Setting aside father's Day for Mike Madigan

Every year I commemorate father's day by not only acknowledging the contributions of my father but all of the fathers of my relatives. But this year, I am using this space to honor Michael J. Madigan

By Ray Hanania

FREE/Michael J. Madigan, politics, federal conviction/Sunday, June 15, 2025

It seems that most journalists are dancing around the bonfires of their vanities and the ghosts of their industry, celebrating the conviction of Michael J. Madigan, the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States. He held the position for all but two years from 1983 to 2021, serving in the Illinois House from 1971 to 2021.

A lot of journaalists ar elike that. When an elected official like Madigan is in trouble, they ignore all the good things elected officials have done, especially for them in the form of favors, exclusives, and insider tips on big stories.

They measure their own fame based on the notoriety of the politicians they rub shoulders with, and they feel that they are the good guys. But, the media is not.

Today’s media doesn’t even come close to the news media I encountered when I entered journalism in 1975, and met Mike Madigan in 1978, introduced to him by then Chicago Mayor Michael A. Bilandic. Madigan represented the Southwest side and suburbs of Chicago, the area I covered when I began writing for a local daily community newspaper.

Madigan was smart, smarter than most other elected officials, which explains why he held on to office for so long, setting a major national political record.

Mike Madigan, Photo courtesy WIkipedia

But journalism today isn’t what it was 50 years ago. It’s changed a lot, and it puts even more pressure on the reporters — those who write news stories as opposed to journalists like me who mostly write “informed opinion” columns and only some news stories covering the Middle East, where journalism coverage is at its most unprofessional, bought and corrupt.

Don’t think that you are getting anything near the truth when you get “news” from the mainstream American news media about the Middle East. You don’t get “news.” You get spin, twisted, and distorted by lobbyists who donate millions representing the special interests and needs of the government of Israel. It’s a topic I often write about.

But it is the same corrupt news media, driven by the pressures of a dying industry that sees fewer and fewer resources. Faster turnaround for “news,” and political spin that satisfies the corporate powers that today own and control the news media.

Mike Madigan is in part a victim of that media corruption, and a bias driven by the never-ending hunt to get the “good story,” as my colleague Harry Golden Jr., once told me.

Back in the 1970s, the media was arrogant. I remember one time when the City Hall Tribune reporter, Bob Davis, got a call from his newspaper editor, who had been called by his publisher. It seems the Editor of the New York Times was in Chicago and had tried to get a cab driver to drive him two blocks to the Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue. The hapless cab driver, who could barely cover his expenses in an industry controlled as much by the politicians as the media’s interests, told the Times editor the building was only two blocks away and he should walk. It was a nice Spring day.

The Tribune editor told Davis to contact the city’s Consumer Services department to have the cab driver fired because the extremely wealthy New York Times editor was angry and had complained to his powerful pals at the Chicago Tribune editorial offices.

In Madigan’s case, the media didn’t really like him, mainly because he didn’t pander to them by leaking exclusive stories. He was tough and came across arrogant, something associated with political power.

Despite the decay of the journalism industry and toll the downward economics has had on the industry, the Tribune today still carries sway and has influence over governments, politicians, the courts, the judges, and the Justice Department itself. Yes, the Justice Department. How do you think all those exclusive mob stories made it to the front page of the newspapers and media before the charges were ever filed.

The two agencies have always worked together.

Mike Madigan was indicted on 22 counts of racketeering and bribery on March 2, 2022. Click here to read the indictment release.

On February 12, 2025, a jury in the corruption case against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan delivered a mixed verdict. (Click here to read the Justice Department release.)

The jury's decision was somewhat of an embarrassment to the U.S. Attorney and the prosecutors who charged him with 23 total counts by the time it went to trial.

• Madigan was found Not Guilty on 7 counts: These included charges related to a West Loop apartment development.

• The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and deadlocked on 6 counts: This included the most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy. The judge declared a mistrial on these counts. Though not officially a “Not Guilty” on those 6 counts, they are essentially the same thing.

• Madigan was found Guilty on 10 counts: These included charges related to bribery and wire fraud, primarily involving schemes with ComEd and attempts to secure appointments for a corrupt former Chicago alderman, Danny Solis, who agreed to wear an FBI wire to help bring down a big fish. The media described it as “using interstate facilities to promote unlawful activity; wire fraud; and bribery,” although when you think of bribery, you think of cash trading hands. It didn’t in this case.

