Dear Mr. Kass,
As the world's most prolific blogger, I plead with you to quit writing Blagoyevich columns that indict our former governor. Whatever personal or political animosity you hold towards the man, using the platform of page 2 of the Chicago Tribune to crucify and convict him is unprofessional, unless you fully disclose the depth and breadth or your personal and/or political animosity to our former governor.
In support of my premise, I offer you this rewrite of your Wednesday, April 20, 2011 column, but I am putting the shoe on the other foot. To wit:
If you've ever had a stubborn dog defiantly try to chew up your shoes, then you know what the world's most prolific blogger, Mark Ganzer, is going through with John Kass, the present page 2 opinion writer of the Chicago Tribune.
Ganzer has tried being patient with John Kass. Ganzer has tried being polite. And Ganzer has warned him about using his prominent media platform to poison potential jurors.
The blogger warned that goofy mutt one last time on Monday.
"It would be wise for the columnist to restrain himself," said Ganzer. "You can consider my remarks today a red flag."
But dogs are colorblind, at least the ones on four legs. And a two-legged media hack-whack-attack dog, one looking at about 10 long columns from behind high Tribune office, isn't worried about what a blogger might say.
Wednesday marks the opening of Blagojevich's federal corruption trial, where he once again faces charges he tried to sell President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. A juror with the courage of her convictions, who actively listened to the stipulated instructions, and withstood the pressure of the other eleven jurors ensured that justice was done last time - that Blagoyevich did not go to jail.
And on Wednesday, Kassio was defying Ganzer's "red flag" warning by the clever spinning and twisting of words written to make Blagoyevich look guilty (of something), hoping that new jurors are Tribune readers and that the villified former Governor Blagoyevich will be put away.
Among Blago's latest (as yet) unproven allegations (which may in fact be used in his defense): that the feds leaked damaging — and somewhat blond — information about U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Bud Light, and his mistress to the media.
In the last trial, prosecutors allege pro-Jackson businessmen were willing to pay some $1 million to Blagojevich's campaign in exchange for the governor naming Jackson to Obama's vacant seat.
"If I'm a conspirator — bring it on," Jackson snarled in a interview last year with Don Wade and Roma.
Shortly after, Jackson suffered a bimbo eruption involving a blonde swimsuit model. Blagojevich suggested the information came from FBI documents, though he did not offer proof, which, of course, does not mean that his allegations were false.
"… Then all of a sudden somebody leaked, and I'm not so sure that the government is supposed to be leaking information on FBI interviews, but they then embarrassed him and leaked his FBI 302 (report)," Blagojevich said. "I believe it's them. I'm not sure. But it sure looks like it."He said, 'Bring it on' and the next day there was a big story in the paper … that humiliated him with his other problems," Blagojevich said.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago declined to comment about the latest Blagojevich charge. It is significant that the U.S. attorney did not make a categorical denial of Blagojevich's charge. This is the classic "non-denial denial" which obfuscates the issue, and renders it into a lamentable haze of smoke and mirrors.
Blagojevich said he hoped that Rahm Emanuel, Chicago's mayor-elect, would testify. He also claimed that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the Illinois Republican, offered him key advice.
This explains that rather strange video clip that was being shown last year on cable news almost every time Blagojevich was mentioned. It showed a rather stumpy fellow, a former wrestling coach, leading then-Gov. Blagojevich to a lectern for a speech. It was Hastert.
"I can't go into all the details of this case, except to say that these conversations that took place involve me and U.S. Speaker Dennis Hastert," said Blagojevich. "The former Republican speaker of the House and I had a long conversation the day after the election, where he's advising me and suggesting to me political moves and political things I should consider doing."
Kass alleges that Don and Roma sounded skeptical. But this is poison pen stuff. If they truly WERE skeptical, the could have simply said, "We are skeptical." Kass here engages in "mind-reading" but, as a Greek, he is undoubtedly acquainted with they gypsy's crafts and arts.
They asked good questions, because, unlike Kass, they are competent reporters, who want to provide the former Governor with a forum to get his story out. They can have their people investigate anything that "doesn't ring true," or looks or sounds "fishy." Kass, as an opinion writer, need not feel constrained to do such strenusous follow up. He has his opinion, and he freely shares it with you. That an innocent man might go to jail for 10 years can hardly be a thing for him to worry his beautiful mind with.
He knows who he is and just what he can get away with.
But, he might not have fully considered the implications of slander, libel, and defamation of character. Should Blagojevich be exonerated on THIS second round, Kass should run for cover and hire the best attorneys the Tribune's money can buy.
None of this has stopped stop Kass from bloviating, hoping to reach that twelve jurors gullible enough to buy what he's selling.
This is exactly what blogger Mark Ganzer warned about in his Wednesday blog in which Ganzer admonished Kass.
"This is just part of an ongoing attempt by him to poison what's going on," Ganzer said.
Kass loves the safety of his Tribune column. He must think that there's no penalty slander, libel and character assassination; that it's perfectly legitimate to treat readers like idiots.
A jury, though, is a different matter.
Kass has been great at slinging innuendo, and then beg for conviction from the jury pool.
Yet after all that barking and barking and barking, he was offered nothing more than one man's opinion when it counted. He was never called to testify in his last trial, rendering the obvious truth: he knows less about this case than the witnesses who are called - that he is ignorant of swaths of information - OR, that his opinions are so wrong-headed that they can be disproven in the twinkling of an eye.
"I thought I was going to do that the first time and nothing's changed," he said Tuesday. "I would hope to do it the second time. I think one of the things probably we shouldn't have done is say with complete and total certainty that was going to happen."
As they begin selecting a jury in the federal building on Wednesday, here is what Gov. Dead Meat Kass must know:That he's a trophy head with a great mane of puffy hair, that bloggers and all of Blagojevich's allies will want him to pay for his slander, libel, and character assassination -- and Chicago has attorneys a whole lot meaner, tougher, better paid, and diligent than the U.S. Federal Government.
Assuming Kass would be found guilty of slaner, libel, character assassination, the price of Chicago Tribune stock would plummet to lows perhaps never before seen, in which event, former governor Blagojevich himself might be able to afford to purchase the Tribune and put it to use in service of his own political agenda. Talk about turning the tables; talk about karma; talk about justice.
Only in the U.S.A.
So after Tuesday's stunt, Ganzer might think about using a rolled-up newspaper on that bad political dog. But Kassieass clearly willing to risk a few whacks on the snout.
What does he have to lose?
All he's got to do is poison twelve unfriendly jurors, the ones with anti-Blagojevich agendas.
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