Former Chicago Sun-Timesreporter Natasha Korecki discusses Chicago, Rod Blagojevich, political corruption, and fake news
By: Richard Bodee
“She covered federal courts and law enforcement during the golden age of political corruption prosecutions in Chicago.” That’s the second sentence in Politico’snational correspondent, Natasha Korecki’s online biography.
“We’ve earned our reputation,” Korecki said of Illinois. “Having two consecutive governors go to prison is pretty remarkable.”
And Korecki covered both trials of disgraced former governors George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. Ryan was implicated in a federal probe dubbed “Operation Safe Road,” which involved illegally selling state contracts and licenses. Ryan spent five years in prison. Blagojevich was caught on a federal wiretap conspiring in a “pay-to-play” scheme involving the vacated Senate seat of former President Barrack Obama. Blagojevich is currently serving his eighth year of a fourteen-year sentence.
In Korecki’s book, “Only in Chicago,” former FBI Director, and current Special Counsel of the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller makes several appearances and brilliantly but brutally sums up the state of Chicago politics.
“He’d needle his Windy City crew, telling them that charging public corruption in Chicago ‘was like shooting fish in a barrel.’ (Korecki, Only in Chicago, 21.)”
“What was incredible was, even in the face of these really high-profile prosecutions of Blagojevich – just think about all the people who were implicated in that investigation, who weren’t necessarily charged, but were implicated, that were dragged through it,” Korecki said. “It was touching all kinds of politicians.”
Some of those politicians are still in office.
Among Chicagoans, there is a theory that the Blagojevich sentence was meant to serve as a warning to all Illinois politicians. But then there is former 25thward Ald. Danny Solis, 14th ward Ald. Ed Burke, and even “pay-to-play” allegations surrounding Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.
Why didn’t they get the message?
“Blagojevich was a pariah of the party,” Korecki said.
Korecki went on to explain that the difference is in the optics. She said people assumed Blagojevich wasn’t savvy because he was caught talking on the phone, when the traditional ole-boys, Chicago-way is to speak in person.
“Solis – where people are looking and saying, ‘Oh my God, I just talked to him,’ or ‘so-and-so just talked to him’ or ‘people in my network,’” Korecki explained. “Who hasn’t done some work with Ed Burke in the city? It’s much more far-reaching.”
There’s a certain culture in Cook County politics where everything seems to become a spectacle. Korecki recalled a time when Blagojevich, on trial and in the court room, was signing autographs in front of the judge.
But alas, Blagojevich’s only hope now is a high-profile presidential pardon.
“I think he’s in the mix,” Korecki said. “Anything is in the realm of possibility with Trump.”
Last year, Illinois’ Republication delegation sent a signed letter to President Trump essentially begging him not to commute the remaining years of Blagojevich’s sentence.
“That may have impacted him,” Korecki said. “At the end of the day with Trump, it’s usually, who’s the last person to talk to him.”
But Trump is caught in his own political scandal, one that threatens to shake the very foundation of our democracy.
“This is about as big as it gets, it’s the presidency,” Korecki said of the recently released Mueller Report.
In the era of the Trump presidency, there has also been a resurgence of the term “fake news,” a phrase Trump has taken credit for creating. Korecki and I discussed the use of the phrase “fake news.”
“It’s an undermining of our profession,” Korecki began.
Korecki said there’s often an “anonymity behind who’s lobbing it [the term fake news] at you” because often times people will conceal their identity on social media. But Korecki agreed that it’s a bit more jarring when those around you use the phrase.
“In your circles with friends or people who you are closer to and you hear them use the term, then you start wondering: ‘Wait a minute, do people really understand what they are saying when they’re saying that? What do they believe? Why are they saying that?’” Korecki explained.
Korecki said people who are using the phrase often say they want legitimate news.
Korecki’s advice to those individuals is to “find a couple sources, don’t just wave your hand and say everything is fake.”
So as Korecki and scores of political reporters around the world search for the truth in investigations and politics, I’m reminded of the Mueller anecdote that began Korecki’s book:
“With only Mueller, Grant, and top FBI supervisor Pete Cullen left, the tapes rolled. Mueller, who has overseen numerous terrorism and corruption cases at the bureau, listened to the conversations for the first time. He stopped and looked up. Who was dropping all those f-bombs? he asked. That’s the governor, he was told. Mueller shook his head. ‘Only in Chicago.’ (Korecki, Only in Chicago, 18-19.)
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