It’s no surprise, that I’m no fan of the Wisconsin State Journal. Especially the editorial board . . . which can’t seem to get their facts straight. So, my criticisms of them are probably growing quite old. However, its hard not to notice their year long obsession with Austin King and the whole new level of mean we’ve seen in the last year.
I took my fair share of the shots from them when I was council president, but it strikes me as odd that they would be so viscous to a 25 year old former UW student. Shouldn’t they be encouraging young people to be involved in local government? Take a peek at some of tamer things that they have said about Austin King in just the last few weeks.
King Of Mandates Finally Leaving: The Leftist Alderman Pitched A Slew Of Proposals That Grabbed Headlines But Distracted The City From Its Basic Needs. It starts out with “We’re almost going to miss Madison Ald. Austin King. Almost.” and ends with “But those of us who have made Madison our permanent home will not miss King’s distracting and draining agenda.” With nothing nice to say in between.
After the elections last Tuesday, the write the opinion piece about Progressive Dane, Pd Slips Again: The Leftist Political Party Has Lost Another Seat -- A Sign That The City Council Should Be More On Track. In the opinion, they start out ripping on Austin and gloating about a loss of one seat on campus and then launch into their snide remarks about "This is good news for Madison and suggests the City Council will be more on task and less willing to dabble in national, international or even intergalactic politics." They continue by literally calling Austin names.
They couldn't even endorse someone for District 8 without taking another swipe at Austin. I wonder where they think Austin got his "national social agenda" from? And in Milfred's recent rip on the light bulb proposal, they assign all kinds of motives to Austin, likely without ever even talking to Austin himself.
And then, there have been the cartoons . . .And that is just a small sampling of what you can find in their archives in just the last few weeks, the jabs have been nearly endless over the past year. Say what you will about Austin King, I don't think anyone can deny that the debate has been richer, the campus well represented and the City better off for his four years of service. Too bad the Wisconsin State Journal can't look beyond their narrow agenda of hating Progressive Dane and therefore anyone connected to Progressive Dane, and recognize the remarkable efforts that a relatively young person made to make Madison a better place for all of us to live. If only all of our elected officials were as passionate, intelligent and committed as Austin has been, we'd all be better off.
