"Small Men Behind The Curtain"

What an apt description of local talk radio.

Harris Kane has the whole thing here.

The Clairvoyant Charlie Sykes

I didn't realize that Sykes could predict the future so adequately. The only thing he got wrong was the party.

Harris Kane explains.

No Honor Among Thieves

Charlie Sykes is a thief:

...stealing my material from Heartland Hollar.

Check out the whole post to get the details.

B.O.P.

Harris Kane, the clever blogger that brought us Waterboard for Walker, strikes gold again with B.O.P.:

Please join Heartland Hollar's B.O.P CAMPAIGN today and encourage the MJS to "Buy Out Patty!"

We would like to see Patrick McIlheran gone, so if he isn't laid off for contributing to the papers drop in revenue, then maybe they will at least "Buy Out Patty."

He also has a contest going on for the tweeter crowd. Read his post for the details.

McBride's Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Back Into Play

Bruce Murphy, editor of Milwaukee Magazine, came out earlier this week in a strong defense of Jessica McBride's journalistic integrity. Some on the right pounced on that, also coming to her defense.

Today, however, is a new day, and with that comes new developments. Such as Bruce Murphy stepping back from his defense of McBride:

I must regretfully agree with the vociferous objections of some readers. I think I was too defensive in reacting to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story reporting the affair between McBride and Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn. Worse, I am guilty of the same thing I accused JS reporter Daniel Bice of: I failed to do due diligence regarding the situation.

Specifically, I neglected to demand from McBride all of the e-mails between her and Flynn. I have now done that and was taken aback at what I received. The e-mails do confirm that, other than their one interview in December, McBride and Flynn never met face-to-face until May 1, at their now-infamous encounter at an Irish bar. (In fact, Flynn was using his office e-mail account until then, which suggests neither McBride nor Flynn thought they were doing anything wrong; these are all public records.)

But the e-mails also suggest the two got chatty and friendly – strictly through e-mail, granted, but it’s a lot of e-mail – as soon as McBride finished reporting her story on Jan. 5. I’m also not confident I’ve seen all the e-mail, as McBride couldn’t be sure she hadn’t erased some. That’s all rather disturbing.

But that ain't all, folks. Harris Kane, of Heartland Hollar, has been putting in some time considering a different aspect of this story:

The "official story" from the MJS hasn't been that she was precluded from covering Bucher "once they began dating," but rather that she was precluded from covering Bucher once they "learned" she was dating Bucher.

Here is what the MJS wrote last week, "When editors learned that she was dating Bucher, McBride was precluded by the company's ethics policy from covering stories involving the prosecutor, according to Journal Sentinel Editor Martin Kaiser."

There is a big difference between "once they began dating" and "when editors learned they were dating" unless you believe that McBride told her editors that she had begun dating the married and elected DA of Waukesha County at a time in 1995 when she wasn't covering him. Ya think?

Yet a third angle comes from Mike Mathias, who believes that the paper would be better off by getting an ombudsman.

Right Wing Radio Show Host Arrested

(Un)fortunately, it wasn't one of our local ones.

Heartland Hollar has the full scoop.

Help Wanted: Journalistic Babysitter

From Heartland Hollar:

We don't expect the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to provide a correction because of course to do so would be such a slippery slope that would amount to doubling their costs and creating an entire new paper to keep up with McIlheran. But we have a better idea (again), why don't they just fire the guy.

He is not only factually wrong more often than he is "right on," his "thoughts" have such a clearly narrow and shrinking appeal he makes bad business sense for a paper that is losing money. Any other worker who made this many mistakes would be shown the door.

What makes McIlheran so privileged, so entitled?

The least they could do is offer some "competition" on their own pages with an opposing (and accurate) view. Or they could simply provide the journalistic babysitting that McIlheran so obviously needs.

Read the whole post to see what Preview Paddy got wrong this time.

Double Standards

From Harris Kane:

Their theory goes something like this. "The media" has given more attention to the murder in Kansas because "the media" is biased against the shooter, a radical, right-wing extremist.

The problem with this false argument is that the shooter in Arkansas is a radical, right-wing, extremist too. He is Muslim-convert who has embraced the Islamic jihad, something the wing-nuts incorrectly believe is a "left-wing" movement. It's not, but that doesn't fit their frame so they all parrot the misinformation in order to have it fit neatly into their "media bias" whine.

Read the rest here.

Right On Is Wrong Again

From Harris Kane:

Saint Pat, who makes a living at the MJS trying to jump over his own elbow, with apparently no editorial oversight, tries to defend the Bush/Cheney incompetence and "ad hoc" approach to fighting terrorism by buying and selling twisted logic

Paddy Mac wants you to believe that we shouldn't close down Gitmo, prosecute those who have "waged jihad against us", and move them to Super Max prison in the US because the Bush administration turned innocent detainees into terrorists and released them overseas

At what point is the MJS going to be embarrassed that they are employing a ἰδιώτης?

McSykes: 23% Support Our Candidates

Citizen Kane explains.

Waterboarding For Walker

On his very first post at Heartland Hollar, Harris Kane nails it:

As you may know, Scott Walker is "officially" believing in himself as governor again (or did he ever stop) and he is going to need a lot of charity from people to survive his bloody primary against Mark Neumann.

Now it's one thing for Milwaukee's very own blowhard, Charlie Sykes, to post Walker e-mails on his blog and provide free radio airtime defending Walker's disastrous record and failed ideas, but it's quite another to show real support for Walker and the right-wing talking points.

That's why in our inaugural post at Heartland Hollar we would like to ask that you join our "Waterboarding for Walker" campaign.

Our first task is to have you pledge support for Sykes to follow Hannity's lead and agree to undergo waterboarding for charity- in this case, Walker's campaign for governor.

We can think of no better way for Charlie to use his Sunday Insight TV show to "stand up for what's right" and once and for all prove to everyone that waterboarding is not torture.

Read the rest here.