WisGOP has bought off Wisconsin media- the smoking gun

A must-read article from Scott Wittkopf at Badger Democracy exposing how Scott Walker and his administration scripts interviews with right-wing talk show host such as Charles Sykes, Jerry Bader, and Vicki McKenna, including the forwarding of talking points and instructions on which softballs to lob to Walker so he could give his ready-made answers.

Not that it should really surprise us that shows such as Sykes', Bader's and McKenna's are nothing more than GOP propaganda, but this happened during the Senate recall election cycle, and no doubt happened numerous times during Walker's recall election campaign. This is a clear case of a station using its power to do one-sided electioneering during a campaign, which is in violation to a station's licensing agreement with the FCC.

I'll also remind you that like all other Wisconsin stations, WTMJ, WISN and WTAQ have their licenses up for renewal, and WISN and WTMJ have already had a complaint filed against them in May by the Media Action Center for violating equal time provisions, and airing the equivalent of hours of free GOP advertisements. Sounds like the Media Action might have another item to add to their complaint, especially if Democratic lawmakers offered the same time for interviews (even without the scripting) to these right-wing stations and were turned down.

And another Wisconsinite found out the hard way when he tried to spew his partisan BS to someone who actually wasn't in on the script, and wouldn't let him get away with it. RNC Chair Reince Priebus came on MSNBC to try to spread his anti-Obama spin, and Chris Matthews called out Priebus and the RNC for their racist dog-whistle tactics, including Mitt Romney making a birth certificate joke last week. What follows is a verbal beatdown the types that far few journalists will give to a politician that is throwing out baseless lies. I especially like how Priebus claims the GOP isn't trying to make Obama seem like a foreign "other", then Priebus starts talking about "European" style health care within 30 seconds, and Matthews just lets him have it.



Hey Reince, this isn't a Milwaukee talk show, now is it? Welcome to the big-time, little guy, and real media isn't going to cover up your Koch-backed voter caging schemes like they did at JournalComm in 2010. Of course, the J-S buried this humiliation of Priebus in a fawning "look at how important our little Wisconsinite is" story from yesterday, and their suck-up coverage and years of cover-ups for Paul Ryan are even more pathetic.

Still don't think WisGOP and Milwaukee talkies aren't part of the same team? Then explain this sloppy, wet kiss from Reince to Chuckles after the 2010 elections.



Scott Wittkopf's article should take this discussion of right-wing Wisconsin media bias to full blast, and it is well past time to call these corporate slimeballs onto the carpet and demand balance and fairness in our state's media. Cause we sure haven;t gotten it for the last 2 years.