Belling Starts Digging That Hole Deeper

Yesterday, we discussed how Mark "Bombastic Boy" Belling dug himself into a bit of a hole with what could easily be conceived as an anti-Semitic remark. He was kvetching about the proposed Marriott Hotel and the delays in getting the proposal approved.

Instead of clearing things up like an adult, Belling takes the advice of Ron Johnson who said that if you find yourself in a hole, "start digging."

Since then, it made the local paper when reporter Tom Daykin brought it up. The key part of his post was Mayor Tom Barrett's response to Belling's bigotry:

Belling, Barrett told Horne, was “way off-base with his offensive comments. I was offended. There is no reason to bring someone’s religion into this debate and I think he owes an apology."

Today, Tim Cuprisin of OnMilwaukee.com picked up on the story. According to Cuprisin's report, Belling was anything but apologetic. Belling's rant about the issue was incoherent in itself. But the telltale mark comes at the end of Cuprisin's article (emphasis ours):

Belling repeated that it "may be neither here nor there," saying "It's what I meant and what I believed."

"I don't care what it sounds like I'm saying," he said. "I don't give three rips what it might lead people to think."

James Rowen, who has been covering this since the beginning, is also putting his two cents in.

Cuprisin Wrong On Mercure

When it was announced that John Mercure would get the afternoon drive time slot on WTMJ-AM, we had our doubts about it.

Today, on Mercure's first day, Tim Cuprisin did an article on Mercure. In said article, Cuprisin wrote this:

What it won't be is a show with a political point of view, like the programs hosted by Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner on WTMJ, and Mercure's main competition, Mark Belling on WISN-AM (1130).

"It will not have a political ideology. I want everybody to listen, and I'm going to go after Republicans as hard as I go after Democrats. It will not have a bent one way or the other."

Well, I will admit I only caught the last ten minutes of the show, but what I heard was Mercure gushing over Scott Walker, just as much as Sykes ever has done.

Mercure must have had chills running up and down his leg as he described how frugal Walker is, both with his own money and the tax payers money.

I guess the crack reporter failed to bring up Walker's $2000+ per month SUV.

Yeah, I don't think I'll be listening to that show too much.

H/T James Rowen

Drama Queen Harris Living Up To His Reputation

We pointed out last night that The Hip Muser, James T. (T is for tantrum) Harris, had a hissy fit and walked out on Earl Ingram just before he was supposed to go on the air for an interview.

Tim Cuprisin, at OnMilwaukee.com, picked up on the story. Cuprisin points out that Harris had put up a version of his story on his site:

"Earl lost his mind and BASHED the Beautiful Man on his show this afternoon. It was wild. I felt so sad for him. It was a pure emotional anger-filled rant worthy of a liberal. Of course, there is the back story ... But you will have to wait for that. It'll be worth it."

Beautiful Man?! A rather effeminate way to refer to oneself, but it does fit in with the Drama Queen title.

Anywho, Cuprisin expands on the story on how WMCS was not about to allow Harris to use his appearance to promote his own career. Cuprisin also included a sample video of the sort that Harris likes to post of some idiot literally screaming about NAACP, but not making much sense otherwise. (BTW, Mr. Yelling Idiot, the TEA Party does not represent all Americans. Many of us are trying to get our country out of the whole you dug us into, not drive it deeper down.)

To add to the fun, DQ then has another tantrum about Cuprisin reporting that he couldn't get a hold of Harris. How can that be? After all, Harris has an iPhone4. You know, the kind that Consumer Reports wouldn't recommend.

Harris claims that he finally spoke to Cuprisin, and that that article will be up on Monday. I can't wait.

Bad News For Milwaukee News

Jay Bullock reminds us when this town had two papers. The decidedly more conservative Milwaukee Sentinel, and the more liberal Milwaukee Journal, with its fabulous Green Sheet.

Then in the mid-1990's, the two papers merged to become the decidedly conservative Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They chose the wrong paper to emulate apparently.

Over the last few years they have suffered one dramatic cut back after another, the biggest blow to point was when they forced Stuart Carlson to leave.

Word is coming out at even more drastic cuts at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, now including the loss of Tim Cuprisin. Mike Mathias has even more here, as does Jason Haas.

I have often heard mention a growing belief that before long, MJS will follow many other papers and become only available on line. Even though I obviously have a computer, and would still have access, I would still miss the days of reading the paper over my morning bowl of Cheerios, or pointing out a story for my wife to clip for her scrapbook.

But with this new round of losses, and the fact that, if Mathias is correct, PaddyMac will still be around to torture us with his tortured logic, I will have to again ponder whether I want to finish this subscription, which lasts until next year, or take my money and run. After all, I am paying a lot of money for something that seems to becoming less and less worthwhile every day.

We at Whallah! would like to extend our sympathies to those hard working journalists that are being shown the door, whether they like it or not.

But I do have to point out that MJS had a golden opportunity to turn their fate around earlier this year and they blew it.

Oh, and Mr. Cuprisin, if you ever get bored, and want to keep your mad skillz intact, you always got a home here.

Mr. Take-It-To-Him Can't Take It Taken To Him

James T. Harris, who begged and pleaded for John McCain to ensure his failure on November 4th, had it taken to him during a live appearance on CNN. Harris, who prides himself on his tough guy image, belies that false front by storming off like a tantruming child when called out on his shilling for McCain. Courtesy of Dan Cody, here is the video:




Tim Cuprisin has the transcript of the tantrum on his blogsite.

