Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune endorsed George W. Bush.
It’s no surprise.
The Tribune Corporation owns the Chicago Cubs.
The Chicago Cubs used to be the Chicago Whitestockings. They sported a player by the name of Billy Sunday. He is the root of the anger, hatred and idiocy running amok in many churches in the nation. He is the historical and rotten root from which has grown the preaching of men like Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, Robert Schuller and Jim and Tammy Bakker.
Public funds have often been used to build and refurbish sports stadiums – so many of these franchises can’t even be considered businesses.
In the case of Tribune Corporation it’s even worse than it seems elsewhere.
In Joliet, Ill., a group of private investors that included ISC paid $130 million out of its own pockets to build the Chicagoland Speedway, which also opened in 2001. The city forgave property taxes for 10 years -- a perk worth about $1.5 million.
The Tribune Corporation owns a television station with the call letters CLTV – ‘Chicagoland Television’. Chicagoland Speedway is located in Joliet, Illinois.
A caper in Kansas was pulled off when NASCAR got the State to lay out over $150 million in public incentives for a racetrack. NASCAR is pressuring Washington State to do the same by kicking in $200 million for a racetrack in what used to be lumber country. The forests have all been cut down and the result is a NASCAR racetrack. Not exactly the environmental stewardship Bush has been preaching about.
The ‘endorsement’ by the Chicago Tribune in my opinion is nothing more than a paid political announcement by the Republican Party and should be noted as such.
More than 150 families, some of which had lived there for generations, were forced off the land to build the Kansas speedway. That story is worse than but similar to what happened when George W. Bush and friends used eminent domain to condemn land they wanted to build a stadium for the Texas Rangers.
In that case the State of Texas was manipulated to raise the sales tax to pay for 70 percent of the stadium. They also allowed the Rangers Company to buy the stadium (which cost $191 million to construct) for just $60 million.
Along with the separation of church and state I believe we should consider a separation of sports and state as well.