Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Bloggers held to a higher standard -- and that's a good thing
Author Douglass Cater apparently was the first to suggest that journalism is "the first rough draft of history." Well, that may have been true when he said it in the 1940s and it may have remained true up until about a decade ago. Now, however, journalism at best is only the second draft. Increasingly, the first rough draft of history is now crafted by bloggers.
This change, like all technological and cultural change, has tasked professional journalism as it strives to adapt to new competition from the Internet, just as it was challenged by television. On the one hand, mainstream news media belittle blogging as unprofessional and sloppy. Some of it is. On the other hand, professional reporters mine blogs all the time to fill their own news columns. Further, mainstream news outlets -- print and broadcast -- are aggressively pursuing their own blogs.
Bloggers held to a higher standard -- and that's a good thing
Author Douglass Cater apparently was the first to suggest that journalism is "the first rough draft of history." Well, that may have been true when he said it in the 1940s and it may have remained true up until about a decade ago. Now, however, journalism at best is only the second drraft. Increasingly, the first rough draft of history is now crafted by bloggers.
This change, like all technological and cultural change, has tasked professional journalism as it strives to adapt to new competition from the Internet, just as it was challenged by television. On the one hand, mainstream news media belittle blogging as unprofessional and sloppy. Some of it is. On the other hand, professional reporters mine blogs all the time to fill their own news columns. Further, mainstream news outlets -- print and broadcast -- are aggressively pursuing their own blogs.
That's the thing: Rough drafts are meant to be marked up and edited.
Politifactoid parses Walker pay raise
You want some of this?So after bloggers (including yours truly) pointed out that a chart in the state's new compensation plan showed a 5.4% pay raise for the governor, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Politifact department issued a "false." The governor isn't giving himself a pay raise, Politifact said. Actually, it's just that he's already received one.
Oh, well, that's different. Never mind. NOT.
The importance of Walker earning considerably more than the last guy to sit in his chair isn't that Wisconsin governors aren't legally able to receive raises in the same term they're approved. The state compensation plan and this blog pointed that out up front. Rather, the issue is that Walker took the raise when he assumed office -- and did so at the same time he was secretly plotting to cut the compensation of 40,000 state employees by at least the same percentage of his increase, and in some cases more.
Stripping Wisconsin: The Journal Sentinel says, "Forward"
Original Author:
John Kaufman
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board believes that a huge strip mine proposed for northern Wisconsin can "coexist with clean water and land," though the Board offers not a nugget of evidence to support this. The evidence, in fact, suggests otherwise.
The supposedly reclaimed Flambeau Mine, also an "open pit" mine in Wisconsin, was the target of a lawsuit back in January for being in violation of the Clean Water Act.
The Board believes a new mining bill that protects the Penokee Range is possible to write. But all the words and laws in the world have not prevented the obscene destruction of many Appalachian mountains, the pollution of air and water in the West, nor the miserable existence of Americans who happen to live near strip mines.
Perhaps the Journal Sentinel could send some "watchdog" reporters to West Virginia or Wyoming or Minnesota to investigate other strip mine sites. This would be an educational experience for the Board and its readers.
Dear Journal Sentinel editors: Please check your Walker notes
Truthiness, the made-up term from comedian Stephen Colbert, supposedly is better than actual truth, because it seems truthful and yet doesn't have to be. The latest case in point: The Friday, Oct. 21, 2011 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Very truthy. Not very informative to casual readers.
First up, on page 2 of the front section, we find Politifact, or as I like to call it, Politifactoid. In its latest recurring "Walk-o-Meter" chart, it again examined progress on Walker's pledge to create 250,000 jobs by the end of his four-year term (assuming, of course, he isn't recalled by voters before then). The paper's latest chart shows this information, culled from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development:
Nothing obviously wrong with the numbers, as re-rendered by the newspaper. Focus on the overall September change in net Wisconsin jobs -- a loss of 900. Park that number in temporary memory and read on.
Now turn pages deep into the Friday edition's business page, which in a news story gives the greater context that Politifact does not (boldfacing added by me):
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