More Wisconsin media fails

In the short time I have between now and today's rally at the Madison Labor Temple with Tom Morello and friends, gotta go over some more unacceptable failures by our 4th Estate over the last few days.

1. Far too many headline writers took the Walker Administration's word for granted this week when they said the the BLS had confirmed Walker's job growth numbers as accurate. Fortunately, Uppity Wisconsin actually made the effort to contact the BLS itself, and found Walker's claims to be a complete LIE.

Communications Director Gary Steinberg, reached by phone said, with his emphasis on numbers and methods:

"The Bureau can not comment on the fourth quarter numbers because they haven't been released. I can say that we would not have confirmed the numbers yet, but would only have confirmed the methods used.

We can’t confirm fourth quarter or later data and would not have confirmed it to the governor’s office either."

In other words, we got their info, now we're checking to see if it's bullshit or not. And with good reason, because if one state is able to front-run on this data, it puts everyone else at a disadvantage, along with covering up any chance for an apples-to-apples comparison.

But since when did reality faze the Walker folks? The Hooters girl was doubling down on the deception today, demanding that the Barrett Administration take down an ad that dared to question the numbers, and saying that the numbers had been "verified" by the BLS. Me think the lady doth protesth too much, but as I've said before, why does it take bloggers to expose this when our media should be skeptical and asking this question of the BLS in the first place?

2. Walker's friends at Politi-crap have tried to blunt the money shot landed by Barrett in yesterday's debate when Tom said "I have a police department that arrests felons, [Walker] has a practice of hiring them." Barrett went on to say that none of his staff of 28 years has been charged with a crime, and Politi-crap tried to play the "gotcha" game, saying Barrett's claim is "false" because the Mayor's Office receptionist was arrested in 2010 and convicted for beating and suffocating his girlfriend.

Politi-crap rating is absurd false equivalency move for 2 reasons. First is because Tom Barrett isn't the one interviewing for and deciding on the office receptionist, and Barrett's office immediately put the guy on leave and removed him after the arrests, if I remember right. By comparison, it is well-documented that Scott Walker went out of his way to hire Walkergate criminals like Tim Russell and Kelly Rindfleisch. Second, how is someone getting into a domestic dispute related to his office duties, and how could Barrett have done anything to prevent that? The answer is nothing of course. Compare that to Walker's "smoking gun" email to Tim Russell the day Darlene Wink got arrested, showing both his knowledge and direct interest in the crimes, and it's not even in the same galaxy of sketchiness.

Also interesting, Politi-crap ignores the second part about Barrett's statement never having to set up a criminal defense fund. Walker would have been given a "half-true" if the shoe was on the other foot. How do I know this? Because Politi-crap just gave a "half-true" to Walker on the jobs claim, arguing that the BLS's mention of receiving the data makes it half-true. COME ON, MAN!

3. But then again, we know Politi-crap is cozy with the Walker Administration, and would take these steps to protect their boy. Uppity Wisconsin gets another hat tip for revealing an exchange between Wisconsin Politifact editor Tom Kertscher and Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie where Kertscher is actively asking Werwie for Politfact ideas.

In addition to being a clear violation of an indepedent press, Werwie uses the conversation to try to dig up dirt on State Sen. Dale Schultz when Schultz was objecting to the mining bill. I would not doubt if the same situation played itself out here, where Werwie or some other Walker campaign staff contacted Politi-crap staff to come up with this false equivalency move, knowing that Barrett's receptionist had been arrested 2 years ago.

So down the stretch of this historic and close race, we still have our media playing into Walker's hands through acceptance of his spin and through his friends at Politi-crap allowing false equivalencies to give negative stories to his opponent. Too bad for them it only fools the dingbats who support Walker in the first place, and fires people like me up even more to make sure the average Joe and Jane gets the real truth about these stories.

And on that, it's time to head to the Labor Temple, and feel the full blast.