The Shadow hit back at the EYE for the item that ran last week about the questionable mix of motives (revenge, payola) that animates the Whirl’s profane political gossip column. The Shadow “trots” out allusions to a seamy mix of secret sources in an attempt to rebut the charge that one of the column’s key contributors is a paid consultant to Mayor Francis G. Slay (and other ostensibly respectable politicos) when he’s not operating under the foulmouthed and ugly cloak of The Shadow. No doubt The Shadow talks to pimps and cops, too. But a major contributor to the column has been on the payroll of the mayor, not to mention the happy tandem of Mike McMillan and Greg F.X. Daly.