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Check story still not going away

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Illinois
YouTube

Both the Tribune and Copley had pieces on the YouTube incident from over a week ago. As usual, neither online article provided a link to the videos. But the stories did serve to keep the infamous “check” story alive.

* Tribune:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich made his first YouTube.com appearance in February, when someone posted footage of him being satirized on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” For a telegenic governor in the media age, the widely popular video Web site has been a surprisingly unkind medium for him ever since. […]

For Blagojevich, a second awkward YouTube moment came last week, when a video of impromptu sessions with a dozen reporters landed on the site. An aide for Blagojevich’s Republican opponent, Judy Baar Topinka, shot the video.

The governor, typically smooth and confident before the cameras, looked less than prepared and uncharacteristically uneasy as he was peppered with questions surrounding a $1,500 check he received from a longtime friend. As the Tribune disclosed in a recent story, the check came about the time the friend’s wife received a state job. The raw texture of the amateur video made Blagojevich’s appearance look that much less professional and statesmanlike.

* Copley (Finke’s column):

A week ago Thursday, Blagojevich finally got around to talking with a group of reporters about the check. It did not go well. In fact, it went so poorly that Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s campaign put its video from the session on the YouTube Internet site. People have been talking about it ever since.

First, Blagojevich launches into an explanation of his relationship with Ascaridis to show that the check was just a generous gift to one of his children. They’re best friends. They were childhood friends. They’ve known each other since they were 8 years old. They’ve had a 40-year relationship.

Ascaridis is like a godparent to Blagojevich’s children.

And then he repeats it. And repeats it. Throughout the questioning from reporters, Blagojevich kept falling back on the same stock lines. Lifelong friend. Forty-year relationship. Godparent to children. It’s like watching “Rain Man II: The Gubernatorial Years.”

* My syndicated column is also partly about the check and the dispute between the governor and the Tribune over whether the original story accurately quoted Beverly Ascaridis.

There’s a simple way to clear all this up. Release the tape. Most reporters carry little tape recorders around with them. And considering the detailed quotes of Mrs. Ascaridis in the original story, it seems more than likely the Tribune has a recording of her answers. They can post the whole thing on their Web site.

I want to make it clear that I happen to side with the reporter on this matter. He’s a good journalist, and I don’t believe for a second that he would make up a story.

Too often, though, the people who run big media outlets like the Tribune tend to think that when they publish something, everyone has to take it as God’s Word that the story is true and nobody should ever dare question their integrity.

But when the governor of a large state who is already facing serious legal trouble contends that a powerful newspaper deliberately falsified a highly damaging story about him, then the newspaper ought to lay all its cards on the table.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 2, 06 @ 8:44 am

Comments

Check??What check?

Comment by Bill Monday, Oct 2, 06 @ 10:02 am
It’s not going away, but does anyone care?

Time to post another poll showing the governor is holding a 10 point lead over his challenger.

Comment by Leroy Monday, Oct 2, 06 @ 10:12 am
I don’t think Rod was really thinking through his accusation that the paper falsified information. I think it was a sudden, I’m-on-the-spot-badly, not-well-thought-out, knee-jerk reaction to try desperately to get himself off the spot. But it backfired by the time his brain unrattled itself.

If this guy is in the lead, I look upon my fellow Illinois voters largely with disgust. The state keeps electing these creeps in part BECAUSE the voters in the state KEEP ELECTING these creeps.

Shame on you all. I’m voting for Judy.

Comment by Angie Monday, Oct 2, 06 @ 2:26 pm
I was hoping some regular posters might finally choose to be silent on the check issue, since this obviously will never be truthfully defended. Can’t wait for the debate tonight. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!

Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Oct 2, 06 @ 3:30 pm
We’d be silent if Rod would only answer in detail already. So far, we’ve–well–you saw the video!

Comment by Angie Monday, Oct 2, 06 @ 11:03 pm