The Chicagoist will be launching later but in the meantime please enjoy our archives.

Sun-Times Editorial Board Disses Joe Berrios

By JoshMogerman in News on Nov 27, 2011 9:00PM

2011_11_22_berrios.jpg
Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios
"He said, she said" stories rarely land on the editorial pages. And it is pretty unusual to see newspaper opinion editors make personal attacks on a powerful citizen. But this is Chicago, and the guy in question is “family man” Joe Berrios, so the editorial earlier this week from the Sun-Times is probably a bit less of a surprise. Still, the headline telegraphs the ugliness to come: “Editorial: Berrios vs. the other guy? We believe the other guy.”

“Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios finds himself being dirtied up in one of those ugly disputes that, at least for now, amounts to one man’s word against another’s.

But that’s enough for us. We’re inclined to believe the other guy. Berrios may find that unfair, but it’s the price he pays for running his office and political job like extensions of a family business.”

The editorial writers admit having no other inside knowledge of the incidents around the newest accusations against the Assessor, but seem pretty comfortable tarring him as scummy and not particularly trustworthy. We think that is an unseemly use of the opinion pages where this sort of personal attack should be frowned upon… But we also agree with every word the folks at the Sun-Times wrote — Do you trust the guy?