We Need Royko

How Chicago's sage columnist would have handled 'Rod the Clod'

By Jonathan Alter | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 12, 2008

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  • Posted By: desert rat @ 01/04/2009 8:24:04 PM

    Is this Alter's audition for Mike's job? Mike's missed by readers all over the US, not just in Illinois. With a little practice I'll be Alter can fill Mike's shoes.

  • Posted By: denisesdy @ 12/24/2008 9:38:06 PM

    I would have loved to get Royko's take on this Rod mess! I still miss turning the first page of the tribune to get the latest on Chicago politicos..... What would he have thought of this election!

  • Posted By: michael44 @ 12/17/2008 8:43:16 PM

    WHY IS THAT YOU AND RICHARD WOLFE ARE KEITH OLBERMANS PIMPS? DO YOU HAVE TO KISS OLBERMANS SHOES BEFORE YOU CAN ENTER THE STUDIO? i FIND SO CALLED JOURNALIST WHO ARE TO COWARDLY TO TELL A PROGRAMS ANCHOR THAT HE IS WRONG. TELL YOU WHAT, YOU AND WOLFE GO TO YOUR DOCTORS, HAVE HIM REMOVE YOUR VAGINAS AND HAVE SOME TESTICLES AND THEN A BACKBONE PUT IN. YOU TWO AREN'T JOURNALISTS, YOU ARE NO TALENT HACKS THAT ARE JUST TWO MORE LIBERAL LOONS THAT DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER.

    • Posted By: Racerkoi @ 12/22/2008 8:10:07 AM

      I find commenters who can only call people names and engage in gutter politics to be both unimaginative and boring. Have your Mommy show you the caps lock key,OK?

      Thanks.

  • Posted By: LarrySignor @ 12/20/2008 7:22:08 PM

    Go John Boy. Royko would love you, and want to know why you ain't in there swingin'. You own the background, tell us the story, bro.

  • Posted By: Racerkoi @ 12/17/2008 8:35:26 AM

    Perhaps you could consult Mike's old friend Slat Grobnik for a quote about Blagojevich...

  • Posted By: ltcolonel @ 12/15/2008 4:29:11 PM

    For Mike, appreciation would be enough.

  • Posted By: mick719 @ 12/14/2008 7:30:45 AM

    I thought of Royko the minute this thing broke. Nice, Mr. Alter.

  • Posted By: ajon1600 @ 12/14/2008 4:49:25 AM

    I predict that Jesse Jackson,Jr will end up right in the middle of the mud here, probably placed there by his father.

  • Posted By: misterharban @ 12/13/2008 11:25:01 PM

    What's disturbing about the Blogothon is not how greedy and corrupt he seems to be. Its how low he set his sights and what a greedy and corrupt public official who had even a modicum of intelligence could (and would) do with the public trust. And you can count on the fact that somewhere out there there are brilliant, greedy and corrupt public servants who have set their sights much higher than Blogo. And today we lack the true muckrakers to match our mountains of public excrement.

  • Posted By: paddler @ 12/13/2008 11:08:22 PM

    Anyone confusing John Kass, now squatting on Royko's old Tribune page, with Mike Royko suffers senile dementia by relying on a hampered memory and confusing a great trreasure with a hack. I knew Mike Royko' Kass is in no way Mike Royko. Kass shouldn't be allowed in the same paragraph with Royko's name.

  • Posted By: jillandmarkm @ 12/13/2008 10:45:29 PM

    Has no one read John Kass? His articles are just as insightful and cutting as Royko's were. I'd encourage you to go to the Chicago Tribune website and read some of his articles on Blago, Daley, and other Chicago icons. In fact, his column this week really hits the nail on the head for how the national press is reacting to Blago's behavior.

  • Posted By: tbyrne @ 12/13/2008 2:19:22 PM

    Ubi Est Mea - that is priceless... And well-nigh a universal sentiment,it seems.

    Not being a Chicogoan, I admired Royko from afar as I was growing up, catching him when I could in the Philadelphia papers, comparing and contrasting the colorful stories of Chicago goings-on with the local entertainment supplied by Frank Rizzo among many others.

    Royko's take on this situation (and many others) is sorely missed.

    Thanks for bringing up some really great memories, and I'll second the request for Royko reprints. I'm sure there is a deep pool of columns pertinent to today's news.

  • Posted By: dor-republican @ 12/13/2008 12:22:02 PM

    please ignore the ramblings of the 40yearR i think its most likely the 80yr old republ

    • Posted By: 40YearR @ 12/13/2008 1:25:30 PM

      I'm actually 117. This one hurt so much I might have to hit the Abuse button...

