Chicago, Our Idea of Fun!

[Annie]

Excerpt:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...e=22&u=/ap/20040817/ap_on_re_us/daley_tribune

Chicago Mayor's Feud With Paper Escalates

Tue Aug 17, 8:24 AM ET

By DON BABWIN, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - Mayor Richard Daley apparently doesn't subscribe to the notion that it is unwise to argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

In the last few weeks, the mayor has been battling the city's largest newspaper — the Chicago Tribune — accusing it of favoritism, double standards and revenge. Although Daley has never been shy about blasting the media when he reads a news story he doesn't like, this fight has escalated well beyond red-faced tirades.

Daley has threatened to shut down one of the Tribune Co.'s most valuable assets: Wrigley Field, the storied home of the Chicago Cubs.

The latest dispute is rooted in a problem at Wrigley Field that caused chunks of concrete to fall from the stadium's upper deck this season. When the city checked into it, Daley's buildings commissioner said he found nearly $2 million in repairs had been made to the ballpark over the past three years without proper city permits.

Shortly after the city got involved, the Tribune began checking maintenance records at City Hall. Now the city has shut down construction at a Tribune-owned television station's studio.

"Daley is playing it for everything it is worth," said John Callaway, a local broadcast news analyst. "He's having fun."

It is not the first time Daley and the newspaper have sparred. Daley lashed out at the paper after it called the renovated Soldier Field "The Monstrosity of the Midway" or blasted his decision to plow under a lakefront airport after dark as "dictatorial."

In the latest feud, Daley said he wouldn't hesitate to shut down the 90-year-old ballpark to protect fans. The Cubs scrambled to inspect the park and put up protective netting.

But the mayor didn't stop there; he laid into the newspaper.

"If this took place in Soldier Field, the Tribune would have headlines," Daley said, and he publicly wondered why the newspaper's editorial page didn't weigh in.

Editor Ann Marie Lipinski said Daley's allegations were "simply wrong," noting that not only was the Tribune the first paper to report about the falling concrete, but also reported on the Cubs' failure to obtain permits for work done there.

The editorial page did take up the matter — under the headline, "Here's your editorial, Mayor." It defended its reporting and said the mayor's criticism was a way of deflecting attention from a Tribune report on what it called "City Hall cronyism."

The Tribune also filed a Freedom of Information Act request for maintenance records at City Hall.

That, Daley suggested, was revenge. Tribune Managing Editor James O'Shea said it was a routine request and reporters were simply acting on a tip.

 

[Avatar4321]

Is Daley Republican or Democrat?

 

[Annie]

Is Daley Republican or Democrat?

His father put Kennedy in the Presidency-democrat.