Alternative journalism was a labor of love for Doug Hissom, who worked for decades as a reporter and sometime editor at the weekly Shepherd Express. Hissom’s family shared that passion: His father, Jim Hissom, worked in the circulation department for years before his death in 2005.
But Hissom was fired in April, the latest of many dismissals and resignations involving employees who ran afoul of Shepherd owner Lou Fortis. “We lost 15 employees in about a year and a half,” says Toni Kirkendoll, business manager from 1998 to 2004 and one of several employees who have taken Fortis to court.
Former Managing Editor Julie Wichman, who soured on Fortis and left the paper in 2000 for a job at Milwaukee Area Technical College, was aghast at Hissom’s firing: “I mean, Doug was there for almost 20 years, and he worked tirelessly for that paper.”
Adding insult to injury, Fortis provided no severance to Hissom and eliminated a family tribute that had been on the masthead for a year: “In Memory of Jim Hissom (1930-2005).” A few weeks later, the tribute mysteriously reappeared, but Fortis says that was a mistake.
“It will be removed again,” he says. “Jim Hissom was a nice guy. Really, though, other people have died and didn’t get a tribute in the masthead.”
Fortis took over ownership of the alternative weekly in 1997, and after frequent clashes with editors, took the title of editor in chief in 2004. (Milwaukee Magazine Editor Bruce Murphy served as editor for six months in 1999.) Fortis says Hissom was fired for being a bad writer, but it apparently took the owner nine years to come to this realization. Not long after Hissom’s firing, longtime freelance media columnist Dave Berkman quit in disgust.
“It’s one of the most severe cases of megalomania I have ever seen,” says Berkman about Fortis. Berkman, known for his scathing criticism of media figures, had written a column attacking WUWM Radio for its firing of Robyn Cherry, the station’s sole African-American staff member. Fortis refused to run the column, prompting Berkman’s resignation.
This leaves the paper with just one news staffer: Lisa Kaiser. Fortis, however, denies this, saying, “No, Evan is writing news, too.” When told there is no Evan on the paper’s masthead, Fortis said, “Um, I’m not sure about his last name. You’ll have to check with Lisa about that.”
Fortis, a long-time resident of Madison, also has a condominium in Milwaukee, but former staffers estimate that he spends several days a week in Madison. Fortis says this helps him cover the state capital. But staffers describe a sometimes-absent owner who is increasingly willing to kill or change stories for non-journalistic reasons.
Bill Kurtz, a Shepherd reporter from April 2000 to October 2001, wanted to profile West Bend state Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican who battled against legislation that would allow rent-to-own businesses to make more money from their mostly low-income and minority customers. “I thought what he was doing was very progressive,” Kurtz recalls. “Louis said, ‘We never want to make right-wingers look good.’”
Ex-staffers say Fortis killed coverage of the Ralph Nader campaign in 2000 because it might take away votes from Democrat Al Gore, regularly eliminated items critical of Mayor Tom Barrett and spiked a positive story about Democratic Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton after Fortis had a falling-out with her. Fortis says he doesn’t recall the flap about Grothman and Nader and denies the other charges.
The Shepherd has also run frequent stories with no bylines, with no one standing behind the point of view expressed. Hissom’s old “Expresso” column now has no byline. Fortis says he and Kaiser now write it.
Marc Eisen, editor of the Madison alternative weekly Isthmus, says a recent Shepherd article defending convicted felon and for-mer state Sen. Chuck Chvala was inexcusable. “I found that pretty ridiculous,” he says. “There was no byline, so it’s difficult to know who to criticize.” Eisen notes that Chvala has been hired to do work for Fortis (which Fortis admits) and says this professional relationship should have been disclosed to the readers.
Another conflict of interest involves the Milwaukee International Film Festival created by the alternative weekly. A recent Ex-presso column praised a company that did pro bono work for the festival without noting its association with the weekly. Film festival sponsors, former staffers say, get favored treatment from the paper. “He would never let the Shepherd criticize any of his pet advertisers,” Berkman charges.
As the Shepherd’s political coverage declines, its arts and entertainment coverage keeps increasing. That’s great, as far as A&E editor Dave Luhrssen is concerned. “We cannot be The Nation or The New Republic,” he says.
Ironically, Fortis is a former legislator who was brought in to rescue the financially troubled weekly by Ed Garvey, Madison liberal and FightingBob.com publisher. Garvey declined comment on how that has worked out, but the ever-voluble Berkman was happy to consider Fortis’ legacy. “Financially, Fortis rescued the paper,” Berkman says, “but journalistically, he condemned it.”
