Uppity Wisconsin

Ninety percent (90%) of the opinion in the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (WCIJ) report on high speed rail is status quo, anti-public investment, and emphatically Cato Institute doctrine.

This essay presents eleven (11) charges that WCIJ failed their ethical principles. And twelve (12) characteristics of sloppy writing that denigrate journalism as a profession.

This blog^! is the fourth in a series about a WCIJ Report High Speed Rail broadcast on Wisconsin Public Radio July 22, 2009:

Part 1. The WCIJ Fraud. WCIJ falsified the conclusion in a US Government Accountability Office report.

Part 2. The WCIJ Virus - the Fraud over the GAO text has spread far and wide in the media.

... Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism Violates 3 Principles in its Code of Ethics....

A Series of Commentaries.

Introduction. Open Letter to WPR.

Part 1. The WCIJ Fraud.

Part 2. The WCIJ Virus.

Part 3. "Nobody Knows..."

WCIJ Screenshot

WCIJ Says Nobody Knows...

I point.

Notice the second sentence, beginning "Nobody knows..."?

This short sentence deserves attention but please don't quote it.

... Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has created a tenacious anti-rail virus, a "feathers-to-the-wind" media story that the U.S. Government Accountability Office is opposed to inter-city rail projects....

By Bill Sell

A Series of Commentaries.
Introduction. Open Letter to WPR.
Part 1. The Fraud.
(more to come)

Part 2. The Virus

Wikipedia:

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner.

I advocate for public transportation and so I am familiar with the benefits and limits of rail, and the proper role of government.

The efficiencies of bus and rail are well-known. WPR underwriter CSX touts that its trains can move 426 tons of freight on one gallon of gas. Even the old Milwaukee buses qualify:

One full bus takes 30 cars off the road reducing congestion and making the air healthier to breathe. That's comparable to a line of cars six blocks long traveling at 25 mph.

And so it happened, that when I visited the WCIJ website, I found myself staring in disbelief at what WCIJ calls the 'conclusion' in the U.S. GAO Report on High Speed Rail: I know the work of the GAO; and it commands respect.

Screen Shot of WCIJ Website

Part 1. UW Journalists Fabricate the US Government Accountability Office's Conclusion on High Speed Rail

... WCIJ finds a 'useful' phrase buried in the GAO report and represents those 17 words as the whole of the GAO report....

By Bill Sell

Introduction to this Series of Reports

Part 1. The Fraud

From Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism Code of Ethics:

Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.

Did they? Draw your own conclusion:

GAO Report

UW Journalists Violate Several Ethical Principles of Journalism, but WPR maintains partnership with WCIJ

Open Letter to Wisconsin Public Radio

...this July 22 radio program made me wonder about the ties that WPR has created to this group called the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism....

By Bill Sell

Introduction and Open Letter


Dear Wisconsin Public Radio

Re: "Questions remain as state pushes ahead with rail line," by Lexie Clinton of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, with Andy Hall and Jim Packard. Web: July 21 and Radio: July 22, 2009.

Water Panel Weak On Specifics

The Politics of Water. Thursday, May 21.

A panel ensconced by the Public Policy Forum in a Wauwatosa hotel, was strong on the language of cooperation, happy about the International Water Compact, and true believers in the new "work together" mood of our nation.

Michael Murphy,  Alderman from Milwaukee, spoke of the issues on which Milwaukee would like cooperation: affordable housing, transit, and economic development of distressed areas. What he might have added is some conceptual material - how all of these things work together in a healthy city. Unfortunately he did not bring to the table The Now Issue: why it is that Transit, today as they spoke, could be the most effective signal of cooperation from Waukesha (County and City). Nor did he suggest, and reasonably he could have, why Milwaukee officials are looking to a private, international water corporation for serious money after being rebuffed on many fronts in Madison over school funding, dedicated transit funding that brings federal dollars, and health care costs.

My Dear Republican

"While each member of the Senate caucuses with his Party, what each of us hopes to accomplish is distinct from his party affiliation. The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation."  ---Arlen Specter, on changing from Republican to Democrat, April 28.

April 27, I mail this letter to to the Republicans of the Joint Finance Committee.
April 28, Senator Specter resigns from the Republican Party.

=========================

Dear Republican Elected Official


I am a small-business owner of a nationally known service located in downtown Milwaukee. For over 30 years, I have observed your allegiance to the larger corporations and their needs, while generally you are condescending to us small business owners.

Your party puzzles me, locked into old issues that are evaporating as fast as stimulus funds from Washington.

My impression is that to a Republican a "small business" has revenues from 10 million and upward to the value of Marquette Electronics when it was sold to GE. (By the way, the former owner of that business is someone you should spend time with: he understands the connection between public transportation and local economies; his streetcar plan is a homerun for our city. )

A Response by Bill Sell

I appreciate that you have a difficult job in a day of when politics is sometimes hostile to practical, wise investment in our infrastructure. Many believe Transit is a luxury because, they say, “I have a car. I don’t need it.” And elected officials pander to that tune rather than educate the citizen.

