And unfortunately I buried it too, with too many other committments while it was making its way in through the lege. John Kass covers the negligent news coverage of the issue today.
Over four short days in the General Assembly in Springfield last week, the Daleys of Chicago were on one side and everyone who pays a phone bill in Illinois was on the other.
Guess who won.
SBC President Bill Daley, brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, brother of Cook County Commissioner and Political Insurance Duke John Daley, and brother of de facto Zoning Czar Supremo Michael Daley, got what he wanted:
Bill Daley got everything.
He received legislation allowing for a virtual SBC telephone monopoly in Illinois, legislation that bypassed the state regulatory process and allows SBC to raise rates on competitors that use its local phone network.
My only complaint about the above is that Kass’ criticism is far too mild. This was nothing but a screw the consumer bill based on the organized political pressure SBC could provide over that of other companies, but most importantly consumers. This bill had no business being handled in the lege–it was a regulatory issue for which the process had not been fully pursued.
Who’s fault is it? While both sides of the combine jumped up to whore themselves out, Bill and Richard Daley are responsible. Bill shoved and Richard winked when he made his visit last week. Deregulation means creating more choices and this bill decreases choices and sets rates based upon SBC’s shareholder’s interest, not necessarily on the balancing of interests between competition and line maintenance.
But I didn’t write about Bill Daley, clout and SBC, figuring I’d like to try different subjects, and now I’m sick about it.
Their clout was mentioned in both newspapers, but not prominently, only alluded to, almost an afterthought, with Bill Daley’s name buried in the Tribune and the Sun-Times accounts.
And none of the stories put Bill Daley in the first paragraph.
From May 2, when the politics on SBC became public, through Wednesday’s editions, the Tribune published 15 stories on the legislation. Nine happened to mention Bill Daley’s name.
There were also two Tribune editorials, including one before the vote, and neither mentioned Bill Daley.
The Sun-Times ran seven stories on SBC in that period. Bill Daley’s name was mentioned five times, including once in an editorial after the SBC deal was approved.
And TV political news? There are capable TV reporters in Chicago, but TV news directors are afraid of politics. There is no Len O’Connor on TV these days to offer tough and consistent analysis about who gets what and how.
We failed you. I failed you.
And now we can all reach for our checkbooks.
I don’t get enough traffic to have mattered, but if I did–I would have failed you as well. While Pat Quinn finally let out a peep that this was a bad idea, the Democratic Party could and should have stopped this bill. I live in Missouri and the same bad bill will be passed here. So I’m just as screwed as Illinois residents. But in Illinois the alarm bells didn’t even ring because Daley shut them down.