Why Is This Man Hiding?
What happened? That is not clear, because the principals all refuse to talk about it. But from various sources whose knowledge we admit is secondhand, we gather that Page was persuaded that Kane and Cunningham had become an expense too great to justify. It might be that members of the board of the Chicago Sun-Times, Inc., made this clear to Page directly–various members, in particular chairman Leonard Shaykin, a New York investment banker, had been observed around the paper in recent weeks. It might be that other executives told Page they would go to the board if he didn’t act.
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As anyone who speaks for the boss is bound to, Kane made enemies. Out in the city room, subalterns would wonder if some of what she said Bob Page wanted done was really her own wishes. And she gained a reputation for extravagance: “a lot of bread and circuses,” someone close to the operation said, and a little red car with a telephone in it that everyone assumed belonged to the company.
Piazza and Price are not Murdoch veterans. Piazza joined the Sun-Times when Marshall Field still owned the paper; he stayed on after Murdoch bought it because the opportunity came to take over operations. But he despised what the Sun-Times became under Murdoch and the paper is still too far from the mainstream to suit him. Like Page, he was one of the players who organized to buy out Murdoch, and he owns a percent or two of the company now. Price joined the Sun-Times from a top law firm in Cleveland.
Trib Goes for Gore
For about a year in 1971-72 Squires was city editor of the Nashville Tennessean and Gore was a young reporter. Then Squires quit to join the Tribune. “I’m not a close personal friend of Al Gore,” Squires told us. “I know his father quite well [Al Gore Sr., a former senator]. I know Jesse better than I know Al and I know Paul Simon probably better than I know Al. I have never been in a social situation with Al Gore in my life.”
They liked what Gore said about defense spending. “We said, ‘How are you going to handle defense expenditures?”‘ Squires told us. “And he said, ‘I’m going to try to get the NATO countries to pay to defend themselves. And Japan has to do the same.’ That’s a nice position. Clean.”