I would have thought that a guy as tough as Harris wouldn't have a glass ego.

Another Nail In Talk Radio's TV Coffin

Almost a year ago, Channel 58 said bye-bye to Mark Belling's TV show. There was some buzz about it coming back, either on Channel 58, or on Channel 6.

Then Channel 12 was able to sign on Mike Gousha, who had a successful interview show on Channel 4. He is continuing his success, now around the state.

This morning, I noticed a commercial on Channel 58 for their return to the talk show on TV realm, with a program called "Eye to Eye". Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel also has a blurb on it in today's paper:

Channel 58 starts a weekly interview show this weekend. "Eye to Eye," hosted by Paul Piaskoski, airs at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, with a repeat at 9:30 p.m. Sunday on low-power sister channel WMLW-TV (Channel 41 over the air and Channel 7 on Time Warner Cable). Also premiering is "Racine & Me" at 7 a.m. Sunday on Channel 58's new "Me-TV" sister channel - Channel 49 over the air, Channel 19 on Time Warner and digital channel 58.3.

It would be pretty apparent that Channel 58 recognizes the changing expectations of their audience, from repetitive squawking to actual conversation with news makers on relevant subjects. This does not bode well for any hopes Belling had of making a return to TV.

Now we can only hope that Channel 4 gains the same insight and loses Sykes' Incite.

The Bobblehead Watch: Day 3

Tim Cuprisin writes that there are still no bids in on the Belling Bobblehead:

What? Still no bidders?

Luckily, those rebate checks will be coming in soon from Uncle Sam, producing vast pools of disposable cash to invest in Internet auctions, thus spurring economic growth.

But even better than Cuprisin's witticisms are those of his commenters:

You know Belling will buy it hmself if he knows you're watching it!

The only reason I would bid on a Mark Belling bobble head is so I could smash it with a baseball bat, a la Office Space.

The profile shots on Ebay make Mark look like he is being convicted of a crime.

And my personal favorite so far:

If Mark does not have his bobblehead what will do the thinking for him?

He Could Write For Whallah!

Tim Cuprisin is keeping us updated on the Belling bobblehead (yes, yes, I am aware that that is redundant):

There still are no bids for the Mark Belling bobblehead listed on eBay.

That could be because the starting bid is $44.99. It should have been priced a little more conservatively.

Ethics Matter

As demonstrated by yours truly and capper earlier this week, Kevin Fischer is no fan of ethics. Cindy Kilkenny over at Fairly Conservative has also done a great job of detailing all Kevin Fischer's foibles and ethical lapses, but today I want to take a trip in the Wayback Machine...destination 1996 (emphasis mine):

October 15, 1996, Tim Cuprison in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"Quit all the speculating out there about why reporter/ conservative commentator Kevin Fischer got fired last week by WTMJ-AM (620). Despite reading here that it had nothing to do with his political views, folks who saw conspiracies out there inundated my voice mail.

Well, as is the case with most companies, the Journal Broadcast Group won't talk about why Fischer was axed, except to say that it wasn't for anything he did on the air.

But nosing behind the scenes, it's clear that WTMJ management was concerned about a possible violation of the company's ethics code. While away on vacation, it seems, Fischer took a freebie to Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary celebration in Orlando, Fla., a huge media event. Fischer didn't file any reports from the bash. The next week, he lost his job. Word is that after Fischer was fired, WTMJ's radio news folks were called into a meeting and the ethics policy was restated to prevent a repeat of the situation. Fischer, by the way, won't talk about it. In fact, he angrily told me to stop typing what he said when I called him Monday afternoon, because he wouldn't talk to me on the record. He wouldn't talk off the record, for that matter. KUDOS FOR KEVIN: Meanwhile, big bucks consultant and conservative policy wonk George Mitchell wrote to Fischer's bosses praising his reporting style: "Kevin did not cloak his reporting or commentary with phony objectivity which characterizes so much of the print and broadcast journalism today. With Kevin, listeners got a clear and open expression of news and opinion. "They knew just where he was coming from, not unlike listeners to Paul Harvey, for example," Mitchell wrote. For the record, Paul Harvey isn't a reporter. He's a commentator."

So let's recap...

• Allegedly fired for violating ethics code at WTMJ? CHECK!
  
• Used more vacation time in 2006 than what he was alloted as a state employee? CHECK!
  
• Used more vacation time in 2007 - at least 46 hours worth - than what he was alloted? CHECK!

It's no wonder why Kevin Fischer says "Ethics Schmethics."

Vengeance Is Mine, Sayeth the McBride

Tim Cuprisin, a real columnist at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has posted a couple of items about McBride's role model, Ann Coulter. Coulter, following in the footsteps of Bill O'Really and Rush to the drug dealer Limbaugh, has come out with an indefensible smear, this time against Jews. Here, via Mr. Cuprisin's blog, are the videos and the transcript of Coulter's outrageous statements.

Surprisingly, McBride doesn't rise to the defense of Coulter. What she does instead is seek out a chance at revenge my mocking Mr. Cuprisin. In case the gentle reader has forgotten, Mr. Cuprisin is one of the people McBride has blamed for her downfall from hosting a squawk radio show. His sin was not defending her indefensible lack of taste.

It's good to see that McBride doesn't hold grudges and has moved on with her life.