Chicago Mob Linked Alderman Burke Attacks Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

During a City Council debate Wednesday on the subject of creating an inspector general's office to investigate aldermen, Ald. Edward M. Burke suggested that this editorial page was in no position to weigh in on such matters because our former boss had ripped off our advertisers, among other sins.

Citing a 2006 Sun-Times legal settlement with advertisers, Burke said, "Maybe [the Sun-Times] should have had an inspector general. And they have the temerity, the audacity to preach to us after they defrauded their advertisers and settled for $32.5 million? Does the irony of that escape everyone?"

Apparently, Burke was annoyed by our criticism of the now-passed ordinance to create an inspector general. We called it a "pretend inspector general."

As it happens, we wish -- desperately wish -- that the Sun-Times had had an inspector general, or at the very least a corporate board serving that function, during the years Conrad Black and his cronies played fast and loose with advertisers and bilked this newspaper out of millions of dollars. The legal settlement with advertisers, just one piece of the Black bill, was $31.8 million.

Investigating Alderman Burke's friends is a sensitive subject in Chicago.