Newspaper funk

In 2004 there were close to 9,000 newspapers in US. Today it's just 1,250 with one or two going bye-bye every week. Over 200 of our 3,143 counties have nary a legitimate paper.

But that void is being filled by 'pink slime', fake newspapers made to look legit but actually just slick political hit pieces put out by anonymous sources. Right here in Illinois a shadowy far right organization, Local Government Information Services (LGIS), publishes 20 internet and 11 print editions statewide to confuse gullible voters and infuriate legitimate news purists. Chicago gets Chicago Wire while my Glen Ellyn mailbox gets slammed with DuPage Policy Journal.

No subscription necessary. Free delivery gladly paid for by far right billionaire Dick Uihlein and published by his irrepressible conservative gadfly Dan Proft, safely protected from Illinois' hyped dysfunction he rails about from his Florida mansion.

But the November 8 Illinois election results beg the question: "Do ya think all those millions of dollars and thousands of hours squandered publishing that pink slime might just have had the opposite effect?"