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Let's fully deconstruct @chicagotribune columnist @John_Kass' new op-ed complaining that he has been literally "marginalized" by having his column moved off P.2 in the wake of his "George Soros is controlling Chicago politicians" piece. I always enjoy savoring a fine whine.
TLDR: Freedom of speech means you can make whatever political commentary you want. It doesn't mean that if you run a column essentially arguing cities are a mess because a Jewish billionaire is buying elections for soft-on-crime Black prosecutors, there won't be consequences.
Let's start out with a quick review of what's happened so far. On 7/22 Kass argued that "left-wing billionaire George Soros has spent millions of dollars to help elect liberal social justice warriors as prosecutors. He remakes the justice system... flying under the radar.”
The piece mentioned Soros, a frequent target of right-wing anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, 8 times, and ran a photo of him. It used the word "social justice warrior" 4 times, and contained multiple references to "woke" and "wokeness." You get the idea.
Kass seemed to imply that Black elected officials like Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Kim Foxx are being heavily influenced by money from the Jewish billionaire, who's "flying under the radar": "The Soros-funded prosecutors, not the mayors, are the ones who help release the violent."
In response, multiple journalists, politicians, and Jewish organizations wrote that Kass was promoting old anti-Semitic tropes. Here's @AviyaKushner in @jdforward, arguing that Trib editors failed to spot the anti-Semitism and Kass' column.
https://forward.com/opinion/451391/can-editors-even-recognize-anti-semitism-an-example-from-chicago-suggests/
https://forward.com/opinion/451391/can-editors-even-recognize-anti-semitism-an-example-from-chicago-suggests/
Ben Joravsky wrote in @Chicago_Reader that Kass "managed to degrade Jewish and Black people in one swoop."
https://chicagoreader.com/chicago/yoho-cotton-trump/Content?oid=81647669
https://chicagoreader.com/chicago/yoho-cotton-trump/Content?oid=81647669
Here's a letter to the Trib from @ADLMidwest: "Even if no anti-Semitic insinuation was intended, casting a well-known Jewish individual as a puppet master who manipulates high-profile events for malign purposes has the effect of mainstreaming anti-Semitic tropes."
IL Jewish Legislative Caucus penned a letter: "Mr. Kass and Ms. McQueary... do a better job and stop peddling anti-Semitism."
https://capitolfax.com/2020/07/27/illinois-jewish-legislative-caucus-to-tribune-stop-peddling-anti-semitism/Illinois
McQueary is the Trib op-ed page editor who famously wished in a column that Chicago would be hit by a Katrina-style disaster.
https://capitolfax.com/2020/07/27/illinois-jewish-legislative-caucus-to-tribune-stop-peddling-anti-semitism/Illinois
McQueary is the Trib op-ed page editor who famously wished in a column that Chicago would be hit by a Katrina-style disaster.
Alderman @MattMartinChi tweeted about Kass' column, "The narrative that George Soros is behind these protests is just the latest manifestation of an old trope that Jews foment civil unrest and that PoC don't have the agency to organize ourselves."
https://twitter.com/MattMartinChi/status/1286024224092676096
https://twitter.com/MattMartinChi/status/1286024224092676096
In fairness, it's possible that Kass' column was an homage to the scene in "Blues Brothers" where an Illinois Nazi says, "White people, the Jew is using the Black as muscle against you!" and then Jake & Elwood drive him into the lagoon. #IHateIllinoisNazis
Kass' Trib coworkers like @Charliemagne and @EricZorn publicly ridiculed the Soros column on twitter. And then @CTGuild, the Trib union, of which Kass is not a member, wrote a letter arguing the column was "antithetical to our values."
https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/07/27/tribune-colleagues-blast-john-kass-column-antithetical-values/
https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/07/27/tribune-colleagues-blast-john-kass-column-antithetical-values/
The same day the letter from Kass' coworkers surfaced, Trib managing editor @colinjmcmahon announced that Kass' column was being moved off P.2 to the middle of the paper to help make it more obvious it's an op-ed, not news reporting.
