The Blagojevich charges will probably mostly be reported in terms of Obama. But Blagojevich's other bits of corruption were, if anything, worse. One of the threads of the complaint follows his attempts to leverage the Tribune Company's broader financial interests to change the editorial tone of their flagship paper. The Tribune Company owns the Cubs, and were seeking assistance in the hundreds of millions of dollars from the Illinois Financial Authority (the IFA). They also own the Chicago Tribune. And the Chicago Tribune was calling for Blagojevich's impeachment. This presented a problem:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with JOHN HARRIS. ROD BLAGOJEVICH discussed the Tribune editorials suggesting that ROD BLAGOJEVICH be impeached, and told HARRIS that they need to have a conversation with “[Tribune Financial Advisor]” (as noted above, Tribune Financial Advisor is believed to be a top adviser to Tribune Owner who played a significant role in Tribune Owner's purchase of the Tribune), Cubs Chairman, and Tribune Owner and explain that the Tribune is writing editorials criticizing ROD BLAGOJEVICH for taking actions like those Tribune Owner wants ROD BLAGOJEVICH to take “on this Cubs deal at the IFA.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that because of the impeachment articles, “we don't know if we can take a chance and do this IFA deal now."[...] HARRIS said he told Tribune Financial Advisor that things “look like they could move ahead fine but, you know, there is a risk that all of this is going to get derailed by your own editorial page.” HARRIS said that he told Tribune Financial Advisor that they need to have a discussion on how they might tone things down and change the focus of “that page.” HARRIS said that Tribune Financial Advisor said that is a delicate issue, that Tribune Financial Advisor wanted to come in and talk to HARRIS about it, and that Tribune Financial Advisor will talk to Tribune Owner preliminarily about it.[...]During an intercepted call on November 11, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH talked with JOHN HARRIS. ROD BLAGOJEVICH asked HARRIS about the Tribune issue. HARRIS said that he met with Tribune Financial Advisor the prior day (November 10, 2008), and that Tribune Financial Advisor talked to Tribune Owner and Tribune Owner “got the message and is very sensitive to the issue.” HARRIS stated that according to Tribune Financial Advisor, there will be “certain corporate reorganizations and budget cuts coming and, reading between the lines, he's going after that section.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH responded, “oh, that's fantastic.”
It's always worth remembering that for every scheme like this that gets recorded on a wiretap and published on the web, many ore roll forward without a hitch. That's why, in general, both sides are willing to cooperate. because this sort of thing works. There's no evidence that it actually affected the Chicago Tribune, but it could have down the road, and it's certainly a tactic that's been employed elsewhere. It's yet another reason that I think non-profit journalism, and even publicly subsidized journalism (so long as the subsidies are through neutral or indirect methods), makes a lot of sense.
