The keepers of The Narrative™ are getting bolder and bolder.

This time the Chicago media collaborated with the Governor of Illinois, billionaire J.B. Pritzker, to literally deny the use of printing presses to critics of the Governor.

Critics of the governor had begun printing and delivering newspapers critical of the governor, hitting hard and where it hurts.

In recent weeks, a group named Local Government Information Services has mailed out millions of physical newspapers using investigative journalism as well as opinion pieces (including some of my own) to expose Pritzker’s ruinous record. The papers highlight, for example, how much worse inflation is in Illinois compared to neighboring states. They also provide tragic details of the crime sweeping Illinois during Pritzker’s tenure.

Perhaps most irritating to Pritzker, the free-speech newspapers provide tangible, real-world evidence of the looming dangers of Pritzker’s misnamed SAFE-T Act, which will free thousands of extremely violent felons without cash bail, including perpetrators charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping, and arson. The LGIS papers smartly dared to showcase the mugshots of some of the criminals who will soon roam Illinois streets, courtesy of the soft-on-crime radicalism of Gov. Pritzker.

The papers are hard-hitting and brutally effective. As Pritzker pours hundreds of millions of dollars of his inherited trust-fund fortune into his campaigns, this newspaper method employs a motivating but low-cost ground game to counter Pritzker’s political air-war.

Pritzker couldn’t allow critics of his record free rein to get their message out, and the Chicago media elite couldn’t abide independent journalists challenging their stranglehold on information distribution. Together they went into full attack mode. The media called the publications “fake,” and the Governor withdrew from a debate sponsored by Chicago’s Daily Herald. The Daily Herald did not produce the newspaper, but their printing presses were used to print the independent newspaper.

Can’t let printing presses print the wrong stuff, can we?

The Chicago Sun-Times blasted the publications as “far-right newspapers,” but Axios Chicago went further and just called them “fake.”   Politico joined Axios in calling the publications “fake.”

No question that they are partisan. That is their intent. But partisan and press go together like bread and butter. This country was founded by pamphleteers whose sole intent was to persuade people to their cause, and freedom of the press was enshrined in our constitution precisely to empower such pamphleteers to make their case. Speaking out is not dangerous, it is the very essence of citizenship. And if you can’t oppose a politician you live in a tyrannical regime.

The only real issue is what was being said and who was saying it. And since it was conservatives saying things that were not approved, they had to be shut down, and they were.

Pritzker wrote the Daily Herald a letter, and they caved immediately.

Paddock Publications [the parent company of the Daily Herald] released a statement, saying, in part: “The company does not endorse the content of any of the print jobs it does for vendors, including many newspapers. It neither embraces nor condemns them. It merely prints them.”

The publication goes on to say, “As a result, Paddock Publications has made the decision to cancel commercial printing jobs with LGIS. As an independent newspaper publisher, we want no part of the flame-throwing accusations taking place between Gov. JB Pritzker and LGIS.”

One letter and some MSM criticism and the Daily Herald caved to the pressure and stopped printing the newspapers. They gave up a revenue source and any claim to supporting freedom of the press in order to ensure that they remained citizens in good standing with the elite. 

Unsurprising? Sure. The elite knows how to get its way. Disgusting. Emphatically so.