tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51873872011-06-08T01:12:09.476-05:00Haunting Wisconsin's corporate media...Kristiannoreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1092695413610878152004-08-16T16:29:00.000-05:002004-08-16T17:32:55.446-05:00

The Onion, the satire tabloid founded some fifteen years ago in Madison, is on its way to becoming the nation's newest newspaper chain. The paper, ahem "brand," announced its plans to begin distributing a regional edition in the Twin Cities, building upon its base in Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Denver and Boulder. Their main selling point to advertisers was that their "reach is

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1092691602480572562004-08-16T14:57:00.000-05:002004-08-16T16:26:42.480-05:00

Isthmus received accolades for its news coverage from GarveyBlog yesterday, but was criticized at the same time by Brenda Konkel, Madison's Second District Alder and City Council President. The venue for the criticism was Isthmus' The Daily Page message board, and the subject was its August 13 cover story "Big Plans, Little City: Capitol West and Union Corners are bold ideas - maybe too bold for

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1092673812692331352004-08-16T10:55:00.000-05:002004-08-16T11:35:49.686-05:00

Ed Garvey noted Bill Lueders' Isthmus coverage on the downsizing of George Hesselberg at the State Journal. Lauding the need for independent publications like Isthmus, Garvey noted that Hesselberg's column was shuttered because "George had the [c]hutzpah to ignore advice about how to write his column from the new editor Ellen Foley." Garvey goes on to note the new Cap Newspapers

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1092433563820375652004-08-13T16:45:00.000-05:002004-08-16T12:28:52.060-05:00

Lueders' recent piece about onetime/sometime? State Journal columnist George Hesselberg was not his first in recent months about shenanigans on Fish Hatchery. About a month ago, he reported about Capital Newspapers' entrant in the weekly tabloid realm Core Weekly (more on this in coming days). A couple months before that, he wrote about the hiring of Ellen Foley by the Wisconsin State Journal (

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1092353630717060822004-08-12T17:45:00.000-05:002004-08-12T18:38:47.206-05:00

This week's Isthmus contains a piece by Bill Lueders in his Watchdog column about the bumping of Wisconsin State Journal writer George Hesselberg from his popular column (one part news, one part feature, and mixed with the city's unique blend of genteel liberal spice) makes its discontinuation rather curious. At least by the standards of the annual Isthmus popularity contest, Hesselberg was the

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1092235924323144012004-08-11T09:30:00.000-05:002004-08-11T10:13:47.146-05:00

Last Tuesday, August 3, both the State Journal and Cap Times ran an AP article about former Winnebago County DA Joe Paulus, who was sentenced the day before to almost five years in prison for operating a long-term scheme dispensing special treatment to defendents and potential defendents in exchange for bribes from their defense attorney Milton Schierland. The article had a byline of Robert

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1091233430191801432004-07-30T18:20:00.000-05:002004-08-11T09:52:32.753-05:00

An article in today's Wisconsin State Journal noted a couple changes in their smaller papers based north of Madison. It announced that "Kay Lapp James will become opinion page editor of six newspapers owned by Capital Newspapers." These papers include the Portage Daily Register, the Baraboo News Republic, the Juneau County Star-Times, the Wisconsin Dells Events, the Reedsburg Times Press and the

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1091218779509158742004-07-30T14:15:00.000-05:002004-07-30T18:19:52.646-05:00

Wisconsin's homegrown media fauna continue to drop to national chains. Several years after Capital Newpapers went on a buying binge in the southern part of the state, Brown County Publishing and the Green Bay News-Chronicle were sold last week (along with 31 other publications) by its long-time owner to Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain. Gannett already owned the Green Bay

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-1091214783466388482004-07-30T12:51:00.000-05:002004-08-11T09:53:04.856-05:00

One-time WI gubernatorial candidate Ed Garvey has a regular opinion slot in the pages of The Captial Times, and is also editor of FightingBob.com, an essay and blog site oriented towards state issues. His Cap Times op-eds are usually posted on his site a couple of days later. His most recent piece (Keep Spotlight on Pols, Execs So Public Isn't Left in the Dark), about open records laws, was

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-916788362003-03-30T20:12:00.000-06:002003-03-30T20:16:38.000-06:00

The Capital Times's Saturday Extra feature proved what in my eyes was a bias in favor of mayoral candidate Paul Soglin. It is initially visible in the headlines. The lengthy article on Soglin is titled "Soglin on the street: The voters aren't shy." His opponent's: "Cieslewicz meets and competes while he dreams of being home." Voters aren't shy for Soglin. Cieslewicz wants to be at home. Soglin is

Simeon Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03725994142093925101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-916346592003-03-29T22:42:00.000-06:002003-03-29T22:42:36.593-06:00

Once again, the sole pro-war protester at an anti-war protest gets the attention of The Media. [sigh] Is it that they find themselves unable to talk to the anti-war protesters? Can they not pick just the right one to talk to? Or perhaps they are under orders not to talk to them. I don't know, but it may bear some investigating. Of course, knowing The Media today, the investigative reporting

