CHICAGO NEWS CONFERENCE: Andy Martin says Rauner/McKinney conflict is legitimate debate

  

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Attention Chicago, National daybook/assignment editors

Announcement of Chicago news conference Tuesday afternoon

Purported “journalist” Rich Miller censors effort to defend Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner

Andy Martin says the Chicago Sun-Times is not blameless in the “McKinney incident”

Andy says Rich Miller should not be considered a legitimate journalist but rather a stooge of the Illinois Democratic Party

(CHICAGO, IL) (October 22, 2014)  “Monday morning I attempted to post a comment on the capitolfax.com web site raising questions about the “McKinney incident” Andy says. “I am clearly not a supporter of Bruce Rauner and I have never been a critic of Dave McKinney. I bear neither man any personal animus.

“My comment was innocuous. Here it is in its entirety:

I am certainly no fan of Bruce Rauner but it seems to me the McKinney story is more serious than it appears on first blush. The claim that Dave McKinney’s wife is not doing consulting in Illinois but that her firm is advising clients in Illinois is legally a distinction without a difference. It was not until I saw your story that I realized how big the amount of McKinney-related fees was. Maybe I have now graduated to the status of “old fashioned” but, if asked, I would have suggested the Sun-times disclose the potential conflict and avoid the controversy. The fact that Quinn may have been polling on the story before it was published also raises the question of whether there was a leak.

Illinois politics has long been tainted by family-related conflicts of interest. The fact that Dick Durbin’s wife is a Washington lobbyist has always raised legitimate questions in my mind. Durbin also denies any conflict. Bruce had a right to fight back on this one. There is an “appearance’ of a conflict that can leave a reasonable person uncomfortable. Because Rauner’s campaign team is inexperienced he has not handled the defense as well as he should have.

“Rich Miller removed my comment in an obvious attempt to skew his web site against Rauner. Mr. Miller has every right to censor his web site to present a pro-Democratic Party point of view. He does not have the right to masquerade as an impartial and professional journalist while acting as a hit man for Illinois Democrats.

“The issue of ‘conflicts’ posed by the modern age, in which people in the media, politics and public relations intermarry, is a subject worthy of serious consideration and debate. On the facts of Mr. Rauner’s incident I thought Bruce had a reasonable proposition to present. Rich Miller was obviously trying to act like a hick politician instead of a respectable journalist.

“The standard we use in the law is ‘what would a reasonable person think of the facts?’

“The recent appearance of ‘lobbyist’ spouses in Washington, such as Mrs. Dick Durbin, adds to the public belief that wives now serve as ‘bagmen’ for politicians and that ‘Washington’ always finds a way around any ethical restrictions which are adopted. The ‘McKinney incident’ feeds into the same narrative. The Sun-Times has every right to defend their employee, even if the undisputed facts fly in the face of the ‘reasonable person’ standard of behavior.

“I believe a reasonable person would believe that Dave McKinney, because of the huge amount of work his wife’s firm was doing in the current election, had an actual conflict of interest. McKinney’s wife has to benefit from the $600,000 or whatever amount her firm has billed. To pretend that in a small, closely-owned company a $600,000 account would not create some sort of benefit for even a partner supposedly ‘walled-off’ from working on the account is an insult to the intelligence.

“Mr. Miller has his stable of sycophants who he allows to post the most inane remarks on a daily basis. He is obviously not interested in reasonably impartial analysis of a serious situation. Particularly because I am not a supporter of Mr. Rauner, my belief that Rauner’s complaints had arguable merit was entitled to be presented along with Miller’ sycophants’ comments.

“People should be aware Miller is not a journalist; he has the same kind of conflict that Bruce Rauner raised in relation to Dave McKinney,” Andy says.

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October 21 News Conference Details:

WHO:

         

Andy Martin

WHAT:

    

Andy Martin charges capitolfax.com with censoring Republicans, acting as a campaign mouthpiece for Illinois Democrats

WHERE:

Sidewalk news conference, SE corner of Huron and Wabash Streets,

Chicago (weather permitting; otherwise indoors)

WHEN:

Tuesday, October 22, 2014 2:45 P.M.

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LINKS TO THIS STORY (cut and paste the entire link below and not just the underlined portion):

http://capitolfax.com/2014/10/18/rauner-campaign-responds-to-firestorm-over-sun-times-reporters-sidelining/

http://capitolfax.com/2014/10/18/another-nail-in-the-sun-times-coffin/

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/30539505-474/election-coverage-fearless-and-fair.html#.VEXzWSv17T4

http://progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2014/10/19/republicans-crow-questions-swirl-surrounding-sun-times-rauner-endorsem

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He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC).

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