North Cook News

The editor of an Illinois economic research and commentary website told critics to “put up or shut up” after a trustee called the site a “political propaganda paper” during an open board meeting last month.

Wirepoints.com founder and executive editor Mark Glennon posted an article on the website earlier this month lambasting Maine Township Trustee Kimberly Jones and other would-be critics who “offer nothing beyond name-calling,” after Jones said the site was not a legitimate newspaper and should not be brought up in a government body.

Jones' comments were made in regard to a February article questioning the township’s payroll and tax ratio. Glennon took issue with Jones’ comments because the website claims to be non-partisan with a focus on economic and government policy from a fiscal realist perspective.

Maine Township Trustee Kimberly Jones

“We spend extraordinary amounts of time trying to get our facts and numbers right. We use original sources and link to them whenever possible,” Glennon wrote. “We routinely publish opinions and analyses we don’t agree with.

“Our work has been cited approvingly in Barron’s, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and many other publications.”

Glennon also pointed out that the website’s employees eschew campaign activity and political support.

“We make no effort to hide our contempt for politicians, both Democrats and Republicans like you, who stand against reforms needed to restore Illinois and its municipalities to financial stability,” he wrote in the article.

The website also goes to great lengths to ensure accuracy in its work and corrects any errors they find, he said.

“If we get something wrong we correct it, though I’m proud to say we’ve published nothing with a material error I know of in the five years we’ve been around, despite the complexity of what we cover,” Glennon said.