Monday, July 7, 2008

Stroger administration hunkers down against press

Via today's morning shorts from the Capitol Fax, a Daily Herald article:

Besieged with negative press over a record-breaking $426 million sales tax increase, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger's administration is forbidding department heads from speaking with the media unless his spokesman is present - an apparent effort to improve the news coverage of his administration.

Although the policy has been around for some time - some officials say it began under former chief of staff Lance Tyson - it is being reemphasized amid bad publicity from the tax hike, which took effect July 1.

Read the whole thing. There's some criticism of this policy by other county board members in addition to some examples of the policy in action as Herald reporters attempts to contact Cook County Department heads.

ADDITION: Here's a Tribune editorial calling on citizen's to lobby Cook County government to repeal the sales tax, also from The Capitol Fax today.

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