August 11, 2008

More J-S editorial fraud

Yesterday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel actually contained the following headline on one of its op-ed pages, in the laughably notorious "Best of the [Wisconsin] Blogs" feature:

More ACORN vote fraud

The alleged "best" blog entry was dreamed up in response to an item that appeared in the J-S itself on August 6. The item described a couple of hundred voter registration cards out of 35,000 collected by ACORN, a community organization that, among other activities, conducts voter registration drives.

The paper's own reporting is unmistakably clear, in that the deficient registration cards collected by ACORN workers were identified and flagged as such by ACORN itself and the whole lot turned in to the Milwaukee Election Commission, because that is precisely what is required by State law.

Furthermore, the J-S reported that the workers who submitted the bad registration cards were also identified — and fired — by ACORN, and in fact several of them were referred to the district attorney's office for potential charges.

Coincidentally (or not), the Journal-Sentinel's "right-wing guy," Patrick McIlheran, also quoted approvingly from the alleged "best blogger" on August 7, in the course of making the baseless and rather idiotic suggestion that the reason ACORN flagged the deficient registration cards was to immunize itself from further investigation.

Let that serve as some wise Fourth Amendment counsel to would-be drug deliverers: If you're transporting a bale of cannabis, in the event of a traffic stop, hand the police officers a joint, because then they'll be duly satisfied and sure not to make you pop the trunk.

Additionally on August 7, Jay Bullock pointed to no less than six other local conservative bloggers who had also completely misrepresented the J-S's original report.

Yet the Journal-Sentinel would apparently prefer to memorialize that individual, who McIlheran once hilariously compared to H.L. Mencken, and who turned the paper's own reporting on its head.

Because it's the "best" we have to offer.

eta: I see the Brawler noticed as well.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why not write a letter to the editor (http://www2.jsonline.com/news/editorials/submit.asp#submit)? Also, feel free to nominate blog contenders (non-anonymous since that's the policy at this point) for the "best of" feature.

illusory tenant said...

Hi Sonya. I would, but I'm partial to my little unedited platform for ranting here, despite its readership of nine (fewer on Sundays).

feel free to nominate [non-anonymous] blog contenders

I keep meaning to, and I'll get around to it one of these days.

There certainly are plenty more than the four or five that appear in the J-S week in and week out, although they aren't all strictly political, which I assume is also a J-S prerequisite.

Anonymous said...

Hey Sonya (I assume this is JS letters editor Sonya): Why don't you shed a little more light on the nomination and selection process?

The beef here is that "Best of the Blogs" implies the entries have the Journal Sentinel's imprimatur as "best": best written, best reasoned, etc. etc.

If that's not the case - if these are no more than glorified letters to the editor - don't you think that implied endorsement is a problem?

Anonymous said...

Yep, it's me.

I don't select the "best of" blog excerpts, so I can't shed a lot of light on the process, but when I run across good ones during the week that are 1) excerptable 2) timely and 3) make a good point, I'll suggest them to other editors.

Whether or not we get or solicit nominations from readers, I don't know, but I'll find out.

Your comment about the "best of" label and its implication is well-taken, gnarlytrombone. I may bring that up at the Ed Board meeting tomorrow.

Feel free to e-mail me at sknauss (at) jsonline.com with links to any blogs you think should be on our radar.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Sonya.

Anonymous said...

Hello. And Bye.