by Michael Kenney - January 18, 2008
Every time election season rolls around, I think of Mike Royko, and this year more than ever.
For anyone who doesn't know who Mike Royko is, he was a longtime Chicago newspaper columnist. (syndicated in later years)
If you've ever seen the movie 'Continental Divide,' John Belushi was playing Mike, although Royko was in his 50s when the movie was released way back when. Belushi loved Mike Royko. So did I. I don't think I missed a column once I began reading newspapers in the mid 70s. The dude was a Chicago institution. (And a Cub fan, naturally.)
An astonishing guy. An old time journalist.
Utterly fearless.
In 1971, he wrote Boss which was an unauthorized, and extremely unflattering biography of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. For those unfamiliar with the time frame, the late 60s and early 70s were not a real good time to be fucking with Richard J. Daley.
Royko didn't care.
This guy had more freakin' run-ins with Chicago politicians than you can believe, and he wrote all about them in detail in his column. Every day. Named names. The guy's column would come out, and people would be talking about it all day. Politicians were voted out of office because Royko set his bullshit detector on them.
He wanted the real story. He wanted the ugly details, and he printed them. The old image of Chicago being this rough, tough, corrupt, ass-kicking midwestern city isn't always accurate, but it does have that side.
That was the side Royko wrote about.
When Daley died, Royko lost a bit of his edge, but he never lost it completely.
When Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun-Times in 1984, Mike quit the paper. When asked why, Royko said, 'No self-respecting fish would be wrapped in a Murdoch paper' and that, 'His goal is not quality journalism. His goal is vast power for Rupert Murdoch, political power.'
That was 24 years ago.
Mike was a pretty smart guy.
The next year, in 1985, Mike wrote a column (new paper) talking about writer's block. He wasn't sure how he was going to be able to handle the fact that the Bears had just won the Super Bowl. He was at a loss for words. He essentially said that if the Cubs would win the World Series, he could die a happy man.
I've been talking about Mike a lot lately. He's been gone for over 10 years now, but this guy is etched on this city.
Like Studs.(Who knew Studs would outlive him?)
Like Sandburg.
Like Algren.
Around Chicago, to this day, when you mention Royko in conversation, people at the next table stop talking and eavesdrop.
I can barely imagine the columns Mike would have written for the last 7 years about George W. Bush. Royko could tag a buffoon in the ass like no other writer I've ever read.
This year's election would have had Royko going berserk. The buzz in this city leading up to the Feb. 5 primary is something to feel. I can only imagine the daily columns Mike would have been firing off about Obama, and Hillary. About Slick Will, and Rezko. Record new voter registration. Record early voting turnouts. The race card. The gender card. Cook County backroom deals. Voting fraud. What does it all mean? Whose people are full of shit, and whose people are even more full of shit?
Royko always got the story, and the back-story.
And then he wrote about it.
Mike Royko would have loved the 2008 presidential race.
He should have lived long enough to see this.
Mike Royko~ Sept. 19, 1932- April 29, 1997
Michael Kenney is a Chicago contractor.