One reader sent a scorching letter that has gone “semi-viral”. And yet, he hasn’t given up yet, but instead, wants your help.
So, here’s his letter.
Dear Wisconsin State Journal,
As non-union public sector workers (yes, we exist) who are about to be hit with an 8+% take-home pay cut, my wife and I have to decide what luxuries we’re going to cut out of our lives. She has been arguing for weeks that we should let our subscription to your paper expire. Despite my longstanding annoyance with both your coverage and your editorializing (which led to a previous email exchange with you last Spring), I halfheartedly argued for keeping the subscription. My defense was that there was local news in your paper that I still wanted to be able to get from my breakfast reading rather than having to go online to look for it.
My grudging advocacy for renewing our subscription collapsed this morning when I read your editorial “Rampant recalls wrong.” (http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/article_4b54be17-ed80-5af8-82b3-6a3cadf60e7d.html)
What did I find so exasperating in this editorial, as in so many of your other editorials? You probably already think it was because you took a position that disagreed with mine. Please don’t console yourself with that comforting thought.
Rather, it was that you once again completely glossed over large and important points while harping on a small one. Just as you oversimplified the motivations of the hundreds of thousands of citizens — many of whom were NOT in unions — involved in the protests at the Capitol. Just as you mentioned the “mess” of Prosser/Kloppenburg election in your advocacy for appointed judges (which I agree with) while utterly failing to address the obvious and profound implications of the same mess for ALL elections held in Wisconsin. Just as you praised the bottom line of the “balanced budget” while largely ignoring the profound damage that many unwise, unnecessary and/or non-fiscal provisions of the budget do to the state. And the list goes on.
You are writing for one of the most informed, educated, and civic-minded readerships in the country, and yet you’re writing pablum. You are insulting the intelligence of a large fraction of the readership you depend on for your livelihood.
Do you really believe that the recall efforts against the GOP senators would have ever gotten off the ground if they were solely about disliking one specific vote those senators cast? Your embarrassingly simplistic and superficial editorial makes it sound like that’s all there is to it and that those behind the recalls are just whiners and sore losers.
Since you’re apparently posting your editorials from another planet, or at least another state, let me be clear: the wave of opposition to the Walkers and Fitzgeralds of this government, and all of their enablers, may indeed be partly about specific policies, but it has been fanned to white heat by the following:
Arrogant contempt for the rule of law (e.g., open meetings rules) by our elected officials. Cronyism. Appalling power politics as manifested in successful efforts to disenfranchise voters, unions, etc. Brazen pay-to-play favors to major campaign donors. A rubber-stamp Supreme Court bought and paid for by the WMC. Persecution of the public sector for partisan political purposes. Harassment of critics (e.g. Bill Cronon). Evidence of extreme incompetence and/or bona fide malfeasance in the conduct of our cherished elections by highly partisan, ethically and legally challenged clerks.
In other words, all of the ugly things that we used to associate with banana republics, not with Wisconsin, of all places. But especially those events, starting with the illegal open meetings violations and concluding with the compromised Wisconsin Supreme Court’s blessing of those violations, that give us good reason to fear that the rule of law is as dead as Monty Python’s parrot unless we fight for it with every tool at our disposal, including recall elections.
By failing to do what real journalists are supposed to do, which is to hold power accountable and to challenge your readers to revisit their prejudices and to have a more nuanced understanding of the issues confronting us, the Wisconsin State Journal has become one of the enablers of our spiral into political corruption, and we will not support it any longer.
It’s a luxury we literally can no longer afford.
Sincerely,
Grant Petty
Fitchurg, WI
Personally, I stopped paying for the paper at home probably 10 years ago at home and at work probably 6 – 8 years ago for this very same reason. I couldn’t stand supporting a paper that wrote the editorials that had such factual errors and omissions. Every time I argued with them, the editorial folks would tell me it was an editorial and it was their opinion. And I’d try to say that facts should be the basis of those editorials and the facts do matter, but they stuck with their “editorial” excuse. Apparently, in editorials they feel like they can just ignore the facts.
Sadly, on the news side of things, I think that now that Kristin Czubkowski is gone, Dean Mosiman is clearly the best local reporter in town, but I never see him any more. This summer it is very lonely in city hall, I rarely see any reporters except Shawn Doherty from the Cap Times and the guys from the Daily Reporter blog and one radio guy. In fact, I was talking with someone at WORT the other day and I said that I have become a lazy blogger, because I have no competition and can get things out at my own pace. Sadly, I’m one of those people that work on deadlines and without them, things don’t get done.
Anyways, I digress. My point is that the local news is literally dying before my eyes and the editorials at the WSJ have been crap for a very long time. So I did give up. And I’m probably part of the problem for why the news industry is dying because I don’t pay for their paper because of their editorial board. Maybe I would pay for an on-line subscription, if it had something to offer me, but I don’t know what that would be.
However, the writer of the above has not given up – he had this to say:
If I were simply giving up on the WSJ, I wouldn’t have bothered to write to them. My hope is that if enough people publicly and privately shame them, they (or their corporate owners) will feel pressure to raise the editorial standards. This great capitol city deserves a daily that does real journalism.
Well, I don’t know if that will work, but it was suggested that I let people know about this letter, so I am. Do you still subscribe to the WSJ? Do you think if you add your voice to this cause it might help? I’m not sure that it will, but I’ve been around long enough to be proven wrong many times when I’ve said “this isn’t going to work” and I’m pleased every time I am wrong. Can you help try to prove me wrong?
At the bottom of the page there is a form to fill out. Or, I’m pretty sure their email is still wsjopine@madison.com. Prove me wrong! I dare you!
I just think they assume all conservatives still read print and that is their only viable audience.