The Justice Department argued that what Madigan did was precisely that, but that’s not the case at all.

Most journalists who cover Chicagoland and Illinois politics call that typical, everyday Machine Politics. Every politician does it in different ways because politics in Chicago, in Springfield, and in Washington D.C. is driven by politicians who oppose their enemies, win support for their programs and agendas, and favor those who are loyal with perqs like jobs and promotions, and more.

Richard J. Daley, the father of Chicago Machine Politics at its finest, once lambasted the news media for criticizing him for directing business to his children. He’s quoted on two occasions saying, “If I can't help my sons then they can kiss my ass" and in aother saying, “If a man can't look out after his son(s) what's this world coming to?” He also is quoted as saying, “If a man can’t put his arms around his sons and help them, then what’s the world coming to?”

Regardless of which is most accurate, you get the drift.

Political favors to the loyal are much more nuanced than, say, accepting an envelope filled with cash to do something, or to have work done on your home, or to be given a valuable piece of land at no cost.

Essentially, the 10 counts involved allegations of doing favors that have value for your loyal allies, involving getting ComEd to give jobs to politicians and people Madigan knew. Madigan is alleged to have sought ComEd to hire people in exchange for influencing legislation impacting ComEd, and trade favors with a Chicago alderman to hire his son in exchange for Madigan convincing the Governor to appoint the alderman to a state board.

The job recipients didn’t show up for work, but instead of blaming them or ComEd, they blamed Madigan.

I don’t think Madigan could receive a fair trial given the media’s constant criticism of his power over the years.

After all, the Chicago Tribune had already published a book based on the Federal Investigation that came out three weeks after the original indictments were filed, on March 22, 2022. It is called “The House that Madigan Built: The Record Run of Illinois’ Velvet Hammer.”

The term “Velvet Hammer” has been used by journalism to apply to a bevy of politicians across the country, including Madigan, denoting someone who has a powerful force combined with a more nuanced approach to getting things done.

Some people call that quite a coincidence. Others see it as complicity, which, like I said, often happens between journalists and Federal agencies that use the news media by leaking insider info to get favorable headlines to boost the momentum of their prosecutions.

I know the author, Tribune reporter Ray Long. He’s a good journalist who uses the system well.

But I just can’t believe that U.S. District Court Judge John Blakey was truly fair in handing down his sentence this past week, sending Madigan to prison for 7 and a half years.

Blakey made it clear he was angry with Madigan, who testified at his trial. Madigan told jurors he hadn’t trusted ComEd, the utility giant. Madigan testified he stood up to ComEd, forcing it to add additional consumer protections that were in the best interests of Illinois residents.

Blakey reacted negatively to Madigan’s testimony, saying, according to published media reports, was “a nauseating display of perjury and evasion” that was “hard to watch.” He even looked at Madigan and declared, “You lied. You did not have to. You had a right to sit there and exercise your right to silence, but you took the stand and you took the law into your own hands, and it is an aggravating factor.”

That was the first sign that the judge was not going to be sympathetic. The second was how the news media continued to pound Madigan in their coverage of the trial.

To me, the judge’s view is problematic and supersedes the opinion of the jury. More than half of the counts were unproven.

I admit, I have had both a friend and foe relationship with Madigan over the years, mostly friendly. Sometimes I criticized him, and many times I did not. I like Mike. I also wrote a letter on his behalf as a journalist who covered him.

I guess I would be more afraid of the powerful Chicago Tribune, which pretty much had Madigan convicted on all counts from Day One.

In my opinion, on conviction, Madigan should have received a one or two-year sentence for the charges that the jury ruled on — they threw out the most important conviction of racketeering, which is substantive but clearly far more than what applied to Madigan. I even thought maybe he would receive home confinement and a fine.

Madigan plans to appeal. And I think he should. The sentence was, in my opinion, way too harsh. The evidence was weak, and the toughest charges were pushed aside by the jury.

On this Father’s Day, I dedicate my column to the hope that Madigan gets a new trial, someplace where the jury might be freer to assess the charges, or better yet, to understand the accusations are the foundation of what we call in Chicagoland, “politics.”

Clearly, Mike Madigan is guilty of one thing and only one thing: playing by the Rules of Chicago Politics that every politician in Chicago and Illinois plays with.