  • Posted By: Birdhog @ 12/12/2008 7:47:51 PM

    the first thing that came to my mind when Big Fitz hit the stage was "Boy, I miss Royko". I think of him everyday when I open my Trib. Well done, Jonathan!

  • Posted By: ReaganWasRight @ 12/12/2008 5:27:23 PM

    This Country needs not one Mike Royko, but an entire cadre of Mike Roykos. We now live in a journalistic age where there is no journalism, just cheerleading. We have morons like Chris "Tingly Feelings" Matthews and Keith Olbermann who are both trying to legally change their names to Obama 2 and Obama 3. What the hell happened to the Woodwards and the Bernsteins and the Jack Andersons of this world? Writers who didn't care who they panicked with their investigative reporting? Now we have feel good writers who just chew our food and regurgitate it back to us so we don't even have to think, don't even have to decide on our own if what we are hearing is even the slightest bit credible. Obamamites are not only angry that the truth is starting to come out about their Messiah, but they are mad that questions are even being ASKED? Obamas internet army will probably hunt this blog down and remove it, like they did to millions of other negative blogs over the last 18 months. Doesn't one journalist, any journalist have the slightest bit of self respect left? Maybe not.

    • Posted By: 40YearR @ 12/12/2008 5:59:14 PM

      Bob Woodward has written some excellent books on the Bush administrati... Bet you didn???t read those.

      "Obamamites are not only angry that the truth is starting to come out about their Messiah, but they are mad that questions are even being ASKED?"

      I haven't heard anyone anywhere complain about questions being asked. I crossed party lines for the first time in 40 years to vote for Obama, so call me an Obamamite if you makes you feel justified in some way. What makes me angry are the lie, smear, innuendo and fabrication campaign by my party, and continued by people like you. I heard what Fitzgerald had said so far, and I do not see you providing any info that says I should disregard him and listen to you.

      "Obamas internet army will probably hunt this blog down and remove it, like they did to millions of other negative blogs over the last 18 months."

      What in the world is this all about? Are just fabricating or repeating another lie here? Paranoia is fear without factual basis. Maybe that's it.

      A 40 year republican

  • Posted By: Junglejim123 @ 12/12/2008 4:02:54 PM

    YUP - Mike was the best and he certainly would have given us the real scoop on obama - not the cutesy saccharine version given out by the main stream media.

    • Posted By: Horrible Bastard @ 12/12/2008 4:20:43 PM

      And what might that "real scoop" be?

      • Posted By: 40YearR @ 12/12/2008 5:36:43 PM

        Posted one to you re troll at Hirsch on Blago.

  • Posted By: ReaganWasRight @ 12/12/2008 5:16:37 PM

    What this Country needs is a whole cadre of Mike Roykos. Today's "journalists" are bought part and parcel by the Liberal Establishments that own their media outlets. A case like this is where writers like Woodward and Bernstein cut their teeth, or Jack Anderson made every crooked politician read his column to make sure they weren't named that day. Today, we have pansy writers and "politcal anchors" like Chris Matthews, "who gets tingly feelings down his leg" when Obama speaks, or Keith Olbermann who is so viciously anti-Republican he practically goes apoplectic when he speaks. It's a real shame, because our new savior leader is as dirty as they come, but he has a well organized Machine, a Chicago Machine that takes care and eliminates all bad press. This message will probably be red flagged by his cadre of Internet hawks, who will then remove it. George Orwell was right. And America deserves what she asked for.

    • Posted By: 40YearR @ 12/12/2008 5:33:22 PM

      "This message will probably be red flagged by his cadre of Internet hawks, who will then remove it."

      Haven't seen any of that here. However, prior to the election, I posted on the Fix 'News' site the message: "Copies of Obama's birth certificate are available at [link].' The third time I tried to post that, I was blocked out for good.

      Please don't tell me about 'fairness and balance'. Your suspicions are only applicable to right wing sources, as far as I have seen.

      A 40 year republican

    • Posted By: 40YearR @ 12/12/2008 5:24:37 PM

      "Keith Olbermann who is so viciously anti-Republican he practically goes apoplectic when he speaks. "

      I think Billo and Rush are much more convincing maniacs. They're not nearly as smart or interesting, though, if you're looking for food for thought about differing perspectives than one's own.

  • Posted By: help-mate @ 12/12/2008 5:11:57 PM

    Hey all of you Royko fans, maybe we can persuade Johnathen Alter to reprint some of Mike's columns. His logic would be just as applicable today as it was then.
    Mr, Alter some ike Royko please.

  • Posted By: help-mate @ 12/12/2008 4:59:05 PM

    As a devout Mike Royko fan, thank you! Even now as I recall some of his columns I can almost summon up a chuckle when I imagine the columns he would create for his reading audience. Some of his best were conversations between him and the blond. He iis missed.

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