WI Media Fail - Updated

By Jeff Simpson

One of the many reasons that Scott Walker has been able to run roughshod over our great state is that the Wisconsin Media, who are entrusted to bring us the unvarnished truth to keep our democracy going, has let us down.   

Let's look at a couple recent examples. 

1.  Scott Walker announced, what everyone knew, that he would be running for a third term in office.  The Capital Times had the story:

"For me, it really doesn't matter who comes out of that primary; it’ll be more of the same," Walker said. "It’ll be about as clear a contrast as you can get between continuing to move forward or moving backwards."
What gives Walker pause, he said, is not the candidates running against him, but the national groups that will likely spend money in hopes of defeating him. Those include the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, backed by former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder, and the Service Employees International Union.

Let's take a quick look at the Recall:

The top outside groups for Walker were:
Right Direction Wisconsin, created by the Republican Governor's Association (RGA), which gave $8.7 million.
Billionaire David Koch, one of the main backers of Americans for Prosperity. He gave $1 million to the RGA.
Americans For Prosperity (AFP), a conservative group linked to David and his brother Charles Koch, spent $3 million. Tim Phillips, president of Americans for prosperity told CBS News that beyond airing ads, his group sent 75 trained staffers into Wisconsin to knock on doors for Walker.
In addition, AFP spent $7 million promoting Walker's agenda last year, launching an ad campaign just two days after the governor introduced legislation ending collective bargaining for public unions.
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce), spent $2 million for Walker.
The anti-union Center for Union Facts spent $1 million, the National Rifle Association spent $800,000, and the Tea Party Express spent $400,000.

Apparently, national groups spending money FOR Scott Walker is to be expected and logical, national groups spending money against him....that makes him aghast he does not quite understand that.     We will never know because during the interview with the Cap Times, no one dared question him on the fact that he has been the recipient of an incredible largess of spending from outside groups but he is worried that it might be too much for him to overcome in a bid for re-election.   

When you put that in a story, without challenging it, you are essentially taking dictation.  

2.  The Wisconsin state Journal allows a republican ridiculous attack on Tony Evers.

Ever since State Superintendent Tony Evers launched his gubernatorial campaign, Republicans have been hammering him over his role in a 2009 case that rocked a Dane County school districtinvolving a middle school teacher who looked at pornography during school hours.
Republicans last week and again on Monday used the case to argue that Evers, who did not revoke the teacher’s license, is unfit for the job he wants to take away from Gov. Scott Walker, and there’s no sign the issue will go away before the August primary election.

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it does it make a noise? 

If the WISGOP tries to make an issue of something that is complete and utter Bullshit is it an actual issue?  

That is a question we will never know, because every time the WISGOP through something against the wall, the Wisconsin Media cant regurgitate it enough.   

The issue will not go away, because every time the WISGOP brings it up, the media will continue to report it and get "both sides" like it is a legitimate issue.   

To be fair here to Molly Beck though, she did go into detail why this story is BS: 

Evers maintains he didn’t have the legal authority to revoke Andrew Harris’ license because the teacher’s actions didn’t involve children — a “loophole” in state law he worked with lawmakers to fix in 2011 because of the case.
“It did not fit the law,” Evers said on Friday, dismissing the continued criticism of his decision. “So, therefore we recognized the problem and we fixed it by working with legislators to change the law.”

Tony Evers had no standing whatsoever, under the law, to revoke this teachers license and the fact that Scott Walker asked him to, to score political points shows Walkers ignorance and lack of respect for the law.    

Evers then worked bipartisanly with the legislature to get the law changed so in the future he could.  

Although since this happened, the legislature was so worried about cases like this they extremely relaxed teacher licensing guidelines.   

After a long drawn out process, and after it went through numerous court systems, this teachers firing was overturned to a suspension  The teacher is now still in the district, in a new position, at a different school and the district is happy to have him back:

Meanwhile, the district that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire H**** now backs him and challenged Republicans’ suggestion that children are unsafe in his classroom because of Evers’ decision.
“We are absolutely not concerned. The case was never about that,” Middleton-Cross Plains district spokesman Perry Hibner said, adding the teacher “has done great work since his return, as his students and their families will attest. We have moved ahead and our focus continues to be on making sure every student feels included and inspired every day.”  

While the school district wants to inspire kids, the WISGOP of Leah Vukmir, Scott Walker, Mark Morgan, etc, do not care who gets hurt, or what the facts are they just want to make sure to score political points everyday.   

