Pressroom Buzz

For years some outside observers have claimed that Journal Sentinel editors let right wing talk radio set their news agenda. JS editors have always rejected the claim, and I’ve never been convinced of it either.   Now, a tussle between JS Managing Editor George Stanley and the Right Wisconsin website operated by corporate sibling WTMJ-AM 620 has thrown some more cold water on the theory.   The exchange was rooted in the breathless “exclusive” last week in which RW – launched this year by the Journal Broadcast Group to further promote its tent pole host Charlie Sykes – reported that…

Regular readers know that I’ve long taken a jaundiced view of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel PolitiFact feature. I think the motive behind the project is laudable. But I’ve been wary of the execution from the start, and I’ve grown weary of it since. That’s unfortunate, because I think the contributing reporters and editors, particularly Pulitzer-prize winner David Umhoefer, are strong and talented journalists. Yet institutional constraints wind up making the overall enterprise more frustrating than enlightening at times. A textbook example of the feature’s flaw is this week’s piece by Umhoefer that takes Gov. Scott Walker down a peg for…

In its first year, Patch was probably most notable as that rare quantity, a journalism outlet hiring a large number of new employees.   For more than a year now, claims of the imminent demise of the hyperlocal news site run by aol.com have been persistently floated and just as persistently denied by Patch executives and managers. And even after a national restructuring (first reported at All Things D) that shed about 40 jobs nationally last month, the company’s stance is never say die.   Although, when it comes to hard information about the downsizing, it’s more like never say…

Mirroring the industry its students hope to join, Marquette University has carried out a major overhaul in its journalism curriculum. Core journalism courses at MU’s Diederich College of Communication now expose entry-level students to the newest tools and techniques of professional newsrooms. “If you’re not thinking digital first, then you’re not equipped to be a success as a journalist in the future,” says the college’s dean, Lori Bergen. But some students say the trendy subjects like video and social media are crowding out basic skills needed by all journalists. And they’re pushing back. “I certainly understand what they’re trying to…

    Randy Hollenbeck When Randy Hollenbeck launched his ultimately successful campaign for Cudahy alderman, he was already a known commodity to readers of the CudahyNOW.com website. Hollenbeck blogs at the local news portal, one of some two dozen suburban Milwaukee NOW sites operated by the Community Newspapers unit of Journal Communications. He labels himself “an Ultra-Conservative, Alpha-Male, True Authentic Leader, Type ‘C’ Personality,” – and he wasn’t shy about using his blog to promote his aldermanic campaign, either. And he did it with the full knowledge of, and no objection from, NOW’s boss. “Our policy on all bloggers is…

The loss of the Milwaukee Labor Press is bigger than just the closing of a newspaper. It’s a sign of the continued fragmenting of our society and our culture in which the countless numbers of people who work for a living and who once helped make up a growing and thriving middle class are all but ignored by the machinery of the mass media.   The publisher, the Milwaukee County Labor Council, pulled the plug and, with the publication of last week’s issue, announced it would be the monthly paper’s final edition.      Sheila Cochran “It was one of…

It’s a common complaint among residents of less affluent and impoverished neighborhoods in cities: In the mainstream media, their communities get depicted in one broad and distorted stroke – as dangerous and victimized, instead of as complex networks of the people who live there and strive for improvement.   Milwaukee is no different – except that a couple of years ago, some neighborhood organizations decided to take the matter into their own hands and contribute directly to changing the journalism about their communities.   The result was the Neighborhood News Service, a non-profit outlet that posts stories on the web…

Sarah Carr spent five years covering education for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel before an itch for change took her to New Orleans, where she covered the same beat for the Times Picayune. It was a unique opportunity. One result of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the fabric of the city was a controversial decision that converted the entire New Orleans school system into a massive experiment with charter schools and school choice. Carr’s time in Milwaukee, a city on the leading edge of the movement for private school vouchers and expanding charter schools, turned out to be especially apt.…

The humming nerve center of Riverwest Radio  The decision of station owners at WMCS-AM 1290 to unceremoniously pull the plug last week on news and talk programming for Milwaukee’s black community leaves a huge hole in the local media landscape.   But inside a video store on Center Street is the promise of something that could point the way to filling that gap, or others like it.   The Riverwest Film and Video Store at 824 E. Center St. is home to Riverwest Radio. You won’t find it on your dial right now – it’s an Internet-only broadcaster – but…

Back in January the Democratic Party of Wisconsin held a telephone news conference to outline its strategy for winning the state when Gov. Scott Walker runs for reelection next year.   The event got a smattering of coverage: a blog post at JSOnline and stories on Fox 6 and in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram.   I suspect a generation ago the whole story would have been quite different – in the way it was reported and in the way it was presented.   I doubt either the Democratic Party or the Republicans in the 1960s or even the 1980s…