Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Bob Thomas just won a seven million dollar libel suit against the Kane County Chronicle. One of its columnists, Bill Page, alleged Thomas was “out for blood” in a case before the court but that Thomas backed off for political payback.
Juror Ken Sotera said it well: “To have your integrity questioned in front of your family and the world, that was the most important part.” The jury found columns written by Page were false and published with malice. A threatening e-mail from him to the Supreme Court warning of a “nightmare of bad publicity,” added fuel to the fire. You have to know this. Bob Thomas is a committed Christian, admired by those who know him, hated by those who oppose his moral views. And the ability of the press right now to destroy such people is practically unbridled.
This story reminded me of a reporter from a suburban paper who last year threatened Culture Campaign. He began with e-mail, then confronted me personally at a school board meeting over whether using pornographic texts should be required reading. During a break in the meeting, he came up from behind and kicked the empty chair next to me with a glare not usually found on the face of an objective reporter. Apart from a few mild hits in subsequent articles, he failed to deliver, but don’t think lack of evidence will stop some of these people.
After speaking at a Christian celebration of the National Day of Prayer,
Another suburban paper accused me of hate speech, and tried to link my remarks comparing our God to Allah with Senator Peter Roskam. Because of a memo inadvertently published on their web-site in the wee-morning hours, we knew they weren’t happy with the reporter’s original account and instructed him to spice it up. The revised version did more damage to me and to Peter. The paper later endorsed his opponent, Tammy Duckworth.
I wrote a letter to the editor in defense of my remarks but they refused to print it. See how the game is played? Newspapers play loose with the facts, destroying people’s reputations at will, generally without consequence to them.
About two years ago, I was dismissed after three days from an organization purportedly representing Christians and Jews as the result of an interview with a New York Times Magazine reporter. The leaders of this organization were eager to convince this reporter that Christians really don’t want to evangelize Jews. I countered them by saying that indeed they did. The reporter asked why Christians care so much about Jews since Jews are so rude and unkind to Christians. Later writing his article, he attributed that remark to me as a statement that Jews were rude and unkind. Before the article was published, I pointed out this mistake, but they printed it anyway and the damage continues.
For those of us who love him, Jesus is our example. He made himself of “no reputation.” When falsely accused, he never opened his mouth. God is in charge of our reputation and it is His opinion that ultimately matters. Still…it hurts to be falsely accused. Bob Thomas, former tough-guy kicker for the Chicago Bears wept after that decision in Kane County.
I’ve shed my share tears over cruel words spoken, but I know this truth: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name’s sake.” I know that Bob Thomas, like me wouldn’t trade all the acclaim of men for the approval of the giver of life.
Still…I’m glad he won. And maybe the Father of Lies has had his knuckles wrapped...at least for a moment.
