As the first day of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment trial came to a close, two journalists he had previously called “beeping people” spoke at Northwestern.
Bruce Dold, Medill ’77, and John McCormick, Medill ’72, editors of the Chicago Tribune’s editorial page, answered questions in the McCormick Tribune Center Forum Monday evening in an event called “Life on the Governor’s Enemies List.”
“Their names are prominent on the governor’s informal enemies list as well as Medill’s roster of distinguished alumni,” Prof. Roger Boye said, garnering chuckles from an audience of about 60 students, faculty members and guests during his introduction.
Prof. Donna Leff moderated the talk, asking her own questions before opening up the conversation to the audience.
One of the charges against Blagojevich, Weinberg ’79, involves a donation of $100 to $150 million in renovations for Wrigley Field to the Tribune Company, which owns the stadium. The condition for this donation was the firing of the Tribune’s editorial board, with a specific emphasis on McCormick. In the criminal complaint, this charge is listed just below Blagojevich’s alleged attempts to sell President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.
During McCormick’s introduction, Boye quoted Blagojevich in the indictment – from which profanity had been removed – saying, “Our recommendation is fire all those beeping people, get ’em the beep out of there and get us some editorial support.”
On Dec. 10, the morning of the governor’s arrest, McCormick and Dold were carpooling to work when they heard the news on the radio, McCormick said. Soon after, he got a call from an assistant U.S. attorney, telling him that he was specifically named as a victim in the criminal complaint.
Dold said one way the editorial board got on Blagojevich’s bad side was by writing “as close to an indictment of an incumbent as we’ve ever written” when Blagojevich was running for re-election in 2006. In the fall of 2007, they published an editorial introducing the idea of an amendment to the state constitution that would allow the recall of elected officials, Dold said.
McCormick said the Tribune had also called Blagojevich out on “grandstanding” and “trying to project a heroic image.”
“These are ways to leverage his position as a governor of a large state onto the national stage,” McCormick said.
Blagojevich, who used to hold regular meetings with the Tribune editorial board, severed ties in 2006, Dold said. He contrasted the governor’s response to criticism to that of Obama after the indictment of Tony Rezko. Obama sat with the editorial board and answered each of their questions, Dold said.
“I realize we’re on different ends of the spectrum when we talk about Obama and Blagojevich,” Dold said.
Nadine Shabeeb, a Weinberg sophomore, attended the discussion.
“Being a Chicago native, compared to other people I kind of have a vested interest in Blagojevich,” she said.
Kellen Henry was preparing to start her graduate studies at Medill when the governor was arrested.
“The Blagojevich scandal was sort of my introduction into Illinois politics,” Henry said.
Henry said she admired how Dold and McCormick covered the criminal case against Blagojevich. The two journalists said they faced the challenge of presenting a news story in which they were inextricably entwined.
“The chief problem that day was that we had to get out an editorial page,” McCormick said.
Dold later highlighted the importance of addressing the issue fairly.
“You can divorce yourself from the fact that the governor was trying to get you canned,” he said.
McCormick said conflicts of interest are sometimes impossible to avoid. When examining his involvement with his own stories he asks himself, “Is there something we know that our reader doesn’t?”
After the discussion, Boye said he hoped the event had demonstrated to students “the impact of journalism.”
