Sykes' Slandering Should Cost TMJ Their License

Sometimes one comes across an article so good, you can't really improve on it. This week's Expresso in the Shepherd Express is one of those. With permission, here it is:

620 WTMJ doesn't own the airwaves.

It rents a frequency from the public, which owns the airwaves.

WTMJ's broadcast license is a privilege, not a right.

That's why it's so shocking that WTMJ's star talker, Charlie Sykes, continues to use the public airwaves to smear those who disagree with him and profit from the potential recall of Gov. Scott Walker.

Sykes, along with Brian Sikma of conservative phony “watchdog” group Media Trackers, pushed a false story about Sen. Lena Taylor's alleged role in aiding a felon to vote in the April election.

Sykes and Sikma didn't just allege it. They claimed the Taylor-as-accessory-to-a-crime story was true and ran with it.

Other Journal Communications properties followed suit. Four of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's ace reporters fleshed out the story, as did WTMJ-TV's Charles Benson.

The problem is that the story was false. The felon in question was able to vote in the spring election, as Dan Bice, who worked on the original Journal Sentinel story, finally reported this weekend.

Taylor is demanding an apology, and she should get one.

But Sykes and Sikma aren't backing down.

In fact, they're digging in.

Although Sykes and Sikma attempt to pose as credible pundits just looking out for the little guy, they are anything but credible. Their job is to hype stories, no matter how false, to inflame their audience. That gets ratings and attention in other media outlets. It also promotes their political agenda.

Sikma is a conservative agitator who uses social media to demonize Democrats. Media Trackers is an offshoot of the national tea party group American Majority, which gets some of its funding from the uber-conservative Bradley Foundation.

Many just argue that Sykes is hopelessly morally corrupt. Sykes and his wife are both bought and paid for by the Bradley Foundation, which has propped up Scott Walker's career through thick and thin. The head of the Bradley Foundation, extreme right-winger Michael Grebe, chaired Walker's campaign. Sykes doesn't care if his story about Sen. Taylor is incorrect because it feeds into the biases of his listenership, keeps listeners tuning in and drives traffic to his website, where he provides links to pro-Walker, pro-Charlie Sykes merchandise. We kid you not. Sykes is selling T-shirts, hoodies and other swag with the slogan “Unite to Reward Scott Walker: Charlie Sykes Radio Show. 8:30-Noon—620 WTMJ.”

If spreading outrageous lies and “uniting” with a political candidate for profit isn't enough of a reason to terminate WTMJ's license to broadcast on the publicly owned airwaves, then what is?

OK, there are two things to add after all.

One, not only was Grebe Walker's chair during the campaign, he is also pulling the strings on Walker's recall campaign as well. He's the one behind those false advertisements that have been bombarding our TVs for weeks already.

Secondly, if you want to help reclaim our airwaves, you can learn how here.

Not Just For The Week

The Shepherd Express finally got around to naming Charlie Sykes as their Jerk of the Week:

Our Jerk of the Week is talk-show host Charlie Sykes, who either just doesn’t get it or just doesn’t want to get it. The world is in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, and our new president has acted swiftly to address the issue with a strong stimulus package. Put simply, a stimulus package needs to get money into the economy so that goods and services are produced and people are employed. In turn, those people spend their salaries and create even more jobs. If people were paid to dig a hole and bury a newspaper, it would have the same stimulus impact because these shovelers would then spend their wages and create more jobs. If we are going to spend $787 billion, obviously we would like to get some real benefits for the money. This requires a variety of programs to quickly and effectively get the money working in the economy and addressing real needs. Economists across the political spectrum understand that direct government expenditures are far more effective than tax cuts because a portion of the tax cuts will not be spent. Actually, any college freshman taking Macroeconomics 101 understands this as well. But not Charlie Sykes, who is still arguing that this package will not stimulate the economy because it is a variety of Democratic programs. Charlie either doesn’t understand Economics 101 or he does and chooses to misinform his listeners. So, Charlie, are you dumb or just a liar?

Charlie was joking about it on his show this morning, asking if he got a plaque or something.

Well, since we know Charlie is so insecure, and needs these little doodads to have any sense of worth, the artists at Whallah! thought they would oblige by making a little sign for him, via Obamicon.Me:


He can hang it on the wall of his cubicle, along with the other "prize" he has earned:

Shepherding McBride

From the Shepherd Express's Expresso section:

McBride Continues Irrational Crusade: Former reporter and right-wing radio host Jessica McBride, never known for her deep sensitivity—she was one of the few hardhearted souls who mocked Parkinson’s-afflicted Michael J. Fox—is continuing her irrational crusade against illegal immigrants. But this time she’s using her UW- Milwaukee students as her trusty assistants.

McBride has been bashing immigrants for years now, knowing that she can inflame both sides of the political spectrum with her over-the-top attacks. First she used her blog. Then she was going to research illegal immigrants in the corrections system for the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Just after she announced her project, her husband, former Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher, started quoting stats on the very same topic during his failed campaign for state attorney general. Cory Liebmann, then blogging independently, pointed out the coincidence, and McBride dropped her project. Bucher lost in the primary to J.B. Van Hollen.

But the crusading McBride hasn’t given up on her misguided dream of demonizing immigrants—she’s just using her students at a public, state-funded university to advance her agenda. This past week, Frontpage Milwaukee, an online student publication, published an investigative piece on illegal immigrants in the corrections system. The paper’s faculty supervisor is—you guessed it—Jessica McBride.

Death of Liberal Press? Not Quite

McIlheran writes a post regarding the changes of the Capital Times. He starts out being decent enough, lamenting the loss of another paper and ink paper. But he quickly reverts to his normal attitude with his last paragraph:

Which says something about afternoon newspapers, or ink on paper, or, who knows, the appeal of "progressive" publications.

Perhaps McIlheran is too busy to drive around on all the snow-clogged roads to have noticed that the Shepherd Express has just celebrated its 25th anniversary as Milwaukee's leading liberal publication. Or maybe he's just being willfully ignorant again.