By John Kass

December 17, 2022

“So this is a guy (Joe Biden) who lives high on the hog, and he has this Tammany Hall style attitude to power and it is the Chicago Way,” Miranda Devine, columnist of The New York Post and author of the great book “Laptop From Hell” on this latest edition of the Chicago Way podcast.

Co-host Jeff Carlin and I hope you listen to this edition with Miranda Devine and enjoy it.  I’ve already seen two links to the podcast on this space.

And it was Carlin who brought up a Miranda Devine/John Kass connection. Though obscure it may be to some, the serendipity had a great impact on my life as a writer in Chicago. And we’ll get to it.

Jeff and I hope you’ll listen to the full podcast of Miranda Devine and that you tell your friends and family. It was just great to get her insight on a political scandal of such import that it dwarfs the Watergate Scandal (Nixon) and the Clinton scandals and all that came before.

This one involves the federal government’s secret police, the FBI,  actively shaping and censoring what Americans believe and and think. And working with the corrupt media and corrupt Big Tech.  The future of the American republic and American liberty depends on how you peacefully  react to what Devine tells you. But it’s obvious they think they can take our country right before our eyes, and we’re too stupid, or placid, to bother.

Devine said that people who haven’t yet read “Laptop from Hell” should read it so they’re not shocked by what will come after the Congress changes over and new committees finally begin doing their job.

And, she said, “so they’re not completely gobsmacked next year when the House starts holding hearings, and you start seeing people testifying under oath about the money that was coming in from China and Ukraine into Biden Family coffers.”

A national gobsmacking. Yes, that’s about the size of it.

“I think it’s going to be a bit of a wakeup call for a lot of Americans who’ve been lied to and misinformed by their media organizations,” she said.

If you don’t think you’ve been lied to by Big Media and Big Tech about Biden Inc., then there’s no hope for you.

But you’re here. You’re not chumbolones and you know the way of the world. Corruption is corruption and politicians using the government hammer to make millions is pure corruption.

And the Washington Way is the Delaware Way is The Chicago Way.

Now about the serendipity.

When she was a girl in Chicago, Miranda’s father, Frank Devine, was editor of the Chicago Sun Times. He had a great influence on my career even though we never met. And Miranda was taking the train every day to Evanston to study journalism. We never met.

Back years ago, in the last century, I was a new hire at the Chicago Tribune, the kid who finally had a real job, so I thought it was safe and proper to ask Betty to marry me. I was a bit intimidated all the great “Journalists”  in that Tower by the River. How great were they? All you had to do was listen and they’d tell you.

So, across  the street at the Sun Times, Miranda’s father Frank had a problem.  As editor of the Sun Times, he was trying to keep columnist Mike Royko at the tabloid and was failing. Royko had an out in his contract and he was taking advantage of the out, and coming over to the paper he once hated, the Tribune, for big money and golf club memberships.

True story.

Tribune bosses decided to sweeten the pot by offering Royko extra patronage jobs. These were reporters and members of his Sun Times posse, who would cross over with him and become his Tribune posse. Among them were the future bishops of the Church of Royko. And that’s where I enter the story. Because I was in the way.

They wouldn’t call it patronage. They would have called it “journalism,” or rubbed weasel words together until they got smoke. But it was patronage. The new journos from across the street were pure Chicago Way patronage.

And Royko was their clout. One member of the Royko posse is still around, an East Coast phony who now passes himself off as something of a leftist establishment media critic.

There was only one problem, like I said, I was in the way.

The Tribune editors wanted Royko’s new posse to be happy. But they needed to clear the way. They called me and another young reporter in and told us we were fired. I was the new guy, with no newsroom clout, the last hired and first to be fired. So I was gone.

Two mid-level Tribune editors—one had worked for The New York Times– told me I was fired. The New York Times man said it would be “immoral” to keep me on with experienced journalists waiting for jobs. Immoral? What was I going to tell Betty? We wanted to get married.

“And you can’t write and you can’t report,” said the other, the fat, mean one we called “Bluto.”

I wanted to punch him. But I didn’t. The other young reporter getting fired with me that day was my friend, the late Mark Eissman. We’d come from a small community paper on the Southeast Side, The Daily Calumet. Mark and I had been cranking out front page Sunday stories at the Trib, but the editors who talked of “immorality” didn’t much care.

 They just wanted a couple more job slots to make the Royko posse happy. I don’t think Mike knew anything about it. Years later, we were having a smoke in his office and he asked me about it. I told him. I cared for Mike, I grew up reading him. He was a hero of mine. And I never held it against him. I told Miranda that I didn’t hold a grudge against her father.

I’m reaching for peace. This is the Christmas season, and during Christmas I hardly ever think of revenge as a dish best served cold.  Or, I almost never think of it.

So, what was it like having Miranda Devine as our guest on The Chicago Way?

It was wonderful. She’s a great guest and a gracious lady.

I’ll write a full column on it for the Sunday December 18 edition of johnkassnews.com . You’re welcome to read it if you’re a paid-up subscriber.

Thanks for listening. The Chicago Way podcasts are always free. And if you really want to give a unique gift this Christmas, forget about perfume and ties. Give yourself or someone you love the gift of common sense, with a yearly subscription to johnkassnews.com.  Subscribe today. 

-30-