Chicago City Wire

Radio host Dan Proft scorched the Chicago press corps for backing the refusal of TV stations to air an ad critical of the crime policies enacted by local and state Democrats.

Proft commented on stations taking down the scream ad after taking the $430,000 from him to air it.

“The press corps is….trying to obfuscate these more important quality of life issues like, your personal safety. More concerned about the tone or the shock value of a TV ad that I run than the comments of leading industrialists in the city. The comments from residents throughout the city every single day as you read the police blotter and you are horrified by the details of what's happening,” Proft said on the Sept. 16 edition of Chicago’s Morning Answer.  

Co-host Amy Jacobson said TV stations' refusal to air the ad was hypocritical.

“Now we don't want you to hear her screaming, although we've played this video a gazillion times on the air,” Jacobson said.

Proft further addressed the ad being pulled from the air.

“Just as a quick tangent,” Proft said.

“Yes. Since NBC 5, when they pulled the scream ad down then most of the other network affiliates that had been running it did too, because, of course, these general managers share a brain, of course, they move like a herd.”

“But here's the thing, and then I get moralizing. I get moralizing from like Dana Kozlov at CBS about, well, did you? Did you seek the victim's permission? And so on and so forth. You put it in the public domain, the news media put it in the public domain. Everyone ran that and they used it to satisfy their salacious. If it bleeds, it leads coda not to do any public service for the shock value.”

“Oh, and by the way, for the last week they took more than $430,000 of my, you know, alleged ‘blood money’ that they're now distancing themselves from to run the all approved the ad. It was running. That's how you saw it. And now it's. ‘Oh, whoa, whoa. Did you get the victim's permission?’”

“Did you? Did you ask for it? Did you find the victim? Did you exercise restraint and say, who is the victim? Let's find the victim. Let's get her permission before we air this on our newscast. Of course not. And frankly, that's not feasible if you want to do timely reporting on crime. I understand that but then don't come moralizing to me about something you put in the public domain that I connect to the actual policymakers that are responsible for the lawlessness and the endemic violence. That would be Pritzker and Lightfoot and Preckwinkle and Evans and Fox and and then you.

“‘Oh, tsk, tsk.’ This is what you have from this media which distorts people's worldview and understanding of what's happening, I'm sorry to say. So I just wanted to make sure they're folded into this conversation because these CEOs don't have the stones to talk about how bad the Chicago press corps is.”

The scream ad opens with a line flashed on the screen, “On a Sunday afternoon in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood…”

A woman is seen walking quickly down a residential street on a lovely day in the advertisement, when suddenly a car stops and three men get out to attack her.

As the victim wailed in pain, the attackers knocked her to the ground and kicked her.

“How much worse does it have to get?” the ad reads at its conclusion.

Proft's People Who Play By The Rules PAC has been focusing its messaging efforts on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s failures on crime.

In an interview Dana Kozlov, the reporter Proft named in his dialogue with Jacobson, ambushed him.

“Kozlov: "I'm here to talk to you about if you feel that it was the right thing to do ethically to use that video in an ad without getting the victim's permission, considering victims' advocates…”

“Proft: "I don't need their permission.”

“Kozlov: "I know you don't need it legally, but ethically – considering victims' advocates also say that its use – the use of that video – was abhorrent in this purpose.”

“Proft: "Like I said, when everybody's sensibilities are such that they're not going to broadcast acts of violence, then you can come back and talk to me. But until then, nope."

Proft’s ad is a warning against the Safe-T Act set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023.

The act will lead to the release of thousands of convicts who are now detained around the state while they await trial for major offenses.

Courts must move more quickly when processing those who are awaiting trial.

Those accused of the most heinous crimes, such as robbery, abduction, arson, second-degree murder, intimidation, aggravated battery, aggravated DUI, aggravated flight, drug-related homicide, and threatening a public officer, will be freed if the Safe-T Act is implemented as intended.