So many politicians are tripping over each other in the Loop these days that it`s getting dangerous for pedestrians. The Press Conference has become an epidemic.
On Tuesday, politicians held at least 14 press conferences in Chicago, one or two of which had to do with real news. Press conferences are as easy to spot as a three-car accident on the Kennedy Expressway.
Television cameras take pictures of politicians. Television cameras take pictures of other television cameras, so you`ll know we were all there. A bunch of people hold microphones. A few passersby check it all out, risking all reason.
In the middle, there`s a politician you probably can at best vaguely recognize. You can at best vaguely recognize many of this year`s candidates, because they don`t have enough money to buy a lot of television commercials. That`s why they`re having a press conference. It`s free.
There are too many candidates running around, and they`re harassing, bothering and even impersonating news reporters.
Jim Olmstead works for Patrick Quinn`s campaign for state treasurer. When Peg Breslin showed up for her press conference at the County Building Tuesday, Olmstead joined a gaggle of reporters.
”How about that Pat Quinn handout that talks about the $40,000 you took from the banks,” Olmstead asked her in his best imitation of a reporter. When Breslin`s press guy, Brian Boyer, asked him who he was, he said he was a reporter for the Suburban Life.
Now, come on. Olmstead was wearing torn blue jeans, Nike pump sneakers with no socks, and a gray Reebok sweatshirt. Is that how a reporter would dress? He should have worn socks.
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The palace, the mecca, the epicenter of the press conference universe in Chicago is the Press Room on the 2nd floor of City Hall. It`s free, and there is a captive audience of reporters.
When Rev. Al Sharpton hit town from New York, he stopped by the Press Room, where his aides told reporters talking on their telephones to shut up so he could talk.
When Ald. Wallace Davis was set loose on a Christmas furlough from the Metropolitan Correctional Center, he went right to City Hall for a press conference.
Steve Cokely was banned from the room. And that was before anybody knew he had tape-recorded anti-Semitic rantings.
”The aldermen, we don`t mind that, but all these groups bring in 35 of their followers, and they clap and applaud and sit on the desks and it`s nonsense,” said Bill Cameron, who`s the political editor for WMAQ radio.
A few weeks ago, a sign went up on the Press Room door. It says:
”Absolutely No Press Conferences In This Room.” And they still don`t get the message.
One morning, candidates Patrick O`Connor, Steven Baer, Shawn Collins and Philip Morris all showed up at the room at the same time.
”I said they each had to take a number and wait their turn,” said Bob Crawford, a reporter for WBBM radio. ”And they did.”
One by one, they said their piece, outside the room. O`Connor probably should have stayed around awhile until the other politicians left. It turns out that, like much else in Chicago politics, rules are meant to be broken.
”We`ve actually made it a VIPs-only press conference zone,” said Greg Hinz, the political editor of Pulitzer-Lerner Newspapers (Olmstead take note: Hinz wears socks.)
”If an alderman or an elected official or somebody who looks like they`re going to win wants to come in, we will let them share our work space temporarily,” Hinz said. ”But if a 5 percenter comes in, we won`t, which is not unreasonable.”
A double standard? This is a matter of survival. Any self-respecting politician should pony up the $50 to rent a parlor room at the Bismarck Hotel, which has the best 1920s wallpaper left in the city.
If Cardinal Bernardin is the archbishop of Chicago, then Pat Quinn is the pastor of St. Bismarck. Hardly a Sunday goes by that Quinn is not conducting services in Parlor C. He knows there`s not much else going on on Sundays, so lots of TV cameras will come by for the sermon.
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If the epidemic of press conferences were confined to City Hall or to the Bismarck, maybe we could cordon off those two blocks of the Loop, warn pedestrians they are entering a hazardous area, and take care of the whole mess right there. But it`s not confined. The politicians know that TV people like nice backdrops and stunts. So they find them.
This is getting to extremes. The Organization of the North East invited U.S. Rep. Sidney Yates to a press event at the Lake View library, where he was joined by Jack the Giant Chicken, actually a young woman in a yellow chicken outfit impersonating Jack Kemp, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Richard Phelan, who lives in Winnetka, visited a bungalow on the Northwest Side to announce his campaign for Cook County Board president. As a courtesy, he was introduced to Jack and Diane Leick a few minutes before he put their house on the local news.
When Sen. Paul Simon announced his re-election campaign, he went outside to the base of the control tower at O`Hare International Airport on Nov. 28, which turned out to be one of the coldest, windiest days of the month.
Since not many people have been to the base of the control tower at O`Hare in November, it`s a reporter`s job to report what it is like. It`s miserable.
If Simon wasn`t a senator, he would have been hightailing it right from the base of the control tower to the City Hall Press Room, looking for somebody to listen to him.
