‘#MeToo hypocrites.’ In the wake of yet another harassment scandal in the Illinois General Assembly, a Tribune editorial asks: “When will Democratic members—especially those who make a public show of their opposition to harassment—grow a spine?”
■ Former Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell says he never promoted a woman just because she was a woman: “I don’t think there’s ever been a, ‘We gotta get more p___y on the block, OK?’”
Fox’s ‘destructive propaganda machine.’ In his first interview since quitting Fox News, military analyst and retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters tells CNN Fox is (link corrected:) “doing a great grave disservice to our country.”
■ A week after calling Ivanka Trump a c__t, Full Frontal host Samantha Bee apologized: “It is a word I have used on the show many times, hoping to reclaim it. This time, I used it as an insult. I crossed the line.”
■ … but her bosses are taking tighter rein over her show. (Hat-tip to Brian Stelter’s invaluable Reliable Sources email newsletter.)
TIME’s ‘King Me’ cover. The artist says he pondered whether Trump should be staring at himself or the reader—and decided “eye contact with … each American fits the situation best.”
■ The Tribune’s David Haugh: The NFL should consider “eliminating the playing of the national anthem before games” and “canceling every future trip to the White House for Super Bowl champions.”
■ Deadspin editor David Roth: “The NFL Is Too Dumb To Realize That Donald Trump Is Never Going To Stop With This S__t.””
■ Critics want a Chicago firefighter who took a knee at a charity football game over the weekend removed from the team.
Well, it’s kind of his job to know, right? A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesman called an Atlantic reporter “a piece of trash.”
■ Two of EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s top aides—both of whom got significant raises without White House approval—are quitting.
■ Pruitt has been encouraged not to eat so many lunches at the White House.
■ Trump’s consumer protection chief has effectively fired the agency’s consumer advisory board.
■ Trump’s education secretary has told Congress a safety commission formed after the Parkland, Florida, massacre won’t examine firearms’ role in school violence.
■ A Daily Herald editorial: “Parkland students should be welcome in Naperville.”
SIU discord. Tension at Southern Illinois University could come to a boil at a meeting two board members have called for Friday to consider replacing SIU President Randy Dunn—a session he says was scheduled without “consultation with me or … my knowledge ahead of time.”
■ A former student and SIU trustee defends Dunn: “It goes without saying that we can all make a mistake or two.”
Corrections. Thanks to readers Stephan Benzkofer and John A. Culver for being first (of many) to note two errors in yesterday’s edition of Chicago Public Square—about Kate Spade’s death and about the Chicago Tribune’s departure from Tribune Tower; and to Reed Pence for noting a mistaken link in an item about a former Sinclair Broadcast Group host. All corrected in a subsequent email.
■ If you’re first to report a Square error to Squerror@ChicagoPublicSquare.com, you can see your name in hyperlinked glory here, too.