Saturday, July 17, 2010

All the news talk radio says is fit to print?

I'm so old I remember the days when what was in the morning newspaper used to drive news coverage on radio and television. The paper set the agenda, and the other media played catchup.

For some time now, at least in Milwaukee, the shoe has been on the other foot, with talk radio campaigning, often successfully, to get the Journal Sentinel to cover stories they ordinarily wouldn't because they are marginal or, in some cases, not news at all.

Charlie Sykes on WTMJ-AM, owned by the same company as the newspaper, has had more success than Mark Belling on WISN-AM at pressuring the paper to cover things. A few days of Sykes ranting about something he thinks is important, with claims the paper is covering it up because of some liberal bias (right!) is often enough.

The whole scenario took a definite turn for the worse this week, however, when Belling aired what was a non-story in anyone's book: Tom Barrett's campaign manager is driving a car with expired license plates. Oh, the horror!!! And that's not all. He might even have an unpaid parking ticket or two. Can you imagine???

Clearly, with that kind of scandal rocking his campaign, Barrett should quit the race right now. It's only a matter of time before he does. How could the voters possibly trust him after that expose?

The Journal Sentinel got a tip about this non-story and correctly ignored it. So far, so good.

But Belling yelled about it, and the posse of right-wing trolls who now comment on every JS story began commenting on other stories, asking about the "coverup" of this blockbuster.

So what did we get? A long blog item by Dan Bice on the newspaper's website, explaining and defending the paper's decision not to write about the non-story.

As it if needed an explanation. And now they have written about it, even though it is not (yet) in the print edition. Bice says he wrote the blog item because his editors asked him to.

When Mark Belling and anonymous commenters on the JS website decide what's news and what isn't, we are in serious trouble. That's even worse that Managing Editor George Stanley deciding.

By the way, we're still waiting for the explanation of why the major gaffe in Ron Johnson's TV commercial has not gotten one word in the newspaper, while other news outlets have found it newsworthy.

And has anybody checked lately to see how long the grass is in Keith Gilkes's front yard? Just asking.

19 comments:

  1. That is the same way the left drives stories all the time...only their stories get written because left media always agrees with left fringe.

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  2. Sykes obviously taught him well on inflating one's sense of self-importance.

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  3. Anonymous 12:42,

    Yeah, that's why the MSM is covering Walker riding around in a new SUV and not a Saturn, and that's when he's not using a county car.

    Or why they have been all over the deferred maintenance at O'Donnell Park. Or the way Walker is blocking open records requests.

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  4. lol. There is a law about open records requests. If the requester is not happy with the request for records, timeliness or rejection, the state makes every recourse available through the courts to rectify this. Or is this just another non-story...

    I see you are still flapping the straw-man deferred maintenance with a local tragedy hoping to make it stick.

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  5. And of course, those ORRs can be delayed until after an election, like Walker did to Riemer and his request for the proof that Walker had his people sign the pension waivers. He hadn't done so, so he stalled until after the election. Just think of the damage that could have been prevented if he was kicked out then.

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  6. If the delay is not justified in the eyes of the court, after a complaint is made of a delay, then this would be a huge story. Until then...

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  7. The court hearings can also be delayed. Walker is a pro on that too. There's been lawsuits languishing in the courts for years due to Walker's stalling.

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  8. lol, years of delays over FOI requests and the courts have also not acted on the same FOI delays? This would make a great story for you to uncover.

    It appears you are again wishing for something not there or you know absolutely nothing about a case you think you do, the obvious result is betting you are s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g to make a point.

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  9. Despite this fascinating exchange, Mr/Ms Anonymous has offered nothing to contradict the original post, except to claim some imagined left-wing media bias.

    If you read the paper every day, it's clear that is not what's happening at the JS. It's tilted the other way on the news pages, even though it has a "liberal" editorial page. I'd trade any day of the week and let the right wing have the edit page if we got a fair shake on the news side.

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  10. What news needs to be reported by them that you have not seen?

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  11. Anonymous is good for that sort of thing. He has mastered the art of circular logic as well.

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  12. Not mastered as in the sense that you have masted using false information and sidestepping of issues when proven wrong.

    Mastered in the sense that requests people provide information to back claims...

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  13. btw capper, still waiting for the expose article on courts not ruling on FOI requests.

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  14. Why do I need to do an expose on a proven fact. Walker's been nipped for it before. He will be again.

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  15. Thank you for proving my point.

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  16. Anonymous trolls are an essential weapon in the megalomaniac's tool kit.

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  17. Still waiting for that expose on FOI complaint taken to court that is suppressed and not ruled on...

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  18. I already answered to your silliness.

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  19. Cap you said "There's been lawsuits languishing in the courts for years due to Walker's stalling."

    Still waiting for these...you provided this when asked what FOI requests through the courts are stalled. So again, what cases?

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