Chicago Tribune's Kass affirmed Beck's baseless and false claims about Obama
SUMMARY: Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass sat by as Glenn Beck repeated a baseless claim in Kass' column and added a falsehood of his own regarding Barack Obama's house purchase in Chicago. Beck repeated Kass' claim that Obama received "a $300,000 discount" on the purchase of his Chicago home and falsely asserted that indicted businessman Antoin Rezko "bought the property next door at $300,000 more." Kass did not dispute either assertion.
On the March 5 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck claimed that Sen. Barack Obama received "a $300,000 discount" on the purchase of his Chicago home and that at the same time, indicted businessman Antoin Rezko "bought the property next door at $300,000 more." Asking his guest, Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, for confirmation, Beck said, "Or something like that?" Kass replied, "About that, yeah. Something like that." Kass did not correct Beck's assertions that Obama received a "discount" on the purchase of his home and that Rezko bought the "property next door at $300,000 more." Kass had similarly claimed in his March 2 Tribune column that Obama received a "discount" on his house. In fact, according to a February 18 Bloomberg article, the people from whom Obama bought his house said that his was "the best offer." The sellers also said, in the words of Bloomberg reporter Timothy J. Burger, "they didn't cut their asking price because a campaign donor bought their adjacent land, according to e-mails between Obama's presidential campaign and the seller." Moreover, according to the Bloomberg article, Rezko's wife reportedly paid the asking price of $625,000 for the adjacent property (a fact that Kass himself acknowledged earlier in the segment with Beck); she did not pay "$300,000 more."
The Obamas subsequently bought a part of the adjacent property, which had been purchased on the same day as the Obamas' house by Rezko's wife. The Washington Post reported on December 17, 2006, that an Obama spokesman said the strip of land Obama purchased from Rezko's wife had been appraised at $40,500, "but Obama considered it fair to pay one-sixth of the original price for one-sixth of the lot," which came to $104,500.
Later in the program, Kass stated, "It looks like, from what I read in The Wall Street Journal and -- and John Fund's column and out of Brit -- out of Britain, that there is some money that may have trickled through to Re -- from Iraq to Rezko into, perhaps, into the house, or into the -- which I think was not $300,000. Maybe it was a $150,000 discount. Into -- into something involving -- in Illinois, involving Mr. Obama." Kass provided no evidence that money "may have trickled ... from Iraq to Rezko ... into the house." Indeed, neither the Wall Street Journal article Kass cited nor the London Times article the Journal references provided any evidence that the Obamas used anything but their own money to purchase the house.
From the March 5 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:
BECK: Tony Rezko and Barack Obama. What's the connection, if anything? Here's a guy who's paying attention, so I don't have to. Let's listen in. John Kass, he's a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. John, who is he?
KASS: Well, Glenn, I call Tony Rezko, I call him Barack Obama's personal real estate fairy.
BECK: OK.
KASS: He's the fellow who helped -- he -- he helped buy Barack a house. Barack didn't have the money to pay full price. Let's see, he paid -- Barack paid, asking pri -- or less than asking price, $300,000 less. Rezko's family paid the asking price for a house -- for a lot next door. They kind of put it together, and Barack still hasn't been answering questions as to exactly what happened. The Tribune -- the Tribune broke that --
BECK: Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So when the housing prices were still really good --
KASS: When they were high.
BECK: -- he paid -- he got a $300,000 discount. And Rezko bought the property next door at $300,000 more? Or something like that?
KASS: About that, yeah. Something like that.
BECK: What -- what was that? Was that just a really good friend? Or -- 'cause I -- 'cause I -- Tony, I could use a new friend.
KASS: Tony Rezko -- if you want a friend like that, you'd want to be -- you know, have a lawyer, too. Because Rezko's been indicted on federal extortion and corruption charges for playing a -- for being an influence peddler in government in Illinois.
BECK: OK. Barack Obama has built his whole campaign as being, you know, a reformer. He's different. He's clean. He's not -- let's get rid of all these dirty politics and everything else. You've got an article coming out tomorrow called "The Chicago Way." Is Barack Obama part of -- is this a smear campaign, or is he part of something that is dirty?
KASS: So under -- here's what's going on, Glenn. Outside of Chicago, reporters, particularly in the -- I guess, the Eastern establishment, liberal media establishment hive --
BECK: Yeah. Well, we're -- yeah, we're totally clean out here.
KASS: Yeah, but you're not part of -- well, the deal is, they look at him like, as if Barack Obama is the boy King Arthur, you know, pulling the sword from the stone, ready to fight dragons and reform our government. But he's from Chicago, right? This is Chicago politics. And the Rezko story is about basically the Chicago way. And I'm trying to illustrate that tomorrow in a column and a video.