Simeon Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03725994142093925101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913976332003-03-26T01:01:00.000-06:002003-03-26T01:01:33.606-06:00

Just to note quickly, there was a fairly comprehensive article from Tuesday's State Journal about the policies of the MPD with relation to recent protests in the city. Citing the criticism during the June 2002 mayors' conference of a gross overreaction on the part of police toward protests, the article looks at police overtime costs for antiwar protests, and the push to get individual

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913790632003-03-25T18:45:00.000-06:002003-03-26T01:03:07.000-06:00

Today's Daily Cardinal (the smaller in size and circulation of the two UW weekdailies) printed an extremely one-sided article (reg. req.) about the new US/UK military policy of accomodating "embedded journalists." These are the journalists who undergo military training, sign an indemnification form with the military, and then are subject to military rules regarding what can and cannot be covered

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913761132003-03-25T17:48:00.000-06:002003-03-25T18:48:42.000-06:00

Is anybody surprised? TCT has clearly given favorable coverage to Soglin throughout his whole campaign, in terms of the amount and placement of coverage. I'm not sure that the bias was due to an overwhelming support for Soglin from the paper, however, but rather the result of the most media outlet's prediliction to cover known (not to mention colorful) personalities. The endorsement is likely a

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913760262003-03-25T17:46:00.000-06:002003-03-25T18:50:21.000-06:00

The Capital Times is running an article in today's edition about a minor furor that has arisen at Madison Newspapers Inc. (the company owning the physical infrastructure, not intellectual property or editorial control, of Madison's two dailies) over an advertisement that was printed in the Monday edition of TCT and the State Journal. Titled Ad has some readers livid, it discusses the fifty plus

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913735162003-03-25T16:58:00.000-06:002003-03-25T16:58:19.576-06:00

The BH is taking its cue, however, from twelve day old coverage at the Madison IMC. The video discussed in the article was posted there on March 14, and they are covering the issue due to the video's earlier public exposure on the website. Note the citation at the bottom of the BH article.

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913623432003-03-25T13:32:00.000-06:002003-03-25T13:54:41.000-06:00

Another point in the Herald's favor: They are running an accurate story on to how members of the neoconservative Badger Party were caught on video tape trolling a library seeking signatures to for a referrendum. This is apparently a violation of the UW's policies on collecting signatures to get an issue on the student ballot. The Badger Party's referrendum would have students vote on an opt-out

Simeon Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03725994142093925101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913322992003-03-25T01:20:00.000-06:002003-03-25T01:20:15.860-06:00

The BH also ran a piece Monday about the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate debate that was mildly biased in favor of the Republican-supported candidate, Patience Roggensack. The article, after quickly reporting the names of the candidates and their predecessor, immediately jumps into pushing the Roggensack position that Brunner would be an "impartial" judge. Of course, these kind of

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913315652003-03-25T00:59:00.000-06:002003-03-25T01:01:27.000-06:00

Two articles from Monday's Badger Herald provide examples of incomplete disclosure and the parroting of "conventional wisdom" from authorities. The first article was about the vandalizing of the state Republican Party offices last week. The article is a fairly standard collection of facts about the story and quotes from affected individuals. One quote, however, is from Katie Harbath, who is

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913300192003-03-25T00:17:00.000-06:002003-03-25T00:17:54.700-06:00

This attempt to catalogue the spins and follies of the local dominant media began late last week, which happened to be the week for the UW's spring break. Thus, the two student newspapers only resumed publishing again today after nine days of dormancy. They should provide ample examples of both spin and folly, due in part to the inexperience of youth (which is completely understandable), but

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-913250422003-03-24T22:32:00.000-06:002003-03-24T22:37:00.000-06:00

The March 24 issue of The Capital Times has an article on the Madison city council race between landlord and developer Erik Minton and longtime housing advocate and incumbent Brenda Konkel. It is of some note that the print and online versions of the story carry different headlines:      Print headline: Konkel, Minton raise the roof in tough race      Print sub-headline: Developer: 'I am furious

Simeon Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03725994142093925101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912640252003-03-24T00:02:00.000-06:002003-03-24T00:11:24.000-06:00

This is a cheap shot, but check out a screen capture taken at midday on Sunday from the website of WKOW. A poll on the site asks "Do increasing U.S. causalities in Iraq change your opinion of the war?" Now they clearly meant to say casualities, but it is rather amusing to note the meaning of the word as they spelled it. Up until the war escalated dramatically on Wednesday, there certainly were

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912608462003-03-23T22:57:00.000-06:002003-03-23T23:42:43.000-06:00

The State Journal ran two feature-style human interest reports (by city beat reporter Dean Mosiman) on mayoral candidates Dave Cieslewicz and Paul Soglin on Sunday. Amid hard-hitting reporting on the candidates' home decor and meal menus, the paper continues to misrepresent the facts about the late 2001 Pledge of Allegiance furor in the MMSD. The article states that Soglin's reverence for "the

