MEDIA WATCH: John Kass's puerile attacks on Illinois budget deal undermines his history as an anti-union and anti-public schools scab...
On July 7, 2017, several friends of ours noted with outrage the (generally false) claims by some pundits that the deal which finally gave Illinois a budget was a bad one for working people. One of the most obnoxious columns against the deal was by Tribune pundit John Kass. But nobody should be surprised.
John Kass is a scab. He crossed union picket lines during the Tribune strike in order to keep the job he coveted, then preened himself as the next Mike Royko, even though he has none of Royko's union, community, and military roots (Royko served in Korea and actually lived on Division Street for a long time, while Kass evaded, then left Chicago for the suburbs after living briefly first in South Chicago, then in Logan Square. Kass's pseudo working class nonsense is based on a long history of phoniness -- something the people who own and operate the Tribune have rewarded for years. I've known Kass since the 1980s, when he spoke to my journalism classes at Amundsen High School. The last time our family confronted him directly was when he spoke at the Scholastic Press Association's annual media awards luncheon. Sharon Schmidt, who sponsors the award-winning Steinmetz Star, went up to him and mentioned that and he and I had known each other for decades.
Kass responded, "And he say's I'm a scab..."
"Well, aren't you?" Sharon replied and he answered, "Yes."
The only reason to read Kass is to learn how some of the most odious Trump-oriented blowhards are blowing.
