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In the 2007 failed lawsuit filed by the Save-A-Life Foundation (SALF) against me and others, Chicago Tribune reporters Julie Deardorff & Lisa Black were named as witnesses on behalf of SALF on SALF's Rule 26(a)(1) civil disclosures, 4/1/09: http://tinyurl.com/yeovfgr

The Tribune had previously published two booster articles by Deardroff about SALF and its founder/president Carol J. Spizzirri:

1/16/95, "Mother on a Mission" (a maudlin profile that resulted in a lengthy 2/7/95 correction of claims made by Spizzirri): http://tinyurl.com/yalng7z

Despite that embarrassing correction, Deardorff came back for more a decade later:

7/3/05, "CPR Activist Targets Kids as Emerging Heroes": http://tinyurl.com/ydw2fdk

A year later, on 8/11/06 Deardorff sent me this bizarre e-mail filled with outrageous, insulting, false & defamatory statements: http://tinyurl.com/yd9c247

Who was Deardorff's source for such nutty stuff? What (or who) compelled her to send such an hysterical message to me of all people?

Lisa Black and another Tribune reporter were reporting an article about SALF in early 2007, months after two hard-hitting ABC7 I-Team broadcasts by Chuck Goudie. The Tribune never published Black's article.

On October 11, 2009, the Tribune published an article by Black about the Save-A-Life Foundation (apparently entirely based on an interview with Carol Spizzirri) that discussed the 2007 lawsuit. In the article, Black failed to disclose that she was a named witness by SALF: http://tinyurl.com/yztr2jg

Also, in an article about the status of SALF, Black somehow failed to mention that a month earlier the charity had filed for voluntary dissolution as an IL corporation. Less than a week after Black's article, reporter Kevin Osborne accurately reported the information in Cincinnati CityBeat: http://tinyurl.com/ygq8s6j

Black knew that SALF had folded when she wrote her article. (Proof on request.) So why did she mislead Tribune readers? Why were Black & Deardorff named as friendly witnesses by the Save-A-Life Foundation? What's going on with these two reporters and their chummy relationship with SALF?

More documents from the lawsuit:
http://tinyurl.com/2rtazv
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http://tinyurl.com/yblpa2q