A long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away, Chicago was blessed with a scotch-loving curmudgeon armed with a pen. And later, a keyboard. His name was Mike Royko. He had a weekday column, first the the defunct Daily News, for a time, with the Sun-Times, and finally, with the Chicago Tribune. His topics? On New Year’s Day, alcohol and hangovers. On Election Eve, a stunner on corruption. And in between, everything from the sad sack Cubbies, local, state, and federal politics, policies, and ironies of modern life, and just wonderfully informative and entertaining observations of life in general, or in admiral, if you were Navy, that is.
Among his successes, he was the first in the western colonies of the Atlantic pond to rename Rupert Murdock as “The Rat,” just as that Aussie/Brit immigrant was starting his invasion and eventual takeover of US media outlets. (Long before Fox News, The Rat began with newspaper takeovers. Sigh. Royko really had his number)
After Royko retired, ChiTrib began a years long project, seeking Royko’s replacement. Sadly, they eventually settled upon a hack writer named John Kass, who now wastes a big chunk of Page Two of the Trib. (Royko earned a six inch inside strip, from the the top of Page 3 to the bottom.) Lacking Royko’s poignant, sarcastic, yet entertaining voice, human insights, and skilled way with words, Kass tried to match wits with Royko, usually making less than halfway, most often just barely reaching the merest “nit” level. But early on, Kass seemed mentally sane and mostly harmless. (Not entirely unlike Sir Adams’ various plays on words in his 5 part trilogy)
Then something odd happened. A grifter, real estate cheat and nutty game show host named Donald Trump began running for president. And Kass responded in a way few could predict. He became a trumpian cheerleader.
Over these past months, Kass has undergone a fool transformation, and has bought into every conspiracy theory, every “bothsidesdoit” argument, and worse.
Here is a most recent example, today’s putrid POS:
No. I won’t do it. I refuse to give that JacKass any more promotion or exposure. I refuse to quote him directly. Instead, the best way to put it is, the Democrats are worse than the Republicans, and the Fake Media hatred of Trump has led to liberals being threatened with death. The bombs? Both sides fault.
I suspect mental illness. In earlier times, he actually managed a few readable and entertaining articles. I suppose a room full of monkeys equipped with Apple laptops could achieve the same thing over time, and at random. He is not the same person. Whether he has lost it, or somehow his love of Trump has led to auto-synaptic suicide, I do not know. Nor do I care. Either way, the end result is becoming ever more unreadable. In fact, I am down to three paper papers, NYT, ChiSuntimes, and a local regional paper that kicks ass, the Regional. I won’t mention the magazines, just because. I used to get the Trib to compare and contrast with the Suntimes, but no longer.