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

 

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WCIJ Says Nobody Knows...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

Two committees of the Dane County Board of Supervisors are meeting tonight to gather information on the performance of the Dane County 911 Communications Center in the wake of the murder of Brittany Zimmermann.

Board Chair Scott McDonell and others have called for an audit of the Center focusing on its procedures and whether its procedures are being followed.

It is suggested that such an audit be conducted by an outside firm, free of political considerations.

Good idea.

To complement this reasonable course of action, Dane County needs the establishment of a paid citizens' committee composed of broad communities of interests, devoid of elected officials, and certainly free of civil servants in Dane County, including those serving in the County Executive's office.

Such a committee ought to have as its deliverables:

- The establishment of specific directives to improve the performance of the 911 Communications Center

The UW-Madison is looking for a new Chancellor, and some people mistakenly think that salary of nearly one-third of a million bucks a year, plus a house and a car, is not enough to find a new "CEO."

One key UW-Madison booster called the compensation package "an embarrassment."

No wonder fiscal conservatives find the UW an easy target.

Details here.