Your MCTS Plan 2009, however, too, is lacking. If anything it is not bold enough. You are open to serious criticism while your opening position on Plan 2009 does not reach far enough. While I understand the need to accommodate many interests, ... more at  http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/BusesAreGreen/MCTSPlan2009

Word from Transit is their concern that the demise of Transit TV will leave Transit but 'no choice' except to find a substitute system.  As a bus rider, I have a better idea. 

Dear Drivers

One bus driver on Route 15 announces all the stops. It is a pleasure to hear his voice and it gives him a commanding presence that is reassuring about the service as a whole. Why we needed Transit TV was that Transit management gave up on its efforts to get drivers to announce bus stops.

They might have thought that TTV filled the bill, but it does not. It announced only major stops, skipping the dark corners one can barely discern from inside the bus.  Dark corners are the corners the rider needs to get right.

Drivers, please spare us another version of TTV and call the stops, all of them.

Your riders have gone to bat for you against the cuts, against the fare increases that would reduce your hours. We need you on this one. Shout the stops. We'll thank you.

I have been begging County Transit to abandon Transit TV for years. It is a noisy intrusion on a quiet ride. It offers scams to unwitting citizens. It was a blight on the Milwaukee scene - as if we were too cheap to provide our passengers with a quality ride - we had to infuse the bus with the worst of television and AM radio ("operators are standing by...").  It appears to have died at the hands of the Market. Thank heavens for the hand of the market. (never thought I could ever say those words.)

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/39205597.html?c=y&commentSubmitted=y

No one at Transit wanted to step forward and say the truth: this noisy nuisance was deterring the efforts to get passengers who can choose to ride the bus.  Let peace reign. Death to scavengers is good. Mercy killing is not always wrong.

best

Bill Sell

BusStop. Vote Yourself $43 Million Tax Relief

The November 4 Referendum On Transit, Parks And Emergency Services.

Attention Milwaukee: This is a Yes. Vote Yes.

This is real tax relief.

If we approve the referendum, we empower State government to deliver real tax relief. In two ways we are asking the State:

1. Please take these three services off of the property tax. Off. Removed. Gone. Vamoose. Forever.

2. Please shift these services to a one percent sales tax. Dear Governor, with your support we can collect $43 million from visitors to help pay for our city's needs.

"With a 'yes' vote, residents can send the message that community deterioration - which ailing transit and suffering parks fuel - isn't an option."<http://www2.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=807309>

So, where does the $43 million come from?

BusStop. Report from Michael Cudahy upon meeting with Barrett and Walker.

At the October 14 meeting of the UEDA Coalition for Advancing Transit Meeting, Michael Cudahy, philanthropist and lover of Milwaukee, presented his Streetcar Backbone proposal to rejuvenate Milwaukee public transportation. He described the meeting he had with the two leaders of Milwaukee: Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Scott Walker. Mr. Cudahy summarized this meeting in a memo, which BusStop proudly reprints.  It was Mr. Cudahy's explicit wish that we feel free to circulate this wherever we wished.

To: Scott Walker, Tom Barrett,
Copies to: Tim Sheehy, Julia Taylor, Mark Kaminski
From: Michael J. Cudahy
Subject: Public Transportation
Date; August 8th, 2008

Recently, I asked Mayor Tom Barrett and County Executive Scott Walker to meet with me and see if I could "broker a deal" relative to the long standing dispute they've had about public transportation in this community.Yesterday, on August 7th, 2008, these gentlemen and I meet privately and, perhaps, made some progress in this regard.

KenoshaStreetcars reports the following rise in street car users.

Kenosha Transit boarded 8,000 weekday riders average, an increase of 25.59% on the quarter and 11.15% on the Year To Date.

The streetcars were up 26.86% on the quarter and 16.13% on the Year To Date.

 http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/KenoshaStreetcars/

submitted by Bill Sell

Governor James Doyle to announce the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Natural Resources agreement to clean the Kinnickinnic River. Today. 2000 S. 4th St, Milwaukee.

I need to grouse this morning. I have a complaint about the Democratic party (surprise, everyone). They do not like politics as usual.

If the purpose of today's event (August 20, 2008) were to get people, voters, environmental friends to the event, they could have done the usual and boring thing: invite them.

Getting It

Now, I'm not saying I'm a heavy contributor to river politics, but I've put my personhood into some public forums recently, and I am on a committee in Bay View that has the word "Environmental" [and Transportation] in it. I am easier to find than a bus. And I am beside the point. Just whom did the Party think would show up for this event? Press and political consultants? Why not voters?

This week I turn my blog over to a visitor.  There are a couple of conservatives who know how to conserve. Paul gets it right here.

Free Congress Foundation Commentary

Political Cards, Joker and Otherwise

http://www.freecongress.org/

By Paul M. Weyrich

August 7, 2008

This past week we have heard non-stop about the race card. This is one of the most long-running uses of it in the political process. I first heard the term used when President Lyndon B. Johnson tried to force a reluctant Congress to pass a Great Society-type program in 1964 by invoking the memory of his predecessor, President John F. Kennedy. "He is using the JFK card," we were told. Then there was President Richard M. Nixon's China card. And when President Ronald W. Reagan walked away from an arms deal with Mikhail Gorbachev, pundits said Reagan was playing the Star Wars card. And so on.

I began to think of what card I could play if I were running for or had been elected President. I am not into cards myself so this is a difficult assignment. If I were running against Congress I would invoke the joker card.