Let's hope that this story never gets put in the local media again after today and that the media stops printing the outright falsehoods for one side, as if they are credible reports that need to be addressed.   

Edit note - update:  What happens when the media fail, and do not bring people the news?  They become less relevant, and like most of corporate America, the execs make more money and the workers pay the price.   

The Wisconsin State Journal on Oct. 31 parted ways with two veteran journalists in the latest round of downsizing of the already bare-bones staff at the newspaper, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
Photo editor Steve Apps and assistant city editor and Beer Baron columnist Chris Drosner confirmed to Isthmus they are no longer employed at the newspaper. Both declined to comment further, citing the terms of their separation agreements.  

Law to seize assets cheats Wisconsin seniors

This op-ed from Melissa Sargent appeared in the Cap Times recently:

A long-married, loving couple who live on their fourth-generation family farm has just learned some terrible news — the husband has a terminal illness and must go into long-term care, supplemented by Medicaid. While this family has paid taxes all their lives to help fund Medicaid, they must make a difficult decision. Should the husband and wife get divorced, so that the state of Wisconsin cannot seize their farm after the husband passes away? Yes, this is the reality in Wisconsin since a provision was snuck into the state budget at 3 a.m. with no public testimony.

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration along with his Republican allies in the Legislature got the green light Sept. 18 to allow the state to seize a deceased couples’ joint property to recoup Medicaid expenses.
In other words, if you are a senior citizen receiving Medicaid assistance and you pass away, your living spouse could lose assets that you owned together. In many cases, married couples share ownership over property, real estate, and even businesses. Increasing the state’s ability to take these resources from elderly citizens is simply wrong.

Before Republicans changed the law, the home, vehicle or business of a spouse of a person receiving Medicaid was generally not subject to recovery by the state.

The vast majority of these situations are people who played by the rules and then had something bad happen to them at the end of their lives. We are double-taxing people who by circumstances out of their control ended up in long-term care.

While federal law does require each state to have an estate recovery program to reclaim Medicaid money spent on long-term care, the GOP has decided to triple down on this to earn revenue for the state on the backs of our senior citizens.

I have heard from numerous constituents as well as elder care representatives who have stated that this provision could have drastic, unintended consequences. First, it may leave the remaining spouse destitute. It is in no one’s interest to bankrupt the surviving spouse.

Second, this could lead to elderly couples getting divorced to protect their assets. The Republican Party, which champions family values, should denounce this policy as anti-family and put a stop to it immediately.
Finally, it could become more difficult for children to inherit the family farm, business, or property. These things, which parents have worked for their whole lives in order to give their children a better life, could be gone at the government’s hand.

This policy does not reflect the shared values of Republicans or Democrats in Wisconsin. It is an attack on our most vulnerable citizens when we should be supporting them. I hope that Walker and the Department of Health Services reconsider this cruel policy, which would harm the elderly during the most difficult time in their life. It’s sad to see that the party of "limited government" and "family values" has created this massive government overreach which may well tear families apart.

Providing supportive care with dignity and without the fear of losing everything is the right thing to do.

Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, is a member of the state Assembly.

The Cap Times Tells A Joke

The impeccable Emily Mills brought to my attention that the Cap Times issued a mild reprimand to Charlie Sykes and the way he is still trying to besmirch the ongoing Walkergate investigation. Sykes has been after the investigation in earnest since he was outed as falsely claiming there were leaks coming from the Milwaukee District Attorney's Office when he damn well knew that the "leaks" were the defendants and their attorneys, since he's been the recipient of some of these leaks. In said reprimand, they slipped in a little joke (emphasis mine):

What we hope is that Sykes, whom we have respected as a serious and important commentator (even if we do not always agree with him) will be a bit more respectful of Chisholm and his investigators.

What an odd line to throw in there.

First, there is the fact that Sykes often has Brian Fraley on as a guest to his radio and TV shows, and uses the effluence spewed from the propagandist group MacIver Institute as "proof" of whatever point he is trying to make. Yet the Cap Times doesn't think that the MacIverites are necessarily serious or important commentators.

And Sykes is the same squawker who thinks making inferences that the Milwaukee County Executive, Chris Abele, is a pedophile is hilarious.

And who could possibly seriously take Sykes who openly admits to making stuff up without a stitch of evidence.

Calling Sykes a serious and important commentator is almost as big as a joke as Sykes is.

Cross posted at Whallah!