Journal-Sentinel Reporter Steve Schulze likes to twist the truth and has on at least one occasion, outright lied. Those actions cause me pause in believing any column where I see his name listed. This mornings column is no different. With his writing you have to not only read between the lines, but look for the little snippets of fact and then do your research to find out if there's something more to those facts. When it's a democrat who he can slam with innuendo, he likes to ask republicans how they feel about the innuendo. Of course they'll do their job of implying the dem did the worst. Overall, Schulze likes the juicy, Geraldo Rivera style stories. Occasionally he'll do a column that works both ways as he did when he wrote about the now-indicted Nick Hurtgen connection to then-Governor Tommy Thompson but he was working in concert with an ethical reporter back then so it is no surprise the story didn't call on the opposition to spread innuendo. Now Schulze smells blood in the water with the conviction of Georgia Thompson who, was actually hired under former Republican Governor Scott McCallum's administration in July 2001 (as pointed out by Seth Zlotocha from the blog In Effect), not the Jim Doyle administration. But who did Schulze interview for a comment on the story? Of course it was GOP Party Chair Rick Graber. Would Schulze have thought to interview Tommy Thompson to ask about how she got the job? Cronyism from a Republican administration perhaps? In the interest of full disclosure, I've got my own beef with Schulze who took two completely separate issues we spoke of one day and transposed them and merged them to create a quote which never came out of my mouth. Ever since that time, I've never trusted what Schulze writes. After all, if he could outright lie about me, he can lie about anyone. If there is one section line in Schulze's article that it makes sense to focus on it is this:

"I don't want people to read too much into it, other than we are trying to be careful in what we do," said Biskupic, an appointee of President Bush's.

"I don't want people to read too much into it". What does that tell you? What does that tell any person who has common sense? If U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, the man who was prosecuting the case, who is already a partisan Republican, is telling you not to read too much into it, does it make sense to read more into it? Schulze thinks so but since he couldn't get even a partisan Republican to take a few shots at the Democratic Governor, clearly he needed to phone a hard-core political hatchetman right? If the facts won't lay out an indictment for a sitting Democrat then it's important for the public to get an in-depth slathering of innuedo, right?Picture the phone call:

Ring, ring Graber: Hello? Schulze: Hi Rick, it's your old pal Steve Schulze Graber: Oh hi Steve, how are the kids? Schulze: They're great. Rick, now that Georgia Thompson has been indicted on the travel case I need a few juicy shots at Governor Doyle and Biskupic isn't playing nice. Can you throw me some good innuendo and attack quotes? Graber: Oh sure "…..(partisan attack)……." Schulze: Thanks Rick — that's what I was looking for. Graber: No problem. Say hi to your lovely wife for me would ya? Schulze: And yours too — we'll talk to you later, bye.

Am I saying that Schulze is a little too tight with Republicans? Of course. Just look at his previous stories. Where was the Democratic oppostion? Clearly it's a one way street with Schulze. Then there's this snippet from the June 3rd Wisconsin State Journal:

Frank Tuerkheimer, a UW- Madison Law School professor and former federal prosecutor: “The very fact that there's a trial tells me that whatever pressure has been brought against her to name names hasn't worked," Tuerkheimer said. "I would infer that there are no names to name."

Was it a slow news day for Schulze? Could he not find any real news so he took the easy route and focused on innuendo? Schulze is an embarassment to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel but worse yet he's an embarassment to the news industry at large. An ethical newsman like Edward R. Murrow would have fired Schulze a long time ago. We hope that the JS at least starts to keep an eye on the trash that Schulze writes and if they don't, we hope you take a serious look at the name of the reporter on each story before giving it any credence.

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The dems are whacking away at the innuendo and did a fairly good job dismantling the innuendo machine that Schulze is a part of. Click here for their take. The following item from their page is especially telling:

Question: Didn’t Governor Doyle meet with Craig Adelman about the travel contract before it was awarded? Fact: No. Press reports to this effect were simply false and the news outlet that reported it was forced to run a correction. [source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6/8/06]