host who is about to retire.

Ah, America.

* Meanwhile, speaking of our nation’s highest journalistic standards, Robert Feder swings at the Tribune editorial board…

Overshadowed by the frat house hijinks detailed in David Carr’s New York Times opus on Tribune Co. last week was a potentially more damaging allegation — that owner Sam Zell tried to use the Chicago Tribune to benefit his other business interests.

Former editor Ann Marie Lipinski recalled a June 2008 meeting at which the billionaire mogul told her the newspaper should be harder on then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (“Don’t be a p*ssy,” she quoted Zell saying. “You can always be harder on him.”) Later that day, she learned that Zell was negotiating to sell Wrigley Field to the state sports authority. Lipinski quit the following month.

Up until just a few short weeks ago, anything that even looked like a Blagojevich-related story was big news in this state. But now, we’ve got a potential barn-burner and there’s almost total silence. Strange, that. Apparently, “Rahm” is the new “Rod” for our press corps.