Unbiased News Director Calls For Massive Boycott of Liberal Madison

By Jeff Simpson

Ken Herrera, The NEWS Director of NEWStalk1130 AM on the public airwaves in Milwaukee, had this to say about Madison, WI(when a judge overturned the so called right-to-work law:

"No surprise here...it's a Dane county judge...I am happy to say that in the 12 years I have lived in Wisconsin...I have never...and will never, set foot in Dane county. I don't want to spend even one penny in that liberal bastion. It's sort of a personal thing..but my wife and I agree we will never enter Dane county as long as we live. We have actually taken routes WAY around the county to avoid giving money to the libs who have businesses there...this has been my personal boycott for as long as I've lived in Wisconsin...and I'm quite sure I will never, ever spend a penny in Dane county...because I will never, ever visit... I wish every conservative in the state would adopt the same pledge... avoid this county... when you spend money there you are only helping the liberal cause..."

 Here is more about the guy who will never enter Dane County as long as he lives:

I’m one of those people who got into radio right out of high school. A brief stint at the Columbia School of Broadcasting back in 1977 and the next thing I knew, I was “on the air” in Port Arthur, Texas! That’s where my real education began as I ended up as a news person at a station that, in 1978, was purchased by Clear Channel Communications. Talk about the circle being complete! My career started at iHeartMedia (they only owned stations in TWO markets back then, San Antonio and Port Arthur) and, hopefully, it will end with iHeartMedia.My wife and I chose to live in Wisconsin because we absolutely love it here! We could easily be living in any other state in the nation but of all the places we have lived in our 40+ years together, none has made us as happy as Wisconsin. We plan to retire here and often joke that our home in Thiensville IS our legacy to our two sons, Joseph and Chris.

I would point out that a possible cure for the Zika Virus comes from the liberal bastion that he hates so much, which is important since the GOP that he loves, is playing politics with actual funding of the ZIKA virus to help all Americans.   However, our friends at Political Heat explained how devastating an actual boycot of Madison would be to the whole state.  Typically in WI these days, our friends on the right do not have much interest in actual economics when they have the opportunity to advance their ideology.

The reason I wanted to point this out again, is to show what kind of "news" that the people in the Milwaukee area are subject too.  There is a reason the people in the WOW counties vote so overwhelmingly red.  It is out of fear a steady diet of BS.   When a blatant unapologizing right winger is a "news"director at a major radio station on the public airwaves, it is no wonder many people do not understand what is actually happening in WI.

Herrera responded on the Devils Advocate facebook page with this little rant.


Ken Herrera No... it's a personal boycott...to answer your question about whether my personal beliefs interfere with my news judgment.. The left is always holding boycotts that are highly publicized.. mine has been, until now, a quiet, personal one that has nothing to do with my selection of news stories to run...or the "slant" of any story. I think any listener to WISN will know I run stories that are pro-left.. and anti-left just as much as those that are pro-right or anti-right. I just personally don't agree with much of what the left holds out, so I choose, as an individual, not to contribute my money to the left. That's just a personal decision and has nothing to do with my profession... one I have followed for almost 40 years now and I believe you won't find anyone in the country who would question my ethics as a journalist. Except, of course, you... based on a simple Facebook post. But I'm not surprised because that's usually the way folks on the left operate...

There are a couple of claims in his little rant, besides the fact that he is not biased at all just ask him, that are open to question.

1.  Any listeners to WISN know i run stories "pro-left" : Not enough Google in the world can find one though.   Unless of course he considers "waffle art" to be his contribution to the left.

2.  You wont find anyone in the country who would question my ethics as a journalist.

I found one:

    I worked with news and sports hosts, too - Robb Edwards, Jon Belmont, Ken Herrera, Jonathan Green, Len Kasper, Bill Michaels - to help them craft ways to sound human and "real" behind the microphone without violating the separation of church and state that existed between the station's talk and news programming. Sometimes I succeeded. Sometimes I didn't.

    And we were successful, consistently ranking No. 1 among persons 12 and older and in the top five in the advertiser-coveted 25 to 54 demo. Yet I was often angrily asked, once by then-Mayor John Norquist, why we just didn't change our call letters to "WGOP." The complaints were just another sign of our impact.

Also, in a huge bit of irony, Mr. Herrera's twitter feed is full of complaints abut the "liberal media".  

Now we know that "news"talk 1130 is just another arm of the far right wing contingent in Milwaukee and any story coming from them should be taken with a HUGE grain of salt.



Mr. Herrera's contact info:

Call: 414-799-1130
Email: KenHerrera@iheartmedia.com

Chad Vader - Voter ID!

Love, Hate or Satire?

