Privilege Has Its Memberships

Your periodic reminder that you should be reading "The Beachwood Reporter". Such as here, where Mr. Rhodes disassembles another local media embarrassment (this time, a Chicago magazine piece) that once again boldly dares to speak fluff to power:

...
So much of the media is so credulous. Do they ever learn?

"He modernized Chicago's emergency-response center, served as Mayor Daley's chief of staff, and led (albeit briefly) the CTA - all before his 38th birthday," Chicago magazine proclaimed in a profile last August. "Now Ron Huberman, the Israeli-born gay ex-cop, has brought his intensity and his technocratic management style to the city's public schools. Failure is not an option."

Really? Failure is not an option? In Chicago? At CPS? Failure happens every day.

The piece goes on to credit Huberman with "chang[ing] the accountability system for city government, and rescu[ing] public transit from the brink of bankruptcy."

Um . . . okay. Did I fall asleep and wake up in a different city than everyone else?

The obligatory critical paragraph comes late in the story, which quickly reverts to reverence:

"Despite promises to slash the budget, Huberman watched silently as the seven school board members doubled their receipt-free expense allowances to $24,000 per person per year, with $36,000 for Scott, the board president. And Huberman approved at least two no-bid consulting contracts - including one of up to $150,000 for Barbara McDonald, his former boss at the police department, who has followed him to several agencies. McDonald's indistinct role is to 'provide advice and consultation' to Huberman on communication and outreach, according to the approval agreement submitted to the board. 'She'll add so much value, she's going to more than pay for contract costs,' Huberman says."

What seems to be missing is: Why? Why did you watch silently as school board members doubled their expense allowances? Why, run did you offer a no-bid contract to your pal? And what value exactly does she add? Just tell us.

The piece is also yet another paean to Richard M. Daley's management skills - you know, the skills that landed his patronage chief in jail because city hiring was rigged, among a cascade of scandals during Mr. Manager's reign.

Huberman, in fact, became Daley's chief of staff in the aftermath of the Hired Truck scandal, ostensibly with the mandate to, you know, clean things up. Who hired Angelo Torres, Ron? Apparently unasked and certainly unanswered.
...

Finally:

"Though Huberman had barely spent time in the private sector, he developed a reputation as a brutal, corporate-style executive."

Reporters love this in everyone's workplace but their own. Being a brutal, corporate-style executive is always sure to gain you points in a profile.

"None of the critics or victims of Huberman's sometimes-brusque style would speak on the record for fear of angering a powerful man who has the mayor's ear."

Managing by fear is a sign of weakness, even incompetence. But it stifles critics who might otherwise stifle a glowing profile.

Chicago would have done its readers a much bigger favor if it had done what Joravsky did: Read the budget.
...

Clout: Don't leave home without it.