Mayor Daley now says he was so just joking when he accused the media of hounding Oprah out of town.
"You can't kid around with the press anymore," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Oh for the good old days when everyone would have seen the joke when Daley's face turned red and he sputtered this:
“When the controversy came up on Michigan Avenue, and people were criticizing her in the media, the first thing I said is, ‘She’s paying for everything on Michigan Avenue.’ I said, ‘So, why are you criticizing her?’ The merchants loved it, we had huge recognition around the world when she opened her show, and so I don’t think people realize that if you keep beating people up, well, then people take a different version of what can take place.
"She loves this city, and I will be talking to her, but again, that became a big rhubarb of the Chicago press: Beat up Oprah. And so, you keep kicking people, and people will leave. Simple as that.”
Good times!
And when pressed on the matter, Daley said this:
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"I'm just saying that when someone's doing something like that, most cities would love it. It's just amazing. I don't know why it became so controversial."
Ha ha ha! You're killing us.
To make things even funnier, Daley took five days before letting us all in on the gag. Punked!
If only the mayor did have a sense of humor. Then maybe Oprah would stay.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
