Sunday’s Janesville Gazette Sound Off column contained 17 anonymous comments, typical for this popular newspaper forum. Of those 17, one was a disparaging remark against community activist Andreah K. Briarmoon. Another one went negative on union Rep. Mike Sheridan (D) and his support and phone-call campaign for Janesville city council candidate Kevin Bishop. One thought Rep. Paul Ryan should focus on running for governor. Another one recommended a book written by Texe Marrs about the evil Clintons. Another commenter thought the media should be investigating Bill Clinton’s post-presidential business life and background instead of fooling around with McCain. This next one was my favorite.
JG Sound Off:I thought, promising more than you can deliver sounds like average election year rhetoric to me. But charging taxpayers more than double than what it costs, clinches it. The commenter must be a Republican.
On presidential politics: I was thinking of running for president on a platform of health care for everybody, free college education for everybody, no more property taxes but we’ll have a flat tax of 75 percent for everybody. Sounds good, doesn’t it?-- anonymous
The Sunday column was capped by two more negative remarks against the teachers union and the fight to protect their health care insurance.
If we go back to this past Wednesday’s Sound Off column, the anti-left rhetoric was about the same.
It started with a comment suggesting local town positions such as clerk and treasurer should no longer be elected offices. Followed by four consecutive negative comments against teachers, which was followed by two negative comments against Barack Obama. Another one criticized Gov. Doyle. One comment praised Gazette affiliate Stan Milam’s Show on WCLO. Finally the last politically driven rant was more sarcasm about the supposed hypocrisy of those against the Bush tax cuts while seemingly supporting the Dem-led economic stimulus plan. Aside from a couple of anti-corporate greed comments, the rest were mainly the local fare about rude drivers, newspaper carriers and everyday complaints. The point here is that the two most recent Sound Off anonymous columns were majority anti-democrat, anti-Clinton and Obama, anti-teachers and unions while a small minority were pro-Republican, Ryan and pro-self interests. Neither Wednesday’s or Sunday’s columns had pro-democrat or pro-dem issue’s comments.
This coming from a newspaper sitting in the middle of a county that recently voted 30,600 for democratic presidential candidates and 7,600 for republican candidates in the primary.
For clarification, I’m writing this not to complain, but to just make an observation.
10 comments:
The Gazette is the Gazette, Seems like whenever I mention a Gazette article or editorial in casual conversation folks spit on the ground and then respond with "You can't believe what they say"!
The Gazette is owned by one guy who merely inherited the business. Every single Gazette employee has one thing in common and that is the signature on the paycheck.
My favorite comment from sound off goes something like this, "The midwest, small minds, large lawns."
"folks spit on the ground and then respond with "You can't believe what they say"! You forgot to add it's usually accompanied by an eyeroll. LOL
But can you imagine how things might be if we had a Janesville paper that did not editorialize far-right, pro-corporate or anti-dem all the time? Or if they did not chase down local public employees or regular citizens when they make a minor mistake in life, just to get a story. Or if they did not tie in irrelevant political propaganda into the "positive" stories of local residents and business owners. Or if they did not write new's reports loaded with innuendoes and other personal remarks to satisfy their social engineering agenda. And on an on.
You know, in a lot of ways I don't care who owns the newspapers or edits them, but I care about all this other silly stuff. They are not going to change because of me, but it's been a lot of fun and very satisfying trying.
It's lunch-time!!
Since this webpage began, the local papers but particularly the Gazette dug in their heels and they are worse than ever. Keep up the good fight!
If there are so many Dem's why does Ryan keep getting elected? The woman hating Repubs crossed over to vote against Hillary.
Did you see that JG editorial page cartoon Mon night?
I gather it was supposed to be a comment on the reporting each candidate receives but I doubt many got it.
I think some of that happened - crossover vote - but not at those numbers.
That's a good question (about Ryan). But there are several factors that probably contribute to it now.
1. average opposition
2. Strong media support
3. Large campaign chest
4. Some people actually think they are restore the checks and balance by splitting their vote.
If Obama wins the nomination, this could be the year southern Wisconsinites coalesce around a dem candidate for Congress.
I'd bet one of the next editorial cartoons and Sound Off columns will slant democratic and afterwards someone will comment that the Gazette is liberal or a left-wing newspaper. It happens all the time.
You can understand the Gazette's political bias - every newspaper has one but what on earth is the reason they refuse to cover local culture and business? Every Valentine's Day they do a story on chocolates. The closest they ever got to Janesville is that this year they covered someone up north. At least it was a shop in the state. Usually they do not even hit the state but give us the name of stores in New York etc. We have a famous chocolater in Janesville's Fudglies and there is another chocolater in Verona. These are very high quality truffles and fudge. The Gazette could do a corresponding article to highlight the local businesses related to these out of county/state furniture and food specialty articles.
The same can be said for other local businesses. They could run restaurant menus and interview people eating for their opinion of the food. They could review the food at the Amory theater supper club shows. The Gazette simply does not have reporters covering the local culture here in Janesville and the surrounding area.
I want pictures of the farmer's market, reviews of our restaurants and local organizations. Not an announcement column but a report by someone who goes to the meetings and events. The Gazette stinks in both its coverage of politics (not balanced) and its' coverage of the city and county cultural life and business.
The legal scene is not covered in a way that would help us make decisions when we vote for judges. We should get the judges name for every case and the sentence that judge imposed. We should know the judge for every crime/sentence listed in special notices and we should get reviews of that info posted before every judicial election. We should get a vote review listing every time someone runs for city and county boards. We get no civic real news. We get guest columns from some woman in Florida.
The Gazette also does not think locally in their hiring practices. The people who call to ask us to subscribe are not from WI. I could go on but ......
Every newspaper does have a political bias but usually it's confined to their own editorials. You've hit the nail on the head about what a GOOD local newspaper really is.
I wholeheartedly agree, there's a lot the Gazette could do different and you've hit on quite a few of them, and given them some very good and free advice.
Excluding their brutally nauseating editorial page with Star Parker and Heritage Foundation crap, etc., the Messenger (please God forgive me for this) actually does a little better on the local scene with a few local writers, and their news stories are written reasonably subjective and fair. But they drift into hard-right religion too often.
The Gazette can't seem to offer a clean steady diet of local reