One of my favorite midwinter rituals is when Richard Edelman, CEO of the Chicago-based global PR firm that bears his name, returns to town to report on who we trust and who we don't.
Look, we don't trust the government very much. Not just here in Illinois – which gives us good cause for disbelief seemingly on a daily basis – but worldwide.
Government is seen as both the least ethical and the least competent of four major categories. The media is next in line as the least trusted. At the other end of the scale, businesses and non-governmental organizations enjoy substantial respect for ethics and competence.
On the horizon is artificial intelligence, a disruptive technology with great potential yet shaking the foundations of trust around the world. Edelman told a packed room at the Executives' Club of Chicago last week that artificial intelligence could be at a tipping point.
If AI coders, strategists and advocates aren't careful, an underlying skepticism or even fear could be created that can be hard to undo, Edelman warned.
“With 2-to-1, people don't trust the pace of innovation,” Edelman said. “They are nervous that it is poorly managed. They see the lack of transparency. They feel that the impacts are not being considered and they don't see that there is enough government regulation.”
He drew comparisons between artificial intelligence in its infancy and what happened to genetically modified organisms in the 1990s. GMOs never came close to achieving their potential: Skeptics labeled them “Frankenfoods,” and the category never regained its popularity. consumer confidence.
A surprising side note about the Edelman Trust 2024 Barometer, one online survey of more than 32,000 people around the world, is that the Midwest is the least trusted region in the U.S. Edelman cites globalization's devastating impact on job security as a key factor.
Look even further into our state, and there is one particular aspect of life here that causes a lack of trust: the unethical and downright illegal behavior of government officials.
Days after Edelman spoke, Tim Mapes was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison for lying to federal investigators. Mapes was a longtime key aide to then-House Speaker Michael Madigan and lied to the G-men instead of telling the truth about his political boss.
Madigan is awaiting trial on public corruption charges after four associates were found guilty in an influence-peddling scheme involving ComEd and other companies with state business.
The former Ald. Ed Burke, once the powerful dean of the Chicago City Council, is now awaiting sentencing for corruption that rocked businesses before the council to sign them on as clients of his real estate law practice.
These are just the marquee names. There are dozens more: In Chicago alone, more than 30 mayors since 1972 have been convicted of crimes related to their official duties. The wide-ranging federal investigation targeting Madigan has drawn other elected officials.
By the way, not all trust-busting behavior is illegal in Illinois. Sometimes, as the saying goes, the real scandal involves what is completely immoral but still legal.
One such case is shaping up for one of the lesser-known offices in northern Illinois: the Cook County Board of Supervisors. The dark agency has remarkable power. Can reverse property valuations from the Cook County Assessor. The board has reversed several assessment increases by Fritz Kaegi, the reformist technocrat elected first assessor to succeed Joe Berrios in 2018.
Sitting on the board, and running for re-election, is Larry Rogers Jr. And Rogers is willing to accept campaign payments — to the tune of $135,000 in the last year — from people who have businesses before the board. The Tribune detailed Rogers' conflicts of interest, as well as Rogers' explanations for why he sees no problem doing business that way, in a story this week.
One Rogers donor was Matthew Tully, an attorney who made contributions before and after he represented the Chicago Bears before the Review Board. Tully argued that Kaegi overreached when he appraised the former Arlington Park track property for $197 million — essentially what the Bears paid for it.
The Cook County inspector general in 2015 recommended a ban on soliciting or accepting campaign contributions from people with businesses before the Board of Review. For nearly a decade now, commissioners have ignored that advice and kept their palms open for tips, in the form of campaign contributions that might flow their way.
In 2018, when the county Board of Ethics found that commissioners had not complied with legal limits on the size of campaign contributions from people appearing before the board, Rogers returned $48,750, the Tribune's AD Quig reported. Not to worry about Rogers, though: The Tribune found that many of the donors gave the returned capital to a political action committee of which Rogers is a member.
Midwesterners have many reasons to distrust government. Here in Illinois, with former public officials facing prison terms and lax ethics rules that allow Rogers and others to flaunt their indiscretions, we come to our disbelief the hard way—from bitter experience that seems to come to us, some times almost without end.
David Greising is president and CEO of the Better Government Association.