https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/07/27/tribune-moving-john-kass-column-maintain-credibility-news-coverage/
https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/07/27/tribune-moving-john-kass-column-maintain-credibility-news-coverage/
In subsequent interviews, McMahon claimed that moving Kass' column, along with other op-ed articles, away from the front of the paper had been in the works for months, and was not a response to the outcry over the Soros piece. https://wgnradio.com/john-williams/was-john-kass-moved-because-of-something-he-wrote-tribunes-editor-in-chief-has-the-answers/
BTW, it's disappointing that @WGNRadio & @wttw (I'm a fan of both) totally dropped the ball on covering this issue, focusing on the news vs. op-ed angle, when the real story is that Kass is getting paid 6 figures to spread racist conspiracy theories. https://news.wttw.com/2020/07/28/chicago-tribune-moves-columnists-reinforce-line-between-opinion-and-news
Kass, for one, didn't seem to buy McMahon and McQueary's claims that his being bumped off P.2 had nothing to do with the Soros piece backlash, as implied by this pity party he held for himself on Facebook in the wake of the announcement. More on that in his new column.
After 2 days of radio silence on Twitter after he lost his P.2 perch, Kass returned to Twitter late last nite with more of his "Woe is me!" schtick. Unsurprisingly, right-wing flat-earthers like @DanProft and @dennispbyrne came out of the woodwork to claim Kass was a victim.
You may recall that Byrne wrote this May op-ed in the Trib arguing "Florida is doing this reopening thing right." Tragically, it hasn't aged very well. https://chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-coronavirus-reopen-florida-illinois-dennis-byrne-20200508-hrlytunuwrgdxawpilvmvo6eaa-story.html
OK, let's get to the meat of this thread, today's Kass column in which he paints himself as a First Amendment hero who is the victim of a woke mob. It's kind of ridiculous to claim you're oppressed when you get to strike back from a column in Chicago's highest-circulation paper.
Lots of self-pity from Kass here, right? The "angry" @ctguild is using "intimidation, shame and... demands for... public groveling... in an attempt to shame me into silence... falsely accusing me of religious bigotry and fomenting conspiracy theories."
Come on dude, it's not just dozens of your coworkers who think your piece spread racist & anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. It's everyone from @ADLMidwest to multiple journalists in other publications to a Black Chicago alderman and a long list of Jewish state politicians.
Next Kass tries to use "facts" to disprove the arguments there was anything wrong with the way he tied Soros' political donations to the election of "liberal social justice warriors prosecutors" whom Kass claims are soft on crime, breeding "an overwhelming sense of lawlessness."
There's no question that Soros has donated many millions to progressive candidates across the country, and that news outlets of various stripes have reported that fact.
But in part the problem with Kass' column is the deceptive way he implied Soros bought the election for Foxx.
But in part the problem with Kass' column is the deceptive way he implied Soros bought the election for Foxx.
Kass' Soros piece called Foxx "a social justice warriors prosecutor," a "Soros-funded prosecutor," a "prosecutor" backed by Soros" with a "social justice warrior policy of 'decarceration,'" "a Soros prosecutor" "who sides with the woke." But wait, there's more!
Kass wrote Foxx "releases violent offenders back into poor nabes to commit other violent acts on poor people. The left is their base. This is what they want, what Soros paid for."
So Soros paid for Foxx to become SA so she could unleash criminals to terrorize Chicagoans. Got it?
So Soros paid for Foxx to become SA so she could unleash criminals to terrorize Chicagoans. Got it?
Here's how Kass characterized that transaction: "In Democratic Chicago, for example, the Soros prosecutor is Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. In her 2020 campaign, she reportedly received at least $2 million from a Soros backed political action committee.
