Reporter quits Chicago newspaper, says governor candidate influenced paper

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Reporter quits Chicago newspaper, says governor candidate influenced paper

BY FIONA ORTIZ
CHICAGO Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:15am EDT

(Reuters) - A veteran Illinois political reporter quit his job at the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday and accused the newspaper of bowing to pressure from Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner by removing him from the campaign beat.

Dave McKinney, a 19-year veteran of the paper who covered the state capital, said in his resignation letter that the paper reassigned him after the Rauner campaign accused him of a conflict of interest, which he denies.

The Rauner campaign had asked the Sun-Times to disclose McKinney's marriage to a Democratic party consultant when it ran the reporter's story on allegations Rauner, a wealthy businessman, threatened a former executive at one of his companies.

McKinney said in his resignation letter, posted on his personal blog, that his wife is contractually barred from consulting on the gubernatorial race. A disclosure of conflict of interest would have been untrue, he added.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/23/us-usa-illinois-politics-idUSKCN0IC03220141023

[surrealAmerican]

1. k & r

The Sun-Times had a golden opportunity here to stand by their reporter. They blew it.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. K&R. This issue needs to go viral. Rauner clearly put the screws to the Sun-Times.

First Rauner gets McKinney suspended and has him looking at a demotion then the Sun-Times comes out with its first and only political endorsement in three years-- for Rauner, the very guy who's been threatening them. The likely thing is that Rauner was going to screw up the Sun-Times' big deal to sell off its suburban affiliate papers and the shit flowed downhill from there.

Here's McKinney blog post on what happened: http://davemckinney123.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/why-i-left/

[rurallib]

3. WOW just WOW

We get the ads and news over the border from Illinois and this guy sounds like a real scoundrel

[mountain grammy]

4. Influence much?

[mopinko]

5. scratch a republican, find a thug.

and a crook.
and an asshole.

then there is this-
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-12-17/news/0812160546_1_ovation-pharmaceuticals-premature-babies-premature-infants

if the people of illinois choose this ass, i will shoot myself, i swear to god.

[maced666]

8. Don't say that...

He just might win.

[MADem]

6. Good grief--sounds like a GOOD WIFE episode!

I hope he makes the rounds of the TV shows and talks about this....but somehow I think he might not get too many invites.

Hope I am wrong.

[mucifer]

7. The problem is rauner is going to win. his commercials are brutal.

It looks very ugly when he says every major newspaper endorsed him. It's true. He's bought them out.

Governor Quinn had a very low approval rating, lower than scott walker. I can't see how he is going to win.

[former9thward]

9. The polls are very, very close.

Some have had Rauner ahead, some Quinn. Who knows which are accurate if any.

[Wella]

10. It's all about who shows up on election day

This thing with the paper sounds like a desperate move, though.