Editing Mike Royko (section)

===Chicago Sun-Times===
When the ''Daily News'' closed, Royko worked for its allied morning newspaper, the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]''. In 1984, [[Rupert Murdoch]], for whom Royko said he would never work, bought the ''Sun-Times''. Royko commented "No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper," and that "his goal is not quality journalism. His goal is vast power for Rupert Murdoch, political power."<ref name=fish>{{cite book|last=F. Richard|first=Ciccone|title=Royko: A Life in Print|date=September 9, 2009|page=339|publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=9780786751976|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOeES8HTUFcC&pg=PA339}}</ref>  Mike Royko then worked for the rival ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', a paper he had said he'd never work for and at which he never felt comfortable.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XmGOt346misC&pg=PA124|title=Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters, and Windy City Oddities|first=Laura|last=Enright|date=July 6, 2018|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|isbn=9781612340340|access-date=July 6, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pOeES8HTUFcC&pg=PA16|title=Royko: A Life In Print|first1=F. Richard|last1=Ciccone|first2=Richard|last2=Ciccone|date=September 9, 2009|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=9780786751976|access-date=July 6, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>Terkel, p. 205</ref> For a period after the takeover, the ''Sun-Times'' reprinted Royko's columns, while new columns appeared in the ''Tribune.''<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.slate.com/id/23389/ |first=Jacob |last=Weisberg |title=I Like Mike, Why Royko of Chicago was our greatest columnist |work=Slate |date=April 11, 1999 |access-date=June 9, 2021}}</ref>

Many of Royko's columns are collected in books. He also authored ''[[Boss (book)|Boss]]'', his [[unauthorized biography]] of [[Richard J. Daley]], the 48th mayor of Chicago, and the father of [[Richard M. Daley|Richard]], [[William M. Daley|William]], and [[John P. Daley]]. 
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 = [https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/938/items/22276 Mike Royko talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT; 1969/02/26], [[Studs Terkel Radio Archive]]<ref name="studs">{{cite web | title =Mike Royko talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT; 1969/02/26 | publisher =[[Studs Terkel Radio Archive]] | date =February 26, 1969 | url =https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/938/items/22276 | access-date =September 29, 2016 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20161001182025/https://www.popuparchive.com/collections/938/items/22276 | archive-date =October 1, 2016 | url-status =dead }}</ref> }}

In 1976, a Royko column criticized the [[Chicago Police Department]] for providing an around-the-clock security detail for [[Frank Sinatra]]. Sinatra responded with a letter calling Royko a "pimp," and threatening to "punch [Royko] in the mouth" for speculating that he wore a [[toupée]].<ref>[https://lettersofnote.com/2009/11/30/youre-nothing-but-a-pimp/ You're Nothing but a Pimp] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603045758/https://lettersofnote.com/2009/11/30/youre-nothing-but-a-pimp/ |date=June 3, 2020 }} ''lettersofnote.com'' (November 30, 2009); retrieved April 18, 2020</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MXc6IS_OHrAC&pg=PA95 Royko Column, May 6, 1976], Mr. Sinatra Sends a Letter, reprinted in'' One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko''</ref> Royko auctioned the letter, the proceeds going to the [[Salvation Army]]. The winner of the auction was Vie Carlson, mother of [[Cheap Trick]] drummer [[Bun E. Carlos]]. After appearing on ''[[Antiques Roadshow (American TV program)|Antiques Roadshow]]'',<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-coming-up-monday-november-28th-at-87c-pm-madison-hour-1-1/ Appraisal: 1976 Frank Sinatra Signed Letter to Mike Royko] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801084146/https://www.pbs.org/video/antiques-roadshow-coming-up-monday-november-28th-at-87c-pm-madison-hour-1-1/ |date=August 1, 2020 }} ''Antiques Roadshow'' (airdate: February 15, 2010); retrieved April 18, 2020</ref><ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/madison_200903A49_ss.html#0 Antiques Roadshow Frank Sinatra Signed Letter] Retrieved December 3, 2011.</ref> Carlson consigned the letter to [[Freeman's Auctioneers & Appraisers|Freeman's]], which auctioned it in 2010.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2009/10/28/antique-inatra-letter/ "'Antique' $inatra Letter"] ''[[New York Post]]'' (October 28, 2009); retrieved April 18, 2020</ref>

Like some other columnists, Royko created fictitious [[persona]]e with whom he could "converse," the most famous being Slats Grobnik, a comically stereotyped working class Polish-Chicagoan. Generally, the Slats Grobnik columns described two men discussing a current event in a Polish neighborhood bar. In 1973, Royko collected several of the Grobnik columns in a collection titled ''Slats Grobnik and Some Other Friends''. Another of Royko's characters was his pseudo-psychiatrist Dr. I. M. Kookie (eponymous protagonist of ''Dr. Kookie, You're Right!'' [1989]). Dr. Kookie, purportedly the founder of the Asylumism religion – according to which Earth was settled by a higher civilization's rejected insane people – satirized pop culture and pop psychology. Through his columns, Royko helped make his favorite after-work bar, the [[Billy Goat Tavern]], famous, and popularized the [[curse of the Billy Goat]]. Billy Goat's reciprocated by sponsoring the ''Daily News's'' [[16-inch softball|16-inch softball team]] and featuring Royko's columns on their walls.<ref>[http://www.billygoattavern.com/history.html Billy Goat Tavern History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915070621/http://www.billygoattavern.com/history.html |date=September 15, 2008 }}</ref>

Royko's columns were syndicated country-wide in more than 600 newspapers. He produced more than 7,500 columns in a four-decade career. He also wrote or compiled dozens of "That's Outrageous!" columns for ''[[Reader's Digest]]''.{{citation needed|date = November 2020}}

By the 1990s he turned to national themes, often taking a [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] perspective on issues, including gay rights.<ref>Terry Eastland, ed. ''Forbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994: A Critical Review of the Media'' (1994) p 305</ref>