Empty Talking Heads Wasting Chances to Inform Voters About the Real Problem

Written by John Biver

Over the weekend veteran Chicago news reporter Bill Cameron had Pat Brady as a guest on his weekly program and podcast. Yes, that Pat Brady — the disgraced former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, who was hired by the radical ACLU to convince weak-kneed and malleable Republicans to vote for marriage redefinition in 2013. On Monday, a friend brought it to my attention in an email and asked:

“Why does Bill Cameron go to a disgraced Republican who was chased out as GOP chairman for a supposedly conservative reaction to Donald Trump’s first few months as POTUS? Don’t we have many other true conservatives who could articulate the GOP sentiment well?

“Also, it would be interesting to see what Leftist causes Pat Brady and his lobbying firm are pushing in Springfield.”

Not knowing, and not caring, what Pat is up to these days, readers will be spared an update on that front. To the question about Bill Cameron’s choice of guests — my friend is exactly right. After over three decades of reporting in Illinois, surely Cameron knows some conservatives to interview.

While Brady refers to himself as a conservative during the interview, Cameron advertised his appearance by Tweeting:

“Get a moderate Republican’s take on #Trump, McConnell & the Springfield Standoff with @pat_brady on #connected2chicago at 7p @wlsam890”

At least Cameron knows he’s not a conservative.

To the content of the interview — it runs about twenty minutes long and offered nothing worth listening to. Though I admit it was entertaining to hear Brady say this about President Trump’s Tweet about the “wiretapping”: “Turns out to be not true.” Not true? Evidently Pat has missed the news over the past couple of weeks.

And while I read a lot and scan many more headlines from conservative commentators, I hadn’t, until this show, heard a “Republican” say they were upset that Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland was not given a hearing or an up or down vote in the U.S. Senate. Cameron quoted Brady in a Tweet:

“I think Sen McConnell has handled this miserably. The ends don’t justify the means.”

It really isn’t worth saying much more about the show, but my friend’s question is an important one.

Most people are busy raising a family, working, building a business, and other worthwhile endeavors. So when they tune into a “news” or “commentary” show it would be nice if the media would provide content that helps them become better informed.

With all the “news” and commentary available, why is it that so few Illinoisans know the extent of the problem with the State of Illinois’ budget? If you’re going to spend twenty minutes of airtime, why not provide the outlines of how so many special interests in this state believe that ever-more of taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars belong to them?

If we are going to get to the point where the public supports the only path to a balanced budget (which is cuts, cuts, and more cuts), that very same public is going to have to know the depths of the mismanagement, over-promising, and legalized theft that has been taking place in Illinois for decades.

What do I mean by “legalized theft”? One good example is how government employees (like teachers) are able to unionize, and then use their political power to elect compliant school board members who in turn give them everything they want via extravagant contracts.

So much time and space on the page in the media that could be used to inform is instead given to empty opinions from political has-beens about personalities and horse-race type contests.

Few in the media seem willing to buck the system. The system? Yes, elected Democrats, too many elected Republicans, and their campaign donors do not want hardworking taxpayers to know the ugly details of the state’s budget. The worst thing for them would be for more people to learn how select groups profit and crony capitalism flourishes at the state level.

It has been three years since Bruce Rauner won the GOP nomination, and over that time he has utterly failed to use his wealth (and the wealth of his friends) to take to the airwaves and social media and Illinois meeting halls to inform voters about the real problem in this state: taxpayers are simply being overwhelmed by tax-eaters.

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