When I was growing up in Chicago the Trib was a Republican leaning paper. I don't think that is true today but I still think that this endorsement is going to leave a mark.
Son of a Gun!
He needs to make some concessions for the good of the party.
Why wouldn’t they? A liberal paper is endorsing a liberal.
I’m am definitely holding my nose in voting for Kirk. But the stench of the RAT crook is overwhelming.
The best thing I can say about Kirk’s record is that he’s not as bad as Castle. The interesting thing is that in his ads he’s running as hard as he can to the right. At least those he’s running downstate. He’s thinks that’s the message that sells this year even in Obama’s Illinois. I wish I could believe him, but the early primary left the GOP stuck with him as the lesser of evils.
“Sam Zell was sort of a rock star when he went around and toured the various properties,” said Ann Marie Lipinski, the former editor of The Chicago Tribune who left less than a year after the takeover. “People had been living with uncertainty for so long and they hoped something good would come from an owner with a proven track record of success in other businesses.”
Mr. Zell’s first innovation was the deal itself. He used debt in combination with an employee stock ownership plan, called an ESOP, to buy the company, while contributing only $315 million of his own money. Under the plan, the company’s discretionary matching contributions to the 401(k) retirement plan for nonunionized Tribune employees were diverted into an ownership stake. The structure of the deal allowed Tribune to become an S corporation, which pays no federal taxes; its shareholders are responsible for all taxes.
The $8 billion in new loans used to finance the deal left the company with $13.8 billion in debt. But Mr. Zell was convinced that by quickly selling the Chicago Cubs and other assets while improving operating margins, the company could emerge as a valuable property. It was typical Zell: a risky approach to gain control over a large, distressed asset while minimizing his own exposure, something he acknowledged in a company newsletter:
“I’ve said repeatedly that no matter what happens in this transaction, my lifestyle won’t change,” he wrote to his combination employees/shareholders. “Yours, on the other hand, could change dramatically if we get this right.”
His second innovation was bringing in a new management team, largely from the radio business, that, like Mr. Zell, had little newspaper experience, which constituted more than 70 percent of the company’s business.
Mr. Michaels, who was initially in charge of Tribune’s broadcasting and interactive businesses as well as six newspapers, was a former shock jock who made a name for himself — and a lot of money for Mr. Zell — by scooping up radio stations while at the Zell-controlled Jacor Communications. Jacor was later sold to Clear Channel Communications for $4.4 billion.
That scumbag Kirk has to lose. It would be worth two years of the other scumbag just to see Kirk lose.
Better to be knifed in the face by an enemy than stabbed in the back by a “friend”.
Would that be the same Chicago Tribune that endorsed Comrade Obamamao??? I cannot tell you how impressed I am not. It must be that it is OK by the Trib if a candidate is an enthusiastic supporter of baby-killing (may even be mandatory nowadays), a supporter of perversion posing as “marriage,” a gun grabber, and a spendthrift posing for unholy pictures as a “fiscal conservative” (as though there were such a thing) so long as the candidate’s credentials as a brie and chablis lover are in shape. “Oh, Muffy, Nancyboy is just one of US!!! Isn’t it about time WE had a senator? So what if he has a yen for other men?”
Patrick Fitzgerald should sue the Trib for libel unless it withdraws the claim that Nancyboy would see to the appointment of anyone like Patrick Fitzgerald to any responsibility much less US Attorney.
“Mark Kirk for Senate (Chicago Tribune Endorsement)”
You mean the Mark Kirk that is basically a DemonRat in everything but name? Eff him (spit)
“a senator who will bring expertise and independence.”
Code word for “liberal no it all.”
“a senator who will bring expertise and independence.”
Code word for “liberal know it all.”
Leni