‘How not to interview Trump.’ With the former president as guest in her debut as host of Meet the Press, Kristen Welker was—in the words of Public Notice proprietor Aaron Rupar—“overwhelmed by his nonstop lying.”
■ Author and former Sun-Times and Tribune editor Mark Jacob tweets: “An NBC investigation has discovered that a major news network let Donald Trump lie repeatedly on the air. Oh, that network is NBC” …
■ … and, in a new column, Jacob recommends TV news interviewers just ban liars such as Trump.
Sorry about the vaping and groping. Far-right U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has apologized for her public display of, let’s say, jerkism at a theater performance …
■ … behavior that may have been illegal …
■ … and that has drawn widespread criticism from her fellow Republicans.
■ A.V. Club’s take: Boebert’s “expressing her clear, sincere and obvious regret at the fact that theaters … have such high-quality night-vision cameras.”
■ Her boyfriend that night—and for months now—is a Democrat who owns a gay-friendly bar that has hosted drag shows, of which Boebert has been a loud critic …
■ … prompting a number of pundits to sarcastically praise her for, um, “reaching across the aisle.”*
‘We are an extremist organization that prides itself on making sure that … teachers in this society should be under the control of fascists who know better.’ The Daily Beast introduces us to an ex-South Park writer who set out to lampoon the reactionary Moms for Liberty but then found himself leading a nationwide campaign to “disrupt this hate group for as long as possible.”
■ His website, Moms for Liberties—which mockingly praises Hitler, declares itself “officially extremist” and claims to have been responsible for “upwards of 50% of book bans last year”—has become a fundraising engine for critics of the real Moms for Liberty.
■ Not satire: Middle schoolers in a Texas district can’t borrow Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451—or any young adult books—without an OK from their parents.
‘The last person who’ll ever be ordered to pay cash to get out of Cook County jail.’ CWB Chicago details the case of a man, who—as the final defendant before the Central Bond Court for Cook County—for want of $500, spent the night behind bars.
■ As of today, cash bail is history in Illinois …
■ The new law gives those now in jail because they couldn’t pay the right to a pretrial hearing within 90 days.
■ A Sun-Times editorial addresses fears that judges will lean more on electronic monitoring: “As long as judges follow the law, we see no grounds for complaint.”
■ A DePaul University Lincoln Park campus crime spree continued over the weekend, with at least two students maced and robbed.
‘End fossil fuels now.’ Marking the start of Climate Week, tens of thousands of protesters marched through New York’s streets yesterday—aiming their demands largely at President Biden and participants in a UN summit this week.
■ Today, organizers were pledging “mass civil disobedience.”
■ Sydney, Australia, is coming off a week of smoky air caused by fires set to prevent more fires.
■ Block Club Chicago: “Don’t be alarmed by swarms of flying ants—they’re just having sex in the sky.”
‘Wait, wasn’t the pandemic supposed to be over?’ Discourse Blog’s Jack Mirkinson notes with alarm COVID-19 infection rates reaching 2020 levels.
■ CNN: Home tests may not always detect a COVID infection.
iPhone update. Apple’s newest free operating system update, iOS 17, was set to drop today.
■ ZDNet runs down some of its most useful new features.
We asked ChatGPT to ‘write a funny one-paragraph invitation for people to support Chicago Public Square.’ It came up with this: “Hey there, Chicagoans and honorary Chicagoans (yes, that includes anyone who’s ever ordered deep-dish pizza)! We need your help to support Chicago Public Square, the news source that’s more essential than ketchup on a Chicago-style hot dog (shh, don’t tell the purists). Join us in this noble quest, and together, we’ll make sure Chicago stays informed, entertained, and slightly bewildered by its quirky news stories. So, grab your windbreakers and join the Square revolution – it’s a pizza party of news you won’t want to miss! 🍕📰🎉”
■ How’d it do? Take a poll.
A Square public service announcement
Movie Night at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, Thursday, Sept. 28. A screening of She Said with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Megan Twohey. Tickets and donation information here.
* Which reminds us: Friday’s Square lost two subscribers—one complaining of “inappropriate content,” another of “spammy” content. You can help replace them by recommending Square to a friend.