Plenty of blame to share in Mongo incident

In America, we're always looking for someone to blame.

That sure was the case at South Elgin's Riverfest Express last weekend. As a fundraiser it went kaput because of big egos, poor planning and people acting like children when they didn't get their way.

Former Chicago Bear Steve McMichael and South Elgin Village Trustee Bill DiFulvio had some type of spat at Riverfest.

We know this because McMichael left the festival instead of signing autographs to raise money for a South Elgin Jaycees haunted house.

DiFulvio, who headed a committee that planned the festival, wanted McMichael to move his autograph booth back to the craft fair area, as per festival policy.

McMichael, who also played for the Green Bay Packers in the 1990s with Brett Fav-rahh, didn't think the rules applied to him and wanted a better spot.

I interviewed McMichael's agent and the Jaycees' president, both of whom said the spat involved plenty of cuss words. In front of children, no less.

DiFulvio later called a Chicago morning disc jockey's radio show and McMichael joined in - both in full spin - claimed their little misunderstanding did not involve a shred of profanity.

So the natural reaction was to blame others. DiFulvio blamed the Jaycees, saying they planned the event poorly.

The radio personality didn't get the fireworks he wanted, so he proceeded to blame me and the Daily Herald for not getting the story "right."

(For the record, McMichael's agent and the Jaycees president are sticking to their stories).

The radio host also apparently had problems reading because he omitted the 'E' from my last name as well.

Back to the point: I should probably take more of the blame since I wrote about it. I mean, aren't there more important things to read about? Health care reform? Illegal immigration? The war(s)?

Then again, the most commented on and most read story that day was, you guessed it: Mongo vs. village trustee.

So are readers to blame? Editors?

Some people on the dailyherald.com message boards even blamed the fiasco on Elgin, even though South Elgin and Elgin are different towns. Nice to see the haters come out.

Reporters work to be fair, accurate and balanced. They do research and interview people to get information.

But the information can be incomplete or it can change as new information comes to light. When that happens, or if the opinion of someone in a story doesn't mesh with what the reader believes, it inevitably becomes the fault of "the media."

Or, as a story develops, people change their tune, backpedal, deny, say they "misremembered" something or find some other way to spin it.

Reporters don't carry lie detectors. But in this case, the baloney detector was certainly off the charts.

We know who is to blame for that.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=314386">Mongo leaves fest after dust-up with trustee <span class="date">[08/17/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>