BECK: OK. All right. So, so --
KASS: What is the Chicago way? What is the Chicago way?
BECK: I saw The Untouchables. I think I know what the Chicago way is.
KASS: That's one way to look at it.
BECK: What is it?
KASS: What's the -- I don't know. In the -- in the -- right in the city council chambers of Chicago, there's a portrait of George Washington, right? Where all the aldermen, and George Washington has his hand out like this. So I -- I don't know. We'll have to figure it out.
BECK: Hang on just a second, John. One last question. There is something to do with this London billionaire that apparently was laundering money for Saddam Hussein, and Rezko has been to Syria, like, eight times or something like that. Is there some sort of Middle East connection?
KASS: It looks like, from what I read in The Wall Street Journal and -- and John Fund's column and out of Brit -- out of Britain, that there is some money that may have trickled through to Re -- from Iraq to Rezko into, perhaps, into the house, or into the -- which I think was not $300,000. Maybe it was a $150,000 discount. Into -- into something involving -- in Illinois, involving Mr. Obama. All he's got to do, Glenn, is sit with you and talk about that.
BECK: I got to tell you, John, thank you very much. I mean, see, America? That's why I don't -- I just stopped paying attention. I mean, jeez, what is that?
From Kass' March 2 Chicago Tribune column:
The Republican Party should be eagerly lining up for this week's federal corruption trial in Chicago of Barack Obama's personal real estate fairy, Tony Rezko, the way a baseball team lines up to smack fat fastballs from a tired pitcher.
But the Republicans aren't swinging. They're keeping their bats on their shoulders. This should concern Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who will likely face Sen. Obama (D-Rezko/Daley). As most Clinton operatives and Republicans know, Rezko is the indicted political fixer who helped Obama buy his dream house.
The sellers split the parcel in two, one a vacant lot and one with a home. Obama got a $300,000 discount on the house. The Rezkos paid the full asking price for the lot next door.
Beck is insufferable:
Some right-wing kooks are amusing, some are stupid, some are just filled with hate and vitriol, but Beck has no redeemible qualities. His rants are filled with racism, convoluted logic and pettiness. It insults the viewers intelligence. Why does the liberal media keep giving guys like him TV shows.
CNN is liberal media.
BTW, Obama is finished anyway. Hillary's got him in her sites and she won't give up. Still, it's about time Obama got some meaningful media scrutiny, wherever it came from.
The abject ignorance of conservatism can't be avoided. The prime objective of conservatism is allegiance to political victory, damn the facts, dedication to the truth is only useful if it serves the prime objective.
"the abject ignorance of conservatism can't be avoided"
I do expect better from you than a statement like that.
The current administration has failed overall. I agree with the majority of Americans who have an unfavorable view of Bush. I'm probably one of those crossovers this November.
However, since Democrats did well in November 2006, what have they done that gives you any confidence in their abilities to govern? Did they do anything meaningful in the past 16 months to stand up for the reasons they were supposedly put there in the first place?
I haven't seen anything meaningful and different from what we had before.
Which is why the first thing that the Democrats did when they got controlwas to impeach Bush and Cheney. That's why they've fought him on everything even before they had control. That's why they set the record for filibusters while in the minority.
Oh wait, no they didn't. There are people like that on both sides, but for some reason the Democratic Senators and Representatives are a lot less aggressive than their Republican counterparts, even to the point of being spineless much of the time.
And why isn't there an equivalent of people like Coulter, Savage, Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity, flamethrowers and serial liars who tell these "win-at-all-costs" liberals exactly what they want to hear whether it's true or not? Surely there should be a demand for that, right?
Conservatism as we used to know it didn't require such systematic dishonesty and propaganda. There were actually honest arguments to be made. For fourteen years we've gotten garbage like Whitewater, impeachment over personal matters, protesting war for humanitarian reasons, then accepting unnecessary and preemptive war without any exit strategy. Denying science as a whole, pushing for religious dogma to be taught in school, waterboarding, eavesdropping without oversight. There just aren't any honest arguments to be made for any of this.
When the Republican party flushes out the extremists, voting for moderates and boycotting FOX and other dishonest agents, then your equivalence argument can be more effectively made.
