Sunday, March 13, 2011

MJS Editorial Board: Consistently Inconsistent

Sometimes, one must wonder just what in the world goes on inside the offices of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Editorial Board.  Are they doing drugs? Are they not taking their medicine?  Maybe the board had been sacked due to budget cuts and replaced with chimps?  Whatever the cause, they just have not been doing well at all.

A few weeks ago, I pointed out that even though they said that Scott Walker and his cabal were on the right track, they turned around and said it was the wrong thing to do.  They also criticized the Wisconsin 14 who left the state in order to slow down the Budget Disrepair Bill, even though this action allowed people, including the board, the chance to see what a mess it was.

Their inconsistency continued this week.

First they wrote that the state Republicans did all sorts of questionable, if not outright illegal, things when they passed this maleficent bill:

Reason has taken a holiday in Wisconsin politics. Civility along with it.
In their place is a nastiness rarely seen in a state that long has believed in good government as a guiding principle.

Republicans got what they wanted Thursday: a flawed and divisive bill that strips public employees of most of their ability to bargain collectively. Gov. Scott Walker's party may now reap the whirlwind.

[...]

Senate Republicans acted rashly Wednesday night when they hustled the bill through that body in a matter of minutes. Senators may have violated the state's open meetings law by their actions. But even if they did not, giving less than two hours' notice for a bill with such broad ramifications is irresponsible governance.

[...]

But Republicans should not have stripped unions of their other rights. And they should not have exempted their political friends in public safety unions. They could have broken the bill into parts and considered the most contentious elements separately. Instead, they put their own members at grave political risk, and they have touched off a conflict that will not end with one singularly acrimonious vote in the Assembly chamber. In fact, it is only beginning.
Yet, despite calling the Republicans' behavior as irresponsible and that they should never have stripped people of their rights, they go on to write that people should just live with the injustice, to be good little serfs and not fight for justice or their rights:
People are angry; they have flocked by the thousands to Madison to express their anger. 
They're upset with Democratic senators for leaving Madison or with Republican senators for trying to gut the collective bargaining rights of public employees. They want to throw the bums out at the earliest possible opportunity. The recall efforts target every senator eligible for recall.
We get all that. But none of it warrants a recall. 
Disagreements over policy matters should be decided at regularly scheduled elections, which happen every four years for senators. That's plenty of opportunity to voice your disapproval with an elected official.
Got it? According to the MJSEB, even though the Republicans were irresponsible and shouldn't have done what they did, they shouldn't be held accountable.

On a related note, it's now been four weeks since I cancelled my subscription to their paper.  I've also dropped the paper from up north which is also published by Journal Communications.  I haven't missed either one.

And I'm not alone.  In fact, there is a Facebook group urging people to drop their subscriptions  to the paper which apologetically endorsed Scott Walker even though they had been and still are writing about every reason Walker shouldn't be elected as dog catcher.

And the folks at MJS only have to their editorial board to thank for the drop in circulation.  After all, they've been telling us for months now on how we all need to cut back on our spending.  I, for one, things that by ending our subscriptions is the most appropriate place to start.

1 comment:

  1. The milwaukee journal sentinel is one of the worst rags out there today. I've met a couple of the editors and they are d-bags of the worst kind. A daily newspaper is out of date anyway by the time it is delivered. Why would anyone want such a waste of paper and trees?

    The idea that citizens should wait till the regular elections to change elected officials is total bullsh_t. Recall now for the asshats and next January for the governor.

    Cancel your subscription if you still are wasting your money supporting these enemies of the people.

    ReplyDelete