Walter Jacobson's Perspective

In the courtroom trials of former President Donald Trump, those two very well-known words “gag” and “order” are being heard and read as one word: “gag-order.”  Trump is accused by federal prosecutors of election interference and accused by judges of trying to sway jurors. While in Chicago, there’s the trial of former Alderman Ed Burke, accused of bribery and attempted extortion. In that trial, it seems to me, there’s been reason, good reason, for gag-orders on the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times to prevent them from trying to sway jurors. All during the Burke trial – for two months – the newspapers printed stories of bad behavior by Burke, stories featuring anonymous descriptions of Burke as “corrupt and untouchable.” Gag-orders are for protecting the fairness of a trial by preventing free-speaking litigants from supporting or disparaging a defendant. I think the only way the Burke trial could have been as fair as it was supposed to have been would have been the judge gag-ordering some of that newspaper reporting. So, I believe it’s fair for me to say, “Cheers for gag-ordering.”

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

In sports news this week, the big news is about baseball. A $700 million contract for a Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher. His name is Shohei Ohtani. He’s 29 years old, pitching fastballs at 99 miles an hour, and when not pitching, he’s batting at a nearly 300 average. It is in no way illegal or even unfair of baseball’s owners and players to earn and enjoy the fruits of their labor. But because so many people around the world are suffering and dying of preventable and curable diseases, maybe Major League Baseball could be required, or at least asked, to please share just a little more of its taxable baseball fortune. Maybe it’s time for baseball to give back?

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

For many, many years, I’ve considered Joe Biden to be a thoughtful, knowledgeable, skillful politician. And I believe he’s been qualified for all the offices to which he’s been elected. He’s an honest and decent person. But in my opinion, it’s time for him to end his campaign to be re-elected. And, I believe I’m qualified to say so in part because Joe and I are about the same age. He’s 81. I’m 86. The demands on the presidency are overwhelming. At 81, Joe Biden is beyond a comfortable age to begin four more years of dealing with both friendly and hostile leaders of the Biden-rank in political office. When I watch him descending the stairs of an airplane, I worry about him. When I see him lost in a Joe Biden gaffe, I say to myself, “Oh no, Joe, you’re not up to four more years.”

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Most of Chicago is too busy these holidays to be thinking or even knowing about something really good going on in City Hall. The City Council being in the process of passing another law to crack down on noise. A law to require Chicago to install cameras with microphones on lampposts in and around downtown and empower police to ticket and fine people driving cars with revved up and excessively noisy mufflers. A crackdown on muffler noise is a great idea. Tickets and fines are still being determined. So, while our Council is considering, “Shhhh, be quiet!”

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

All of a sudden, the most interesting player in presidential politics is not Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley or Joe Biden. They’re not saying anything new. Let’s have a look at Joe Manchin. Senator Joe Manchin is aching to be the presidential candidate of a third party running for the Oval Office. What he has going for him is his experience in combative politics and his personal wealth of multi-millions. Going against him is his history of being a kingpin in the businesses of mining and selling coal. That’s what made him wealthy but not much trusted in this time of need for climate control. What’s making him worth watching is his lust for the presidency atop a third party ticket. Biden vs. Trump vs. Manchin.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

The criminal racketeering, bribery and extortion trial of Ed Burke has barely begun. But in City Hall and on the streets and the neighborhoods the whispering already is that the jury will find Burke guilty of most everything charged. Not because he is guilty, which we have not yet determined. But because members of the jury may have been and still may be reading about Ed Burke in Chicago’s two most influential newspapers. I don’t know if Ed Burke is guilty. But I do know those newspapers are describing him as the major player in the Chicago Way of government corruption. A juror reading the Sun-Times or Tribune descriptions of Burke might find it hard to vote “not guilty.” Those newspapers ought to be more careful about what they’re saying.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

It is hard right now to find good news in the news. But here is some very good news. The Attorney General of the State of Illinois is joining a team of Attorneys General that is filing lawsuits against Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms accusing them of feeding children false information, enticing teenagers to spread dangerous information that can cause depression, anxiety, or a real or imagined flaw in a physical appearance that can lead a teenager to harm himself or herself. Our good Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul says that Facebook, Instagram and other platforms are motivated by profit and are spreading dangers that are “profoundly altering the social and psychological realities of a generation of young Americans” in what he’s calling a national crisis. Thank you, General Raoul, for knowing children are in a crisis and for being determined to help them out of it.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Wherever you are, you no doubt have heard the news that Chicago’s weatherman, Tom Skilling of WGN Channel 9 TV, come next February will retire. I’ve heard it and am thinking, good for Tom Skilling. Not good for hundreds of thousands of the rest of us afraid to go to bed at night without hearing a Skilling forecast. He’s not only nice and likely the best media weatherperson in the country but also the most loyal to people with whom he’s worked for many years.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

The news reports about suffering and death in Israel and Gaza are so painful to watch that it is hard for me to turn on the TV. But it would be harder for me not to turn it on because of how important it is to keep up with the news. So I am turning on the TV and seeing something that compels me to shout out against what TV is doing, showing those pictures of dead and decaying bodies on the streets of Israel and Gaza. The pictures are not bringing an end to the bloodbath. They are bringing to television ratings and advertising dollars. Enough of those pictures of dead and decaying bodies. When there is time for talk on TV, please use it to better inform us about the history of Israel and Gaza and to explain the failures of both to avoid what’s happening there now.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective:

Chicago’s yearly, lovable Columbus Day Parade walked off on schedule three days ago. There were more than a thousand people in the parade or watching and cheering, many of them hoping that someday soon City Hall will return their statue of Christopher Columbus to Arrigo Park in the Little Italy neighborhood on the near Southwest side where, 2 1/2 years ago, during a political protest, the statue was vandalized and removed by Mayor Lightfoot and stashed away in hiding. She promised that when she believed the statue would not again be an object of political protest she would return it to Arrigo Park. But she never did. So, now returning it is up to our new mayor, Brandon Johnson, who says he’s in favor of returning it but needs a couple of weeks to think about it. The Columbus statue of Arrigo is of deep feeling and ethnic importance to Chicago’s Italian-Americans who are still waiting for their statue to be released by City Hall and given back to Arrigo, where it belongs. Now the delay is a political problem. So, new Mister Mayor, it is time at long last, too long last Your Honor, to solve it.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective: