When the Sun-Times decided to shrink its payroll in 1998 by firing Washington reporter Basil Talbott, former senator Paul Simon and future governor Rod Blagojevich both protested publicly, and Jesse Jackson called the editor of the paper. Jackson said afterward, "I wanted for the record for him to consider the moral consequence, the precedent." Would that work today? The Chicago Reader interviews a labor lawyer who's represented journalists for decades.