For the last few years, newspapers have been smacked around for lacking relevance, but the industry has finally found a compelling spokesman: Rod R. Blagojevich, Democratic governor of Illinois.
According to the criminal complaint that the United States attorney filed, Governor Blagojevich, while allegedly trying to set a price for a United States Senate seat, also spent a significant amount of time going after the press, especially The Chicago Tribune, whose editorial page had been calling for his impeachment.
The governor said he would withhold financial assistance from the Tribune Company in its effort to sell Wrigley Field unless the newspaper got rid of the editorial writers. "Our recommendation is fire all those [expletive] people, get 'em the [expletive] out of there and get us some editorial support," he told his chief of staff, John Harris.
Who says the modern American newspaper doesn't matter?
There is no evidence that Sam Zell, the chief executive of the Tribune Company, or any of his colleagues followed through on Mr. Blagojevich's demand for retribution. (Gerould Kern, editor of The Chicago Tribune, told me Sunday, "Since I have been editor, I have not been pressured in any way on our coverage of the governor, our editorial page positions or the staffing of our editorial board.")
The Tribune Company has acknowledged that that the company received a subpoena, but declined to comment further.