Citizens Media Writer Is Right to Flip off GOP Legislature

Hematite, writing for the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative, concludes: "The State Legislature does not deserve respect. And neither does the Wisconsin press."

The writer is correct on both counts.

An obscene gesture made in the Wisconsin Senate Chamber by the Citizens Media writer resulting in the loss of press credentials is amusing; the gesture that is.

What the Republican Party is doing to Wisconsin is a disgrace.

Even less amusing is the complicity of Lee Enterprises Inc's media outlets, the Wisconsin State Journal, Gannett Company newspapers across the state, Journal Communications Inc. and virtually all of Wisconsin broadcast media, except seemingly Tony Galli of WKOW.

Stenography in the service of corruption is obscene.

Face it; the Wisconsin legislature is a den of corruption and lies. And the media's failure to note this is obscene.

Good for Hematite, though I would have held a sign reading, "Fucking liars.' It's a matter of taste, and a fleeting respect for representative democracy.

As Aaron Sorkin, creator of The Newsroom said:

Nobody uses the word lie anymore. Suddenly, everything is “a difference of opinion.” If the entire House Republican caucus were to walk onto the floor one day and say “The Earth is flat,” the headline on the New York Times the next day would read “Democrats and Republicans Can’t Agree on Shape of Earth.” I don’t believe the truth always lies in the middle. I don’t believe there are two sides to every argument. I think the facts are the center. And watching the news abandon the facts in favor of “fairness” is what’s troubling to me.

Do check out The "Newsroom" Season 2, expected to premiere in June on HBO.

Called a Satanist, Mikey Weinstein Makes U.S. Defense Community's Top 100 Most Influential People

100 Most Influential People in U.S. Defence

'Constitutional conscience' of the U.S. military gets end-of-year notice by military press

A civil rights activist has been named as one of the most influential people in the U.S. defense community by editorial staff working at government sector press outlets, collectively comprising the world's largest military newsroom. This inaugural list of the top 100 most influential people is based upon perceived "leadership, innovation, technology and vision" in our country with an annual defense budget of some $740 billion.

Mikey Weinstein, the founder and chief of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, founded the civil rights organization in 2006, and represented and continues to advocate for 10,000s of American servicemen and woman.

Weinstein is an author, an attorney, and has been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize for the fifth consecutive year, a year seeing Weinstein draw headlines for working for human rights amid death threats and anti-Semitic slurs.

The list "was compiled over five months by more than two dozen reporters" at the Gannett government media’s sector-leading publications: Defense News, Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, Armed Forces Journal and Federal Times.

As reported on its website, the "Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all "members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."

Weinstein has so disturbed the Christian-Dominion religious infrastructure ingrained in the U.S. military that top serving brass as recently as 2008 publicly accused Weinstein of engaging in a "demonic” agenda," as described by Lieutenant General William “Jerry” Boykin.

Jeff Sharlet in Harper's Magazine has written extensively about the "powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officer corps" against whom Weinstein, a committed army of civil libertarians, cadets, veterans, troops and Marines fight.

Writes Sharlet of the dominionists: "They see themselves not as subversives but as spiritual warriors—'ambassadors for Christ in uniform,' according to Officers’ Christian Fellowship; 'government paid missionaries,' according to Campus Crusade’s Military Ministry."

What has the Dominionists and assorted Christian nationalists feeling aggrieved is the effectiveness of Weinstein that these Christian avengers can no longer ignore, along with the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Bad Sign of the Times

Update: See also After 174 years, Ann Arbor News folds.

What the hell is going on with Fond du Lac?

First we read that Mercury Marine might close shop and now comes word the FDL Reporter will close its downtown offices, relocating "all non-production work" [that would be news and sales staff] to a small printing facility on the west side. (Editor and Publisher)

The Reporter, the Gannett Company's 13,207-circulation afternoon daily, is continuing the downbound path of print newspapers the nation-over.

Local news is the bread and butter of all smaller newspapers, and this service appears in peril.

It's not just technological change causing this trend. The recession is killing off newspapers everywhere, clinging to survival through consolidation and other business moves.

Reports Editor and Publisher, "At the same time, printing and packaging will move to the Gannett Wisconsin Media Production Facility in Appleton." There goes a few dozen more jobs of dedicated employees.

One can't help seeing corporate greed driving professional news reporting during these hard times. Gannett’s Quarterly Earnings Fall 60% in April, the New York Times reported.

Greed, maybe that's too strong a word. Maybe not.

Ganett's (CGI) stock is up 48 percent in the last month, and nine percent today. This news likely won't thrill the employees losing their jobs.

On the other hand, if you're a stockholder, you might have been concerned that Gannett isn't making enough money to declare decent dividends and to bolster the meager stock price.

Old-school

The newsroom at the Reporter as depleted as it is, is still staffed by old-school professionals.

Can't treat this as anything but tragic. It's painful to think of the Reporter's newsroom operating not downtown—yards from the YMCA, City Hall and the Police Department—but rather from Rolling Meadows Drive near the Fond du Lac County airport.

It seems one beautiful city, one community, is beginning to shake at its pillars.

And Fond du Lac epitomizes the United States of America that is heading toward the century's second decade with shaken confidence and growing apprehension.

Those passing 33 West Second Street in Fondy and reading the "The difference is news," on the Reporter building will soon see these words disappear.

Everyone knew this was coming, but maybe not so fast and so harsh.