By Jeff Simpson

I need a little help from our readers!   I recently posted this blog on Forward Lookout, another blog I use for more Dane County happenings.   Where I pointed out that this sums up why I left the Catholic church:



Like Clockwork, Dave Blaska came to Vicki Mckenna's defense(apparently she is unable too) and in our discussion,  I pointed out that when she organized her rabid supporters to show up in New Berlin and hand out pacifies to teachers who wanted a say in their workplace, that showed the hatred and vitriol that Vicki Mckenna(Pyzinski) exhibits on a daily basis.  Also that the Bishop of the Catholic church should follow Jesus's teachings and not support this kind of hatred. 

Mr. B said it was not hatred at all but "satire" 

I will let you decide  

Hatred or Satire?   

Walker's Contribution To Dane County Airport

The good news is that 2012 was the second best year for passenger traffic for the Dane County airport.

The bad news is that it only happened because of all of Scott Walker's junkets across the country to do fund raising for his recall and his legal cooperation fund.

Without those trips, the airport would have had their worst year ever.

Comparatively Speaking, Walker Comes Up Short In His Comparisons

There has been much discussion about politicians using social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, as a tool to get their message out to a whole new group of people. Some politicians are doing very well at it and some are just really fumbling around, shooting themselves in the foot more often than not.

Scott Walker has managed to do both at the same time, especially on Twitter. His campaign team has a good system going when Walker, or more likely, one of his aides de camp, tweets something. The others retweet it, spreading it as far as they can. This gets the message out to as many people as they possibly can.

Often, a person might be following multiple people from the campaign, causing them to see the message over and over, hammering the point across.

Very effective stuff, really. That is as long as the original message is on target. But as we all know, Walker very often gets tripped up on his own spins, such as his countless flip-flops and reversals on the stimulus money.

In the last two days, there have been two more examples of this.

Yesterday, Walker (or one if his aides) pointed out an "interesting column*," and added that Tom Barrett's spokesman was wrong on whether Walker increased taxes.

In the referred to column, the issue Walker argues against is this:

But Barrett spokesperson Phil Walzak shot back, saying "In nearly every single one of the County Executive's budgets, he has proposed a higher property tax levy than the year before. ... When it comes to holding the line on taxes, Walker simply doesn't walk the walk."

When Walker first started this meme, it was that he never raised taxes. That was shot down in short order by his critics and Walker altered the meme to be that he never raised the tax levy from the year before.

And this is where Walker's comparison falls short.

Walzak was comparing apples to apples, namely proposed budget to proposed budget. Walker, on the other hand, is comparing apples to oranges, in which the apple is his proposed budget and the orange is the actual budget.

Let me explain what I mean.

Every year, Walker introduces a budget based on the previous years budget. The County Board then takes the budget, and with the exception of this year, fixes it, usually with a 2-3% increase in the tax levy. The next year, Walker introduces his new proposed budget, including the tax increase. By including that tax increase, his proposal is higher than the previous year's proposal.

By including that tax increase, Walker belies his own statement by showing that he found the previous year's tax increase to be acceptable, otherwise he wouldn't have included it in his proposal. Without fail, Walker has done this every year as County Executive.

Earlier today, Walker did his second misstep when he tweeted

"Interesting how Dane Co had a deficit & Milwaukee Co had a surplus. Both counties face similar issues."

He included a link to this article from the Wisconsin State Journal.

The article reports that Dane County's general fund was $2.8 million in the red. Since they had already had a few million in the fund, that means that Dane County actually blew through about $7 million more than they were planning.

On the surface, it looks like Walker has a valid point. But a quick reflection on events over the last 18 months shows otherwise.

While it is bad that Dane County ended up in the red as they did, let's expand that comparison:

• Walker's deficit is actually nearly $1 billion when one adds up what is due to the pension fund, the park repairs and infrastructure repairs.
• Walker's current budget has a $17 million hole in it, which will almost double if and when the UWM Foundation, the private land developers that want to ruin the county grounds, can't come up with the money to purchase the land.
• Dane County hasn't had the state take over any of its program's; Walker did with the Income Maintenance Program
• Dane County's unemployment rate in January 2010 was 6.3%; Milwaukee County's rate has been hovering near the 10% mark.
• Dane County's transportation system is doing well; Walker has already cut 20% of Milwaukee County's mass transit and this year is facing a very perilous future where a third of what is left could be cut.

The list could go on and on, including the rash of problems at the Behavioral Health Division, Walker's problems with the House of Correction before he passed it off onto Sheriff Clarke, the crumbling courthouse, dirty toilets, etc.

The question boils down to what is more important, having a surplus, or being able to meet the needs of the constituents. One can clearly see from his entire approach as County Executive that Walker does not consider the needs or desires of the people to be his top priority.

When Walker's record as County Executive is compared to Tom Barrett's record as Mayor of the City of Milwaukee, the contrasts are even clearer, and not in Walker's favor.

The question we will have to answer this fall is also a comparison or sorts. Namely, do we want to pay for tax cuts to the rich, as we would with Walker, or do we want to pay for services we would actually receive. Either way, we will pay, the question is for what.

Which do you think would be the greater value?

*Why is it that whenever an article mentions any politician, they find it "interesting?"