Maybe you’re correct and HC’s supporters are in numbers enough to put her over McCain. But the truth is Bill and Hill are counting on the audacity of cynical poltical maneuverings that will both neutralize Obama and get his supporters. Bill and Hill have the nerve to be in second place and solicit Obama for a second tier position, their arrogance is boundless. Bill said that Hillary is garnering “traditional” Democrats and he delineates them as rural and “ethnic-my word” working class; and of course she’s going to get the Hispanic voters because evidently there is some kind of Crips and Bloods thing going on between the Black and Hispanic communities that I truly didn’t realize was so intense. Anyway Bill said that Obama can bring in “Urban voters of course Urban Wal-Mart taught me is code word for Black. I’ll digress here for a moment. A few years ago before my Wal-Mart boycott I noticed that Wal-Mart categorized all Black artists under the banner Urban Music including Nat king Cole and Johnny Mathis. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. Back to the subject though, Bill said that Obama would bring in Urban voters, young voters, “upscale” voters, and new and I assume new meant newly registered Democratic voters. You know right now I am leaning toward not voting for HC should she be the nominee and I would be even more incline not to vote for her if Obama accepts the VP slot, because I would feel that he betrayed our shared desire to kill old school DC politics. Accepting that slot would condone and encourage the practices and tactics that pollute the political process; and I won’t support that system anymore or him if he does it. The “new” people that Obama has brought in to the Dem fold in my opinion came in largely for two reasons to end the selfish stupid policies of the previous administration and to END the old school poltical games that put someone of Bush’s limited capacity in office in the first place. Bush had a track record of failure and evil poltical stategery as GW would say put a man in office with “poor native judgment skills” Hillary is using the same BS tactics that has pushed a moron through a poltical career that will prove to be a long lived disaster for America. I want to end that system. You know Hilary could think circles around GW but those tactics that she’s relying on to put her in office are the same putrid ones that could be employed once again to put another immature and intellectually limited tap dancing fool into office. Bill did a lot of good things but we got a lot of Clinton sh-it that came along with that. I think we could get good policy and judgment from Barack Obama without the other stuff. Now I’m, not concerned with where Obama puts his penis while in office just like I wasn’t concern with where Bill put his overactive one but I am very concern with the presidency being used for blatant poltical capital for personal reasons. I know Obama is not a messiah or a saint and he may have reaped some benefit from an association with a shady character, but if that’s the worse thing he’s done my goodness the White house will be safe from compared to the nonsense that went on under the GW and Clinton administrations.
CNN is Liberal Media?
I Guess that would explain why they have Glenn Beck. It must just be to make Conservatives look like retarded gas bags.
Can you explain to me how a corporation like CNN is Liberal? What would its financial motivations be? The very idea that a corporation is Liberal is laughable.
Anyway, thanks for revealing to us your trolldom.
As opposed to a non-white, non-racist society? Find one, live there for 10 years and get back to me.
This society that you think is racist just happens to be the BEST COUNTRY in the world. Ask your average hyphenated American and you'll find out pretty quick.
This society that you think is racist just happens to be the BEST COUNTRY in the world.
This is subjective. If you ask most people around the world what the best country is, they'll say their own.
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
KASS: It looks like, from what I read in The Wall Street Journal and -- and John Fund's column and out of Brit -- out of Britain, that there is some money that may have trickled through to Re -- from Iraq to Rezko into, perhaps, into the house, or into the -- which I think was not $300,000. Maybe it was a $150,000 discount. Into -- into something involving -- in Illinois, involving Mr. Obama. All he's got to do, Glenn, is sit with you and talk about that.
A journalist in a "free press" major city newspaper like the conservative rag Chicago Tribune even has a simple responsibility beyond just reporting the news, it's getting the facts right!
Here is a man whom would be on a political pundits show with no regard about the story he's been asked to appear about? He has no idea how much this publicly discussed, publicly litigated, publicly reported news story broke by his own paper, and he has no idea how much, if any money or influenance was bartered? Liar!!!!!!!!!!!! or we weren't suppose to know this, and they are certain we're that stupid!
This is a stupid, clumsy, and overt effort to propagandize to Americans by a corporate media conglomerate desparate to sustain the status quo. These simple minded bullies we must endure in the public forum afforded the bully pulpit of their own "news show" is as Un-American as a corporation owning our voting machines, writing our enviromental protection laws, energy policy, or provoking wars for profit.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
I used to live in Chicago and read the TRIB every morning. Kass is a poor writer and an opinionated hack. His column has been a waste of space in the TRIB for a long time now.
It is no surprise that he is simply making stuff up about Obama's house purchase. Its typical of his style. The amazing thing to me is that he hasn't been offered a spot on right-wing talk radio. He has the requisite skills - bluster, dishonesty and self-righteousness.
It never ceases to amaze me that a moron (no disrespect to morons) like Glenn Beck is paid huge sums of money to lie, propagandize, misinform, etc...