Seems pretty clear-cut, right? Soros, a vastly wealthy man gave a huge sum to Foxx, essentially purchasing the State's Attorney election for her so she could do his bidding. Soros + $$$ -> Foxx = violent criminals unleashed on the city.
But in additional to Kass' over-the-top language painting Foxx as a Soros henchwoman, Kass committed a major sin of omission. While he highlights Soros $2 million donation, he fails to mention Foxx's opponent's dad chipped in 5X as much. From the Forward: https://forward.com/opinion/451391/can-editors-even-recognize-anti-semitism-an-example-from-chicago-suggests/
Soros' $2M was a fraction of the $16M total spent on the election, with Foxx's opponent outspending her 3:1.
It's wild that Kass' editors failed to flag that deceptive omission, since the Trib reported on the opponent's billionaire dad on the front page. https://www.chicagotribune.com/investigations/ct-met-bill-conway-carlyle-group-20200310-wva6b3jw3ngmzjbx5kglgxdjhe-story.html
It's wild that Kass' editors failed to flag that deceptive omission, since the Trib reported on the opponent's billionaire dad on the front page. https://www.chicagotribune.com/investigations/ct-met-bill-conway-carlyle-group-20200310-wva6b3jw3ngmzjbx5kglgxdjhe-story.html
Oh, I forgot to mention an apparent factually untrue statement in today's Kass column. He wrote: " @CTGuild wrote an *open letter* [emphasis added] to management defaming me, by falsely accusing me of religious bigotry and fomenting conspiracy theories."
But Trib reporter Megan @Crepeau says it wasn't an open. She says the letter only went to the bosses & Kass, but was leaked. She added the letter "was not an attempt to publicly shame or 'cancel' but to communicate a genuine concern that affects the credibility of the paper..."
Moving on, Kass frames the Soros column issue as one of the freedom to speak one's mind. "I will not apologize for writing about Soros. I will not bow to those who’ve wrongly defamed me."
Thinly-veiled racism & misogyny are Kass' stock-in-trade, but in the Soros piece his dog-whistles came dangerously close to overt bigotry, which is why many are pissed off about it.
His columns are usually problematic, but this case he needs to admit he f---ed up and apologize.
His columns are usually problematic, but this case he needs to admit he f---ed up and apologize.
"I did not mention Soros’ ethnicity or religion" Kass protests in today's column.
Yeah, but as many, including Kass' Trib coworker @EricZorn and ex-coworker @MarkJacob16 implied on the day the piece came out, in Kass' column Soros effectively served as shorthand for "The Jews."
Yeah, but as many, including Kass' Trib coworker @EricZorn and ex-coworker @MarkJacob16 implied on the day the piece came out, in Kass' column Soros effectively served as shorthand for "The Jews."
This stuff is not harmless. When a widely-read columnist propagates anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about rich Jews sowing chaos, he emboldens white-supremacist types like these folks.
And white-supremacist conspiracy theory believers shot up synagogues in Pittsburgh and the San Diego area in recent years, under the rationale that they needed to stop Jews from destroying the country.
But Kass washes his hands of any responsibility for feeding into the narrative that "social justice warriors," people of color, and Jews are ruining America and need to be stopped.
He ends his column once again framing himself as a defiant rebel against "cancel culture."
He ends his column once again framing himself as a defiant rebel against "cancel culture."
Unsurprisingly Breitbart, described by former editor Steve Bannon as "the platform for the alt-right," i.e. white supremacists, is praising Kass for this Thomas Paine pose.
Once again @John_Kass, you are not being "marginalized" by having your column moved from the front of the paper due to an "accusation of a thought crime." https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1288508549375696896
The fact is, John Kass, you've still got a bully pulpit. But if you continue to use it recklessly, in a way that emboldens white supremacists and could literally contribute to people getting killed, you really deserve to lose it for good.
End of thread. Thanks for reading folks.
End of thread. Thanks for reading folks.