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912607872003-03-23T22:56:00.000-06:002003-03-23T22:56:01.450-06:00

Ho-hum: The endorsements made by the State Journal for 2nd and 5th City Council District are hardly surprising, the that they pick the landlord over the tennant activist, and the College Democrat hack over the bicycling advocate. These "endorsements" will work in favor of Konkel and Webber, however. In recent years, other progressives have trumpted the Journal's endorsement of the opposing

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912590302003-03-23T22:18:00.000-06:002003-03-23T22:21:49.000-06:00

This isn't directly related to Madison, but is worth noting with respect to the media. Michael Moore won Best Documentary at the Academy Awards show about twenty minutes ago. Standing on stage to win the award along side of every other nominee in solidarity, Moore stated that as producers of a non-fiction medium, it was imperitive on their part to note that "we are living in fictitious times...

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912096832003-03-22T22:24:00.000-06:002003-03-22T22:24:58.326-06:00

WMTV is currently soliciting photos for a "Troop Tribute," in which they will air photos of military personnel "during NBC 15 News at 6 and also NBC 15 News at 10." It is understandable that families and friends of soldiers abroad want people here to be aware of their service. WMTV, however, broadcasts on the public airwaves, and at least has an ethical obligation (though not legal due to the

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912062182003-03-22T20:57:00.000-06:002003-03-22T21:54:41.000-06:00

WIBA-FM is owned by Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio conglomerate in the U.S., and the biggest winners of the 1996 Telecom Sweepstakes. Currently engaged in fierce lobbying in favor of continuing FCC deregulation of the airwaves, the company is currently sponsoring pro-war rallies in a number of cities across the country. Apparently, this favor for war extends to Madison. Though

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-912035542003-03-22T19:39:00.000-06:002003-03-22T20:31:20.000-06:00

This is not the most professional of posts, but it gets it point across just fine. It's a copy of a posting to the web site SmirkingChimp.com, from a discussion about TV news anchors' coverage of the despicable war on Iraq. Message Boards > Iraq: The War And Its Aftermath > Peter Jennings' unexpected phone call (on air) 10 of 23. itoldjaso    new york city | Joined May 07, 2001 | 166 posts

Simeon Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03725994142093925101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-911644832003-03-21T22:51:00.000-06:002003-03-22T23:01:27.000-06:00

Why is the media drawn to the token anti-peace protester at every pro-peace protest? Might they be uncomfortable showing how deep the pro-peace roots actually run? This man was one of the two token pro-war protesters I saw at the March 20 pro-peace rally in Madison. He must have been a very happy man given all the attention that he got, first from WIBA-FM, home to Rush Limbaugh. And later, a TV

Simeon Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03725994142093925101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-911534802003-03-21T18:12:00.000-06:002003-03-21T18:12:41.246-06:00

How does Channel 15 come out in all of this? Take a look at the current recent headlines archive (which cycles completely through reports every few days). The story about the vandalizing of the state Republican Party's offices sometime over Wednesday night is subtitled "Not all Madison protests today were peaceful." This vandalism certainly wasn't peaceful (nor really a protest), but if WMTV (

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-911530182003-03-21T18:01:00.000-06:002003-03-21T18:14:21.000-06:00

In an article about the newly-opened state Emergency Operations Center from the State Journal, take note of how the "montioring [of] peace rallies" by police is normalized (and buried) in a discussion focusing on tornados and terrorist threats. Are rallies now considered an emergency situation? Undoubtedly, to the crooks running the show.

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-911524432003-03-21T17:47:00.000-06:002003-03-21T18:14:59.000-06:00

The Sunny and Tim Show - Round Two: While the second editorial in today's State Journal was a clear example of the paper's frenzied support for war, the lead editorial exemplifies the paper's contorted logic and unwitting hypocrisy. Titled Patriots come in all stripes, it looks like it is the Journal's acquiescence to the fact that the war in Iraq is quite unpopular, particularly in this city.

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-911454942003-03-21T15:15:00.000-06:002003-03-21T15:15:28.140-06:00

The Wisconsin State Journal might have pulled its most shameless and shameful editorial stunt today. Their second editorial today is titled A word from bin Laden, and is, if nothing less an apt demonstration of the editorial board's tendency towards laziness. The editorial is basically four quoted paragraphs from a "Feb. 11 sermon supposedly written by Osama bin Laden." The shameful aspect of

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187387.post-910849252003-03-20T16:25:00.000-06:002003-03-21T15:17:20.000-06:00

The Capital Times (TCT), with slogan of "Madison's Progressive Newspaper," is generally a reasonable source of coverage for the antiwar movement in Dane County. At times, however, it falls into the pack mentality evident in most of today's corporate media news coverage. For example, an article from March 20, titled War sparks protests in Madison provides a straightforward account of a picket

Kristiannoreply@blogger.com0