Uppity Wisconsin

And I haven't read anything in the "real" media about a dustup at the Tea Bag Gabfest/American Dream event in the Dells, between the wife of GOP golden boy Sean Duffy and his primary opponent, Dan Mielke.  Even though a police call was involved, the media have reported only on the predictable speeches and nothing on the spontaneous fireworks. The two are competing for the nomination to oppose Rep. Dave Obey.

Fortunately, there are other sources of news these days:

Milwaukee News Buzz, a brand new entry from Milwaukee Magazine.

WisPolitics.com

UPDATE: The video that started the ruckus.

The Journal Sentinel reported in November:

Study says most adults read newspapers

About three-quarters of U.S. adults, or nearly 171 million people, read a newspaper - print or online - in a given week, according to a new study by Scarborough Research.

In a given week that's probably true, but if I were publishing a daily newspaper I don't think I'd be happy about once-a-week perusers.

Here's a different take, from recent study:

Some 46% of Americans say they get news from four to six media platforms on a typical day. Just 7% get their news from a single media platform on a typical day.

Here's what they say they do on that "typical day":

When Tom Barrett's campaign website didn't seem up to snuff to an Associated Press reporter in January, the AP carried almost 700 words about it, trashing Barrett's website in a story carried in many media outlets.

The AP put a lot of effort into the non-story, even finding an expert from Fordham University to comment.

So ... when will we be reading the AP story about Barrett's impressive new website?

With global warming, the chances of Hell freezing over seem dimmer every day. So don't get your hopes up.

And what I read in the Journal Sentinel sounds like good news:

Journal Communications posts $7.2 million profit

Journal Communications Inc. said Thursday it posted a profit of $7.2 million in the fourth quarter as the company's expenses dropped significantly from a year earlier.

The Milwaukee-based media company had earnings of 12 cents per share on its A and B common stock. That compares with a loss of almost $223 million, or $4.46, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Et cetera

Then there's this report, from Broadcasting and Cable online, which covers the industry:

Journal Station Revenue Down 15% in Q4

Journal Communications reported television station revenue of $28.3 million in the fourth quarter, a 15.2% drop from the same quarter a year before.

I'm seldom accused of being too kind in my commentary, but maybe I pulled my punch a little on a recent post about Journal Sentinel Managing Editor George Stanley's series of cheerleading articles for the war in Afghanistan.

An online column by Milwaukee Magazine Editor Bruce Murphy makes my comments seem tame.

Murphy calls the series "...at times, embarrassing, and at its heart a boy’s view of war... It’s a comic book view of war, with no room for nuance."

Murphy on Stanley's insistence that we commit to "winning" the war:

Our government’s leadership has spoken, and Obama has set a deadline of 2011 for ending the war in Afghanistan. Stanley proceeds to undercut this idea, telling us every soldier and Marine he talks to wants to stay there as long as necessary to “finish the job.” Well, yes. And football players always want to go for it on fourth down rather than take the safe bet of kicking a field goal. That’s why you have a coach. The American tradition of civilian oversight of the military has long assured that cooler heads on the sidelines determine strategy.

Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind... 

Did you ever have to finally decide? Say yes to one and let the other one ride...

New Hampshire just joined the list of states allowing gay marriage, after a quick trip through the legislature and a world-record-breaking signing by the governor. 

And yet, Wisconsin has somehow lost its progressive way on this issue.  2006 was the sad year in which Wisconsin legalized discrimination, both legally and morally.  It's time to fix this. Let's try again.  Let's keep trying until we get it right.

A big headline across the top of the Metro front page, and a huge pull-out quote on this piece of phony baloney suggesting that a proposal to require prevailing wages be paid on public construction projects would prevent volunteers from working on them. Here's the big pullout:

Update: After I had posted this article, I inadvertantly stumbled across this organization.   They are called "LEAP" or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.   It's definitely worth a look see.  These are the folks who have dealt with the "War on Drugs" and its many guises such as "zero tolerence" policies.  The LEAP link.

******* 

Noticeably,  there is a new study out claiming older people are in more denial of their abilities while drinking than "young people".  This study, although I am having some difficulty finding the actuals regarding it was plastered all over the news a few days ago.  I found it odd that the MSM was all over this thing. (Where are they regarding the single-payer health care proposition?)  Tsk. Tsk.

Time had this to say:

"Researchers deliberately chose "young" adults around 30 to make sure they were at least several years removed from the undergraduate binge-drinking culture."  Is it me.... or does "around 30" sound awfully high to be in the young adult category?  But it gets better, they also said:

It's not as if I needed more proof of this, but it appears that right-wing bloggers just can't grasp the concept of satire .  Even when it is written by people in their own fold. 

There's been a minor blow-up in the conservative blogosphere over a report that the White House and the military are having a pitched battle because Obama wants soldiers to pledge allegiance to him rather than to the nation and the constitution.  Well, I agree, this would be really troubling if there were any truth to it.  The article was tagged as satire originally, but apparently this went unnoticed by those who wanted to find yet more bogus evidence that the new president was turning himself into a replacement for God and country.  Why is the right-wing willing to believe the silliest stories about Obama, and then to repeat them as undeniable truth?  I'm not even as amused by the fact that a number of bloggers fell for this as the crazed explanations in this article as to why the charge was so believable.  A giant house of cards built on misinformation.  Rather a lot like the last administration.

So I was watching this documentary film based on a book the other day.  Apparently there is evidence of a parallel universe inhabited by tiny and immense people, and countries that are at war over how they break their eggs.  They have proof.  Eye-witness accounts.  This is yet more evidence of the evil being done by the Obama administration.  The fact that war can spread over such a silly matter on Obama's watch is shocking, and I'm sure that the mutant-sized people are the result of some sort of stem-cell research gone amuck.  Apparently this Swift guy has access to a lot of suppressed information.  I say we impeach!.  

By the way - as a footnote I do realize that Gulliver's Travels is a satire.  I'm a liberal.  I know the difference. And I promise this will be the last time I link to the WorldNet daily site.  

Location

Once again, the story is what you don't know if you rely on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

You undoubtedly know that Wisconsin ranks high among the 50 states in how much taxes its citizens pay. The media, including the JS, have been reporting it for years.

So when there's what qualifies as at least a minor man-bites-dog story -- or at least man-growls-at-dog story -- on the same topic, you'd expect to read it.

Guess again. We'll let Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine take it from here:

On May 27, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance did a new report showing Wisconsin dropped out of the ranks of the 10 highest-taxed states for the first time in more than 25 years. Indeed, going all the way back to 1963, when the state first adopted a sales tax, Wisconsin has ranked in the top 10 every year except 1980 and 1968.

As recently as 1999, when Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was near the end of his long tenure, Wisconsin ranked as the third-highest taxed state. Today, Wisconsin has dropped to 11th-highest. That’s quite a change, and it got extensive coverage in the Wisconsin State Journal . The story was picked up by other newspapers statewide.

I missed a lot of the mainstream media's comments about Hillary's attire, cleavage, and nagging stereotypes of women.

And wow, this compilation of news bites from the Women's Media Center is really something. It's must-see viewing, especially for those of us - men and women - who don't describe ourselves as feminists.

As we say in Wisconsin, "holy cow!"

Starting Wednesday I will be in Minneapolis bringing Uppity Wisconsin news from the National Council for Media Reform, and the Journalism That Matters meeting before it.

This looks like it should be a great conference, with many great speakers and several workshops I'm looking forward to.