The best tweets, the best podcasts and the best analysis of the controversial Pritzker cartoon

The week's best columns, reports, tips, referrals and tirades from columnist Eric Zorn.

View In Browser February 21, 2018 chicagotribune.com Eric Zorn's Change of Subject I have presented a dozen finalists in the Twitter poll this week. My favorite is "Thoughts and prayers: the air guitar of helping," by @Manglewood. But my favorite last week –  "[at morgue identifying wife's body, turns to cop] 'Have you heard my podcast? She loved it. I think you would, too.'" by @TheRobCee finished dead last out of 20 finalists, so I'm not optimistic. Last week's winner was a good one, though, I'll admit: "How to tell you've had a successful business meeting: 1) You ate free food 2) You said one thing that was confusing enough to sound intelligent 3) You left with no assigned action items," by @WheelTod. It's funny because it's true. Finally, a column not about state and local politics! (It's been a while). Listen up — again! The podcast boom is still just getting started is an update to my column on the state of podcasting of 3 ½ years ago. So are we at peak podcast yet? Not even close. The raw numbers are still small. Only 15 percent of people overall listened to podcasts once a week in 2017 (compared with 90 percent who listen to broadcast radio), 40 percent reported ever having listened to a podcast and just 60 percent said they were even aware of the term "podcasting." Audio-on-demand, perfect for the multitasking lifestyle, is still just getting started. A local story that ended up making some national news was the big kerfuffle over the cover art on last week's Chicago Reader: Next to the headline, "J.B. Pritzker's 'African-American thing'" was a swollen caricature of the billionaire Democratic gubernatorial hopeful in a pin-striped suit chatting on the phone and sitting on a black lawn jockey statue. The image quickly came under fire, with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, and city Treasurer Kurt Summers issuing a joint statement calling it racist. My column, The lesson behind the failure of the Reader's Pritzker cartoon, unpacked the controversy and explored the issue of edgy satirical humor: The line between laughing at something and laughing with it is blurry. So many people draw that line in different places that the chance of offending rather than amusing the listener is high, particularly when the joke requires the deployment of terms that are poisonous and hurtful on their face. Using the claim of satire to yank comedy back from the precipice of outrage is a high-risk stunt, too dangerous for the one-strike-you're-out times in which we now live. I was disappointed that my Friday column, Slow-walked investigation is the excuse Madigan needs to step down, didn't seem to get much attention. In it I looked at how powerful veteran Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan evidently mishandled a sexual harassment issue in his bailiwick: Madigan, the vaunted political tactician, blew this one.  Should he resign as speaker and chair of the state Democratic party over this, as some have suggested? No. Not every bad decision should be a career-ender. But it adds to the reasons Madigan ought to step down. With his low approval numbers, he was already a millstone around the necks of his party's candidates for state and in some cases local office before this story broke. The relentless campaign by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to blame Madigan for nearly every problem in the state and brand him as a crook has been Rauner's biggest success. Even many of the candidates backed by Madigan, such as gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker, had trouble saying his name. Madigan should order another investigation, this one into whether he's going to help or hurt his party's chances in November if he sticks around. I guess the very idea that Madigan would step aside is so farfetched that nobody took me seriously. In Time to be retirin' the FolksyMeter?, I did my usual tally of dropped g's in Gov. Bruce Rauner's major speech. Spoiler alert: The percentage is droppin'.   Are you among the vanishing number of people who don't listen to  The Mincing Rascals on iTunes or wherever fine, free audio podcasts are served? Probably, because that number isn't vanishing quickly enough. WGN-AM's John Williams anchors a news-review chat show that usually includes me and some combination of Steve Bertrand, Scott Stantis, Kristen McQueary and Patti Vasquez. I meet people fairly often who are fans. They say their children wake up in the night crying for it. Well, that last part isn't true, but someday….   Unsubscribe   |   Newsletters   |   Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Service Copyright © 2018 | Chicago Tribune | 435 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60611 ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this email because you are following the Eric Zorn's Change of Subject newsletter.