Chicago: It's Different Here

[Kathianne]

In regards to this: http://debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?t=16993 it seems a rejoinder/clarification is in line, here it is:

http://globallabor.blogspot.com/


Tuesday, August 19, 2008
"Annenberg-Gate" - It's not the crime, it's the cover up

There has been some very interesting blogosphere discussion in reaction to the National Review piece on the blocking of access to research material on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge today.

One comment noted: it's not the crime, it's the cover up and now the University of Illinois has provided the cover up.

Ironic, that a public university would attempt to prevent a legitimate author and journalist - with a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard to boot - from accessing documents legitimately housed in their library. Ironic, and possibly illegal.

The flimsy manufactured excuse - most likely provided to the library by the University's general counsel - is that the University does not have a "deed of gift" which the university contends is required for it to, legitimately, claim possession of the archived material.

Unfortunately, this is a bad reading of the law. ...

[Gaffer]

Not only does it sound illegal, it sounds like someone has something to hide. If its in the library its available for public viewing.

[manu1959]

wow what an interesting article......obama and ayers working to oust the mayor of chicago....

also the pritzker family (can you say rich) on obama's finance committee.........

[gabosaurus]

Chicago is one of the birthplaces of changing the law. Richard Daly would surely approve.

[diuretic]

Chicago is one of the birthplaces of changing the law. Richard Daly would surely approve.

Tammany Hall on Lake Michigan?

[Kathianne]

Tammany Hall on Lake Michigan?

Certainly for the past 100 years, Chicago could teach Tammany Hall a thing or two. It's so the 'norm' that people really don't pay attention.

[Kathianne]

http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/08/behind-annenberg-gate-inside-chicago.html


Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Behind the Annenberg Gate: Inside the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Records


Inside the Chicago Annenberg Challenge for a Closer Look

As Global Labor readers are now aware, the University of Illinois is blocking access to the records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an Illinois non profit corporation, established in 1995.

However, several months ago I was able to obtain certain key records of the Challenge - including board minutes, annual and semi-annual reports and financial records - from Brown University's Annenberg Institute, which housed the national Annenberg Challenge program that was set up in 1993 by a gift of $500 million from Walter Annenberg.

While the material I was provided is helpful it is no substitute for the complete documentary record that is apparently housed at the University of Illinois (some 70 linear feet of documents according to the library's public records) and thus that public University should immediately make available to the public those records.

Below is an analysis of what I found in the documents I was able to obtain. ....