Kim Foxx's Friends At Sun-Times Gave Her Campaign $1.3 Million

CHICAGO — The Sun-Times had an interesting scoop last week: Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx was losing the campaign fundraising war to her Democrat-turned-Republican opponent on the Nov. 3 ballot, Pat O'Brien.

O'Brien's lead in collecting cash didn't last, though — thanks to Sun-Times' ownership.

The Sun-Times seemed to foreshadow the turn of events in an Oct. 14 headline: "With contribution limits blown by the Republican’s self-financing, donors are now free to give as much as they want to either candidate."

Sure enough, by Oct. 16, Sun-Times investor Michael Sacks and his wife stuffed another $111,600 into Foxx's campaign war chest — a total of $807,250 since September 2019, state records show.

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That helped boost the campaign contribution total to Foxx from Sun-Times owners — Sacks, Elzie Higginbottom and the Service Employees International Union, among them — to more than $1.3 million, public records show.

You won't find a word about that in either the newspaper's story about the fundraising race in the Cook County state's attorney election or its editorial board's endorsement of Foxx.

The only hint is a line at the end of Sun-Times editorials that tells readers the paper is owned by "a group of civic-minded and, in some cases, politically active investors."

But let's face it, describing the Sun-Times ownership group as financially active and politically minded is closer to the truth.

That's why it's baffling that the Sun-Times' political coverage and editorial page either gloss over or omit certain details — such as the $1.3 million its owners forked over to Foxx — particularly since I keep pointing it out.

MORE ON PATCH: 750,000 Reasons Sun-Times' Kim Foxx Endorsement Shouldn't Shock

Not to mention, there's a growing national distrust of the news media's political motives.

On Sunday, for instance, The New York Times published an investigative report on a national network of news websites run by controversial Chicago-area publisher Brian Timpone.

The online network of news sites, according to The New York Times, was "built not on traditional journalism but on propaganda" that was "ordered up" and paid for by "dozens of conservative think tanks, political operatives, corporate executives and public-relations professionals."

Say what you will about Timpone, but conservatives aren't the only politicos getting in the news game to push their flavor of propaganda.

The Sun-Times got "saved" by union bosses cozy with the Chicago Democratic Machine, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel's money man and "unheralded adviser" and too many insiders to list.

Timpone's sites, according to The New York Times story, "generally do not post information that is outright false, [but] the operation is rooted in deception, eschewing hallmarks of news reporting like fairness and transparency."

These days, the Sun-Times certainly isn't a bastion of transparency, either.

There's no mention of it on the Sun-Times website, but a talented former reporter — and all-around nice guy — on the editorial board once was former deputy chief of staff for Mayor Richard Daley's administration.

You wouldn't know it by reading his byline, but one of the best business reporters in town and former union steward — a guy who quit journalism to work for Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and came back to the Sun-Times — happens to cover organized labor, a beat created at the behest of the Chicago Federation of Labor, which has an ownership stake in the paper.

Does that mean Sun-Times reporters and editors get directly pressured by the big-time political fundraisers that own the paper?

I doubt it, but how can anybody be sure?

The thing standing in the way: The Sun-Times' lack of transparency to readers, and its apparent unwillingness to report that some of its owners are the kind of power brokers who spend $1.3 million to influence one of the most contentious contests on the ballot, and donate to political funds controlled by House Speaker Michael Madigan, recently implicated (but not charged) in a federal bribery scheme.

The last time I brought this up, the Sun-Times' then-Editor-in-Chief Chris Fusco told media reporter Robert Feder, "In light of the diverse ownership of our newspaper, we’re aiming to be transparent."

But nothing changed. And knowing the paper avoids reporting those publicly available details about their ownership has an effect on a reader.

On Tuesday, for instance, I read a straightforward puff piece in the Sun-Times declaring that after months of delays due to COVID-19, Foxx has "quietly started expunging 1,200 additional cannabis convictions."

All I had was questions: If Foxx was being so quiet about it, how did this hush-hush detail happen to end up in the newspaper owned by a collection of her biggest fundraisers in the final weeks of her re-election campaign?

Did the "Friends of Foxx" contributors in the Sun-Times boardroom somehow have a hand in scoring that friendly headline?

And worst of all: If pals at the Sun-Times told me that wasn't the case — would I believe 'em?

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

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