By Steve Rhodes
“She went to such great lengths to avoid the media, she waited inside the darkened, otherwise empty restaurant until the last camera departed before she would exit,” the Sun-Times reports.
*
“His wife, Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, has tried to say nothing at all,” AP reports.
“The congressman’s wife has mostly dodged reporters at City Council meetings and a recent birthday party and fundraiser.”
*
“That whole thing has just been a mystery to me,” Tribune editorial page editor Bruce Dold said on Chicago Tonight: Week in Review last Friday.
(“[Jesse Jr.] has routinely lied about his medical condition starting with his stomach surgery,” Lester Munson said.)
*
“Considering how the Rev. Jesse Jackson and his family have controlled and manipulated Chicago media for decades, it’s astonishing to witness how they’ve turned on the local press since ailing U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. dropped out of sight,” Robert Feder writes on his TimeOut Chicago blog.
“The latest spectacle was Tuesday night when Sandi Jackson, the Chicago alderman and wife of Jesse Jr., snubbed reporters at her fund-raising birthday party and reportedly referred to them as ‘jackals.’ (All except ABC 7’s Cheryl Burton, who was granted an unenlightening interview.) The congressman’s health may be a private matter, but both husband and wife are both still elected officials who must be accountable to the public and, yes, to the jackals in the news media.”
*
“Now, even this longtime Triple J watcher says, enough,” Laura Washington writes for the Sun-Times.
“My last straw was the latest news in your tragic saga. You have put your home up for sale in Washington, D.C. The home where you retreated after a long, confusing absence. You didn’t return to the home that counts – your district.
“What’s going on with you? It is impossible to discern the truth behind the cloak of secrecy, obfuscation and spin that you have created.”
*
“For days last week, WMAQ-Channel 5 reporters Phil Rogers and Mary Ann Ahern called, e-mailed and texted Jackson’s staff asking for an explanation of his whereabouts,” Carol Marin wrote for the Sun-Times way back in June.
“They got none.
“The congressman and his staff, whose salaries are paid by federal taxpayers, were silent. Unavailable. Incommunicado.”
–
See also:
* Sandi Jackson Grants Exclusive Interview To Former Chicago Honey Bear
* Reporting The Jesse Jackson Jr. Story
* Item: The Lying Game (midway down)
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on October 2, 2012