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Chicago Tribune Ignores Massachusetts; Keillor FEATURED STORY

Praises Harry Reid Instead
Posted by Rich Trzupek J a n 2 0 t h 2 0 1 0 a t 6 : 5 3 p m i n C h i c a g o T r i b u n e, Congress, M a i n s t r e a m Is Paul Krugman -- NY
Media, Politics, Print Journalism, Scott Brown, media bias | C o m m e n t s(16) Times Nobel Prize-Win
and Former Enron Advi
- Bailing on Obama?
If you live in Chicago and your only source of news is the venerable Chicago Tribune, it would take you a while to
b y Frank Ross
figure out that something happened in Massachusetts Tuesday night. One would think that an editor might place a
story with the following lead – oh, I don’t know – front page, top of the fold, maybe?
A lot of pigs have been taking to the air since
Brown's historic -- maybe this time the word
In a stunning blow to Democrats, Republican Scott Brown ended the party’s half- actually means something -- win in the
century grip on the Senate seat once held by Edward M. Kennedy, coming from Massachusetts special election for "Teddy
Kennedy's seat" on Tuesday night.  The balan
nowhere to give the GOP the crucial 41st vote needed to thwart President Obama
power has tilted a bit, legislation that looked
and his agenda, possibly starting with healthcare. inevitable a...

Read more... More Featured St

It ended up on page fourteen.

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Allow me to repeat: page fourteen. An election that stunned both parties, sent a thundering message to the
President and his party, threatens the very existence of the signature piece of legislation that this administration – Books and Literature
and the Chicago Tribune – believe is vital to the health and welfare of Americans is a story that, in the judgment of
Cable News
what used to be the beacon of Midwestern values, less important than finding Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan yet
again. CBS

But, you may ask, what about the opinion section? Surely the Trib could find a columnist or two eager to explain Charity
what the Massachusetts Miracle means for the nation, right? Apparently not. The closest the Trib’s featured
columnists came to talking about last night’s stunner was a petulant piece penned by an increasingly cranky Chicago Tribune
Garrison Keillor, who managed to avoid mentioning Scott Brown – or directly referring to what happened in Christianity
Massachusetts at all – in the course of a 700 word diatribe that both condemned the tea-party movement and
beatified Harry Reid. Climate Change

Climategate
For Keillor:
CNN

Reid is the gentlest and most patient soul in the U.S. Senate and his presence there Congress
in a colony of bull walruses is a tribute to Nevada. He’s a soft-spoken man from
Conservative Media
hardscrabble roots in the mining town of Searchlight who possesses Western
honesty and openness and a degree of modesty startling for a senator, and if he Corruption
goes down to defeat to some big bass drum, the Republic will be the poorer for it.
Crime

Is this the same Harry Reid who called George W. Bush a liar, a loser and the worst President ever? That gentle, Culture
patient Harry Reid?
Defense
No matter. Mulling over the future following the results of an election that he just can’t bring himself to actually talk
Economics
about, Keillor at least got something partially right:
Education

The problem for Democrats right now is that nobody can explain health care Entertainment
reform in plain English, 50 words or less. It’s all too murky. The price of
Environment
constructing this intricate web of compromises for the benefit of Republican
senators (who then decided to quit the game and sit on their thumbs) is a bill with Exclusives
strange hair and ill-fitting clothes that you hesitate to bring home to Mother. Like
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all murky stuff, it is liable to strike people as dangerous or unreliable.
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Here’s a point that Mr. Keillor may wish to consider next time he is gravely considering the future of the nation over a
Mainstream Media
hot cup of joe: this murky, unexplainable, intricate web of compromises is not a Democratic problem, it’s America’s
problem, and Americans have a big, big problem with it. Health care reform strikes people as dangerous and Martha Coakley
unreliable because, well, it is dangerous and unreliable, and Americans have figured that out. That is the biggest
media bias
lesson one should take away from last night’s election, assuming of course that one isn’t counting on the Chicago
Tribune to tell one that said election even happened. Media Matters

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Tags: A m e r i c a, American Public Media, C h i c a g o, C h i c a g o T r i b u n e, c o l u m n i s t, Democrats, editor, Edward M.
K e n n e d y, Garrison Keillor, George W. Bush, H a r r y R e i d, H e a l t h c a r e, i n t r i c a t e w e b, Lake Michigan, NBC
Massachusetts, M i c h i g a n, Minnesota Public Radio, N e v a d a, O b a m a, Politics, President, R e p u b l i c a n P a r t y, Scott
B r o w n, S e n a t e, Ted Kennedy, the Chicago Tribune, United States Senate, worst President Network News