I'm trying to convince my kid to not go to college, but to figure out a way to get a talk show gig. Evidently, intelligence is not a prerequisite:-(
Barak himself has stated that this deal was 'a boneheaded move'. No matter whether an actual shady deal exists, his connection with an unsavory character like Rezko will make for campaign fodder. All politicians have them, McCain had his Keating 5 escapade, Hillary has a few for sure and Obama will be found to be like any other political figure, a closet with skeletons. The problem for Obama is that this guy's trial is going to be highly visible and Rezko has got a 'seven degrees of Bacon' story that has to frighten the bee-gee-bers out of Barak's camp.
It is interesting though that the scrutinity of this part of Obama's story by anyone in the media, draws a strong rebuke by Media Matters (very little). No such condemnation when the NYTimes intimated that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist based on conjecture, especially when compared with the strong link between Obama and Rezko. I know that MM(vl) is only interested in protecting liberals, but it does lend itself to be seen with a bit of irony!
Keep up the good work, MM(vl)!!
ProudCon:
If MM matters "very little," as you keep saying, then why do you feel the need to be here? You seem to be here pretty often.
Personally, I feel that Freeperville and all the other wingnut sites matter hardly at all. What I've seen of them though postings here and elsewhere shows them to be the cesspool of the conservative viewpoint. So I don't feel any desire to go there.
But thanks as usual for another amusing post. Col. completely shredded your McCain-Obama argument, as usual, so I don't need to go there. Have another glass of Kool-Aid and enjoy your day!! :)
All part of the services we provide for all of our disturbed posters.
Keep smiling. :-^
eastwestern90210,
Thanks for your concern and giving me a place to rest my mind. Toodles!
ProudCon:
Feel free to keep regurgitating right-wing talking points like the good little troll we all know and love. It's really quite cute .... :) You support your masters no matter what. Gotta admire that.
Your boy McCain has made tons of enemies over the years. He has stepped on a lot of people in his blind ambition to get to where he is now. He's sold himself like a common streetwalker. All those chickens are bound to come home to roost in the next few months.
Over the course of the campaign, the engineer of the Doubletalk Express is going to be exposed for what he is: someone who is for sale to whomever he thinks can help him achieve his goals.
He's old and tired, and so are his ideas. Nobody in their right mind is going to vote for a third Bush term ... and that's what McCain is in a nutshell.
As for the Rezko stuff ... keep dreaming. Just be sure to change the sheets when you wake up... :)
athleticsupporterdave,
Well, well, seem to have gotten your shorts all twisted in knots.
I am a conservative and 'my boy' McCain is no conservative. In fact, my guy dropped out of the race a while back. Duncan Hunter was the closest candidate to my values but c'est la guerre. I will probably hold my nose and vote primarily against the socialist candidate rather than for McCain.
I do like his persistence about the Iraqi war, which needed the surge to make victory a possiblity, but his first instincts regarding taxes and the border are not to my liking. He claims to have seen the light but I'm not sure how he will govern. I do recognize the threat of advancing the socialist cause now found in the democrat party and that takes precedence over my wish for a strong conservative candidate.
As for Rezko, we shall see.
Well, well, seem to have gotten your shorts all twisted in knots. ....proudcon
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Don't flatter youself...:) I know you cons like to declare victory prematurely, but...
Duncan Hunter, huh? How'd that work out for ya again? That sounds about right ... you strike me as the kind of person who's right a bout 1-2 percent of the time ... :) Put that in the category of the broken clock that's correct twice a day ...
Sportsguydave, when you mention the Doubletalk Express are you talking about McCain or Obama?
Here's one for you: "The failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster. It would dishonor the 900-plus men and women who have already died. . . . It would be a betrayal of the promise that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing from a national security perspective."
Did McCain say this? Nope. Obama said it in 2004. Who's the double-talker now? Obama is just another politician that will say what he needs to get elected. Don't come back with tirades against Bush either, he's not running for President.
Cannon,
I believe we can help stabilize Iraq by not policing their day-to-day lives, do you agree?
Nice try ... but show me where this is in any way inconsistent with Obama's position now? He's advocating making the Iraqis stand up and take responsibility for their country. I know the right wing equates anything less than staying in Iraq forever with defeat, but reasonable people don't see it that way.
Of course, we're doing all we can to help them do that ... but our commitment can't be open-ended. As long as we are there holding their hand, they don't have to take responsibility for their security. When we leave, they'll find a way to get it done. Sometimes a little tough love is in order.We made this mess for them so we need to help them clean it up ... to a point.