How Chicago’s press corps is dealing with ‘Washington Rahm’

[Disir]

For four years now, Mary Ann Ahern has been chasing Rahm Emanuel.

Emanuel, a three-term Illinois congressman and former White House chief of staff who became Chicago’s mayor in 2011, has ducked out back doors while Ahern, a veteran TV reporter, has been waiting to talk to him, she said. He has retaliated for coverage he hasn’t liked by restricting access, and shaken his finger in her face before walking out of an interview because he didn’t like a question.

...He routinely refuses to take questions at press events, changes his schedule at the last minute, and shows up early before the cameras arrive, reporters who have covered him say. Several of the journalists who have followed him during his first term described the relationship as “contentious”—if it can be called a relationship at all.

“It’s all one-way,” said Laura Washington, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. “He treats us as pests. He’s trying to run a press operation and carve out an image based on Washington standards.”
How Chicago s press corps is dealing with Washington Rahm - Columbia Journalism Review

Press? I don't need no stinking press.

 

[blastoff]

He's a class guy out of the Barry mold.

It's the Chicago way, decades of slimey dimocrat politicians and their huge patronage armies and worthless bureaucrats working the various systems and screwing over everyone else. But at least it's led to fiscal chaos for the Windy City, where black lives don't matter worth a damn based on how they gun one another down in the streets.

 

[Disir]

Innit? It's a never ending drama fest.

 

[JoeB131]

He's a class guy out of the Barry mold.

It's the Chicago way, decades of slimey dimocrat politicians and their huge patronage armies and worthless bureaucrats working the various systems and screwing over everyone else. But at least it's led to fiscal chaos for the Windy City, where black lives don't matter worth a damn based on how they gun one another down in the streets.

Actually, most of the local pols know how to work the Chicago Press Corps.

Rahm really doesn't.

But the main reason why he'll probably win, most people know that as much as we don't like Rahm, Chuy Garcia isn't qualified for the job.

 

[Disir]

I don't know about that. Rahm's track record sucks.

 

[JoeB131]

I don't know about that. Rahm's track record sucks.

I think it does, too. But Chuy doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

 

[Disir]

Rahm is a somewhat disciplined gold tooth used care salesman.
By somewhat disciplined I mean that he desperately tries to pretend that he has it together. He doesn't.
Half of the mental health clinics were shut down and at a time when the prisons are releasing people left and right. Crime has increased. Rahm will not address those concerns. Not now and not ever.

He isn't leaving people much of a choice. If Chuy can recognize this problem and address it then he would be doing half of what Rahm isn't.

 

[JoeB131]

Rahm is a somewhat disciplined gold tooth used care salesman.
By somewhat disciplined I mean that he desperately tries to pretend that he has it together. He doesn't.
Half of the mental health clinics were shut down and at a time when the prisons are releasing people left and right. Crime has increased. Rahm will not address those concerns. Not now and not ever.

He isn't leaving people much of a choice. If Chuy can recognize this problem and address it then he would be doing half of what Rahm isn't.

Oh, I agree, Rahm is a horrible mayor.

I'm just not convinced that Chuy would be a better one.

 

[Disir]

Rahm is a somewhat disciplined gold tooth used care salesman.
By somewhat disciplined I mean that he desperately tries to pretend that he has it together. He doesn't.
Half of the mental health clinics were shut down and at a time when the prisons are releasing people left and right. Crime has increased. Rahm will not address those concerns. Not now and not ever.

He isn't leaving people much of a choice. If Chuy can recognize this problem and address it then he would be doing half of what Rahm isn't.

Oh, I agree, Rahm is a horrible mayor.

I'm just not convinced that Chuy would be a better one.

I'm not either. But, I really dislike Rahm.

 

[JoeB131]

I'm not either. But, I really dislike Rahm.

Fair enough. I won't be heartbroken if he loses. I don't live in Chicago proper, so I can't vote.