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16 COMMENTS New York Times
HIPLAINSDRIFTER - January 21st, 2010 at 3:07 am
News
Another nail in the MSM coffin…pretty soon the lid will be secure and we can finally lower it into the ground.
Then affix an appropiate headstone….I'll think of one later….But as a starter….. "We shot ourselves first in the News magazines
foot then worked our way up"….
NPR

Obama
MARKARCUS - January 21st, 2010 at 3:18 am
chicago politics at its best Open Threads

opinion journalism
UBERVU - SOCIAL COMMENTS - January 20th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Social comments and analytics for this post… Planned Parenthood

This post was mentioned on Twitter by BigJournalism: Chicago Tribune Ignores Massachusetts; Keillor Praises Political Humor
Harry Reid Instead http://bit.ly/6CRZPQ…
Politics

Print Journalism
DKF - January 21st, 2010 at 3:25 am
The once self-honored "World's Greatest Newspaper," the Chicago Tribune, is now an unwavering member of the Radio
progressive left's media spin machine. . .and subsequently has evolved into "The Pravda of Chicago."
Religion

Rethinking Bush
DES_ - January 21st, 2010 at 3:28 am
I had someone come to my house trying to raise money for charity by selling subscriptions to the Tribune. I Rush Limbaugh
offered to give her the money, but refused the paper (or supporting them by letting some of my money go to
Sarah Palin
such a corrupt organization). The day that Liberal rag folds will be a great day for the city of Chicago and a
major step towards freeing the people who've been used and abused by it's Democratic politicians and their Scott Brown
cronies.
Sports
DAR_AL_HARB - January 21st, 2010 at 3:34 am
Taliban
Garrison Keillor – I thought he assumed room temperature about 20 years ago…!?! Maybe that was just his
Talk Radio
brain and the corpse lives on, like a zombie.
Tea Parties

QA_NJ - January 21st, 2010 at 3:37 am Television

Isn't the Chicago Tribune supposed to be the more "conservative" paper in Chicago?
Terrorism

Time Magazine
ED357 - January 21st, 2010 at 3:44 am
THIS SAYS IT ALL………  Uncategorized

"Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't War on Terror
so."
Washington Post
Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America.

BLOGROLL
FLAPPDOODLE - January 21st, 2010 at 3:48 am
Garrison Keillor has a face for radio.
ABCNews

UCULLEN - January 21st, 2010 at 3:59 am Ace Of Spades HQ

ignorance is bliss
Agence France Press

Althouse
RNB - January 20th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
“The price of constructing this intricate web of compromises for the benefit of Republican senators (who then American Thinker
decided to quit the game and sit on their thumbs)… ” Keillor is full of prairie patties. Republicans in both the
Andrew Sullivan
House and Senate were frozen out of the process early on. The “intricate web of compromises” was an attempt to
get buy-in from a sufficient number of Democrats — and Reid and Pelosi couldn’t even manage that! Ann Coulter

Associated Press
RELISH - January 20th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
If ever a man looked like he needed an enema… Big Hollywood

Bill O’Reilly
OLDGRAYMARE - January 21st, 2010 at 4:40 am Billy Hallowell Online
Time for Keillor to go back to Lake Woebegone and stay there.
Black & Right

CLOUDYDAZE - January 21st, 2010 at 4:40 am Blackfive

That's the genius of it…everyone thinks that. It's a beautiful guise.
BlogsLucianneLoves.com
We keep our subscription only for John Kass. God, we should just start sending him ten dollars a week directly
Bloomberg
and bypass that increasingly loathesome rag.
Boston Globe

CHRISTOPH - January 21st, 2010 at 4:44 am Breitbart.com

At least his books like Pontoon and A Prairie Home Companion are still good
Breitbart.tv

RELISH - January 21st, 2010 at 4:16 am

C-SPAN
This is more of that Bizarro talk from an earlier article today, right? Reid a gentle man? Or even a gentleman?
Camille Paglia
Garrison must have tapped into the high-grade stuff after the whupping in Massachusetts.
Charles Krauthammer

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