Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Government Attempt to Suppress Newspaper Criticism of Government Official:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1228849602
From [1]the government's criminal complaint against Gov. Blagojevich
(some paragraph breaks added):
13.... b. Defendants Rod Blagojevich and John Harris, together with
others, offered to, and threatened to withhold from, the Tribune
Company substantial state financial assistance in connection with
Wrigley Field, which assistance Rod Blagojevich believed to be
worth at least $100 million to the Tribune Company, for the private
purpose of inducing the controlling shareholder of the Tribune
Company to fire members of the editorial board of the Chicago
Tribune, a newspaper owned by the Tribune Company, who were
responsible for editorials critical of Rod Blagojevich ....
69. Intercepted phone calls reflect that Rod Blagojevich and John
Harris, together with others, are corruptly using and threatening
to use the powers of Rod Blagojevich�s office as Governor of the
State of Illinois to exert financial pressure on the owners of the
Tribune Company, the parent corporation of the Chicago Tribune
newspaper, to fire Chicago Tribune editorial board members who were
responsible for editorials sharply critical of Rod Blagojevich�s
actions as Governor and, among other things, calling for his
impeachment.....
72. On the evening of November 3, 2008, Rod Blagojevich talked to
Deputy Governor A. Rod Blagojevich stated that he was concerned
about possibly being impeached in the Spring and that the Chicago
Tribune will be �driving� the impeachment discussion. Rod
Blagojevich asked Deputy Governor A to check to see if the Tribune
has recently �advocate[d]� that he be impeached. In fact, the
Chicago Tribune recently had published editorials critical of Rod
Blagojevich.
73. In another call between Rod Blagojevich and Deputy Governor A
that occurred a short time later on November 3, 2008, Rod
Blagojevich and Deputy Governor A discussed an editorial from the
Chicago Tribune regarding the endorsement of Michael Madigan and
calling for a committee to consider impeaching Rod Blagojevich.
During the call, Rod Blagojevich�s wife can be heard in the
background telling Rod Blagojevich to tell Deputy Governor A �to
hold up that fucking Cubs shit... fuck them.� Rod Blagojevich asked
Deputy Governor A what he thinks of his wife�s idea. Deputy
Governor A stated that there is a part of what Rod Blagojevich�s
wife said that he �agree[s] with.� Deputy Governor A told Rod
Blagojevich that Tribune Owner will say that he does not have
anything to do with the editorials, �but I would tell him, look, if
you want to get your Cubs thing done get rid of this Tribune.�
Later, Rod Blagojevich�s wife got on the phone and, during the
continuing discussion of the critical Tribune editorials, stated
that Tribune Owner can �just fire� the writers because Tribune
Owner owns the Tribune. Rod Blagojevich�s wife stated that if
Tribune Owner�s papers were hurting his business, Tribune Owner
would do something about the editorial board. Rod Blagojevich then
got back on the phone. Rod Blagojevich told Deputy Governor A to
put together the articles in the Tribune that are on the topic of
removing Rod Blagojevich from office and they will then have
someone, like John Harris, go to Tribune Owner and say, �We�ve got
some decisions to make now.�
Rod Blagojevich said that �someone should say, �get rid of those
people.�� Rod Blagojevich said that he thinks that they should put
this all together and then have Harris or somebody go talk to the
Tribune owners and say, �Look, we�ve got decisions to make now ...
moving this stuff forward (believed to be a reference to the IFA
helping with the Cubs sale) ... someone�s gotta go to [Tribune
Owner], we want to see him ... it�s a political fuckin� operation
in there.� Deputy Governor A agreed and said that Harris needs to
be �sensitive� about how he does it.
Rod Blagojevich said there is nothing sensitive about how you do it
and that it�s �straight forward� and you say �we�re doing this
stuff for you, we believe this is right for Illinois [and] this is
a big deal to [Tribune Owner] financially� but what Rod Blagojevich
is doing to help Tribune Owner is the same type of action that the
Tribune is saying should be the basis for Rod Blagojevich�s
impeachment. Rod Blagojevich said Tribune Owner should be told
�maybe we can�t do this now. Fire those fuckers.�
Deputy Governor A suggested that Rod Blagojevich say, �I�m not sure
that we can do this anymore because we�ve been getting a ton of
these editorials that say, look, we�re going around the
legislature, we gotta stop and this is something the legislature
hasn�t approved. We don�t want to go around the legislature
anymore.� Rod Blagojevich agreed and said that he wants Harris to
go in and make that case, �not me.� Deputy Governor A agreed and
said that he likes it. Rod Blagojevich asked Deputy Governor A to
put the list of Tribune articles together....
76.... Rod Blagojevich stated that �our recommendation is fire all
those fucking people, get �em the fuck out of there and get us some
editorial support.�
There�s a good deal more factual detail in the complaint -- have a
look if you're interested.
References
1. http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/acrobat/2008-12/43789434.pdf
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