By Aaron M. Rodriguez

Defending the WISN 12 Hatchet Job on Scott Walker

On June 1st, liberal blogger Dan Cody published a blog post arguing that James Wigderson and I were going overboard about WISN’s hatchet job on Scott Walker. Cody intimated that I made too much of the fact that WISN didn’t find someone to criticize Governor Doyle for doing essentially the same thing Scott Walker did. And although I admit that this shows that WISN doesn’t run a balanced program, this wasn’t the central issue that caught my attention.

WISN demonstrated their bias when the decided to tweak an immaterial event to make it appear like a real news story. It's as if news organizations haven't yet learned from MSNBC that liberal bias decreases viewership ratings. Let’s examine the basis for their story, shall we?

Losing a Job vs. Losing an Opportunity to Bid

WISN discovered that County Executive Scott Walker had contracted an Ohio web development firm to erect a political website for his gubernatorial campaign. The website expressed a concern about Wisconsin losing jobs to competing states. Thus, WISN believes it had a “gotcha moment” analogous to a Charlie Gibson interview with Sarah Palin. The problem with the WISN story is this: there is no gotcha moment. WISN is conflating the meaning of “jobs.” Scott Walker’s campaign website states,

“Whether it’s Harley-Davidson laying off hundreds of workers or Thomas Industries closing its doors in Sheboygan, one thing is clear, Wisconsin just isn’t competitive. Other states are taking our jobs.”

Walker’s reference here is to Thomas Industries moving 280 manufacturing jobs to Monroe, Louisiana because Governor Jindal had offered the corporation a sweetheart deal worth 9 million in incentives. By jobs, Walker is talking about paid positions that consist of singular source of income. When people lose these jobs, they have no recourse and end up unemployed. WISN is not referring to this sort of job loss, but to the loss of a bidding opportunity. The difference is rather significant. Even during our current recession, Wisconsin web developers aren’t hurting for work. There is still a strong market for web development and customers pays substantial sums for the work. Walker’s choice to use an Ohio firm does not ruin a web developer’s career. They have plenty of work.

In a preemptive strike, WISN ran a non-story, and hyped it up like it was a gotcha moment. And liberal bloggers, who can’t see the trees for the forest, take no issues with imbalanced reporting unless of course it comes from Fox News. On “Left on the Lake”, Dan Cody says,

 

“See, in Aaron’s world, it’s ‘biased journalism’ because the reporter didn’t go out and find someone to criticize the Democratic Governor in a story about Scott Walker’s website. Gotcha.”

No, in Aaron’s world, consumers don’t appreciate a news network making the news rather than reporting it. Perhaps Walker had a contact in Ohio that promised a better price than Wisconsin contractors? Who really knows? But is seems rather obvious why a gubernatorial candidate might want to employ an out-of-state vendor for the job, and it's called confidentiality.

What I found particularly comical was when the Wisconsin web developer said he could do the same job for a cheaper price when he had no idea what Walker’s campaign had actually paid. What did you think might happen when you give a contractor free air time to publicize his work? Do you think he wouldn't use it to sell his credentials? Good job WISN, way to discredit yourself as a respectable news source.

Scott Walker