December
2005
Our Media Sucks
Having just returned from Ireland, I can say without reservation — our local media sucks.
On any given night, you get about 7 minutes of news, if that’s what you want to call it, and the rest of the half hour is dominated by commercials, sports and weather. It’s as though our stations don’t think we’re bright enough to be able to absorb any happenings around the world.
Clearly our news is bought and paid for by the advertisers. Imagine a world where you could switch on the news and find out what’s happening in other parts of the world. Our local version of news is an embarassment. Fox 6 has a new segment they call something like “around the world in 60 seconds” which focuses on stupid things like what Madonna is doing on her vacation or who some UK rock star is shagging. Occasionally they’ll throw in 15 seconds of real world news just for shock value.
This past week I got an education and a half from Irish public radio (RTE 1) . They talked about the Irish Ferry controversy which sounds a lot like the beginnings of a slippery slope toward union disempowerment which we’ve already experienced in this country. They spoke of the Guantanamo express and how they’re tired of CIA planes landing in Shannon en route to another country so the passengers can be tortured. They challenged the issue of support for the American war in Iraq and highlighted that the US does use chemical weapons by way of white phosphorus. (The Bush adminstration position is that white phosphorus is used to illuminate battle fields.)
Some brilliant commentator named Joan brought out edgy and intellegent arguments while another commentator seemed to allude that she was not supportive of America for her views — an argument she swiftly and staunchly rejected.
I write these things not to depart from Watchdog Milwaukee’s mission of focusing on local issues, but to spotlight what our local media, including talk radio, could be if it was not so focused on corporate sponsors and pandering to republican partisan policies.
Historically, we had warning that this would happen. In a letter to Col. William F. Elkins on Nov. 21, 1864 , President Abraham Lincoln prophesised:
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”
It’s not too late to fix the problems in our media. Edward R Murrow brought honor and dignity to American media but now those in the media are shaming his legacy. They’re caving in to the very fears that President Lincoln had nearly a century and a half ago.
Ireland is a small country — but our media could learn a lot about what media could be by tuning in to what’s being said overseas.
Related Links: RTE 1, Irish Public Radio
Jim McGuigan
Jim McGuigan, Watchdogging Wisconsin
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Yeah, maybe if the local news was more diligent, they might have uncovered the pension scandal as it was happening…
Normally I wouldn’t approve posting of a flippant comment like yours but it illustrates my point exactly.
A diligent media would have reported it accurately. It would have exposed CRG as a partisan shill group and would have pointed out that Supervisors had a choice — act on the advice on a trusted adminstrator who had claimed to have done the research, or micromanaged every detail and pretended to have been experts.
A diligent media would have focused their attention on the administrators who misled the board — specifically the administrator who was later convicted and went to jail.
A diligent media would never have claimed that the Exec was to receive a million dollar pension when it never happened and a diligent media would have praised those elected officials who waived the part that would have been enriching for them and given some analysis to whether there was parity in pre-vote pensions for junior and senior elected officials (there was not).
Further, a diligent media would focus on what has been done by the current Exec’s adminstration to fix the problems.
Sadly, we don’t have a diligent media.
Oh please sue is right.
Is Sue right in agreeing? It’s not so cut and dried. Was Gary Dobbert (ex-county Human Resources Director) Linda Spice’s problem (Linda had the county beat at the time? Is it my fault for not going to the pension meetings? The Journal Sentinel could have put a team of reporters on it before it was happening, and as it was happening, but if no one leaked it, they still might have missed it. An auditor finally did leak it, and eventually the story got out. For whatever reason, there were those in the audit department who didn’t feel that telling the county board was important. Not to make excuses, but that’s what happened. Media is not infallible, obviously.
There were many responsible supervisors who were lied to by Dobbert and the audit department. Jim was one of them.
At ThePRESS, and at WatchdogMilwaukee, we reported what did happen, and were the first media to pinpoint Dobbert’s role in the scandal. It was the most responsible thing to do, though it was after the fact. Much of the coverage, by TV media in particular, was highly irresponsible. Actions by many players involved, CRG included, also irresponsible in the fallout of the scandal. As a result, the losers in the end were the people of Milwaukee County.
Should we blame the media? Better media might have helped, of course, but a reporter could have done Pulitzer Prize winning work and still had little impact because people are getting their news from Fox. As it was, it was months before Bruce Murphy got other media to pay attention to the story.
You say that an auditor leaked it to Bruce Murphy but it’s my understanding that Murphy found out while having drinks with someone at a cocktail party. This was WAY after the fact. I don’t know of any auditors who knew of it when the board did. The auditors with the county that I know would have given us an ample warning and knowing how the board works, it wouldn’t have happened. I for one wouldn’t have voted for it but hindsight is 20/20.
The fact is that the board was told that it would save money in the long run.
But you are right — we pointed out all the details before we were even Watchdog Milwaukee. THE PRESS was a great paper but the internet is where it’s at.
Right, Murphy was at a party, where a county auditor who had a handle on the numbers tipped him off.
We did what we could in the media, responsibly, but all after the fact. I don’t think how the recalls were handled was what you call responsible journalism, more steam-roll journalism seeking action in the context of “the big story.”
The “felons voting” and election commission investigations have been likewise self-fulfilling, but in a different way — this time with solutions in search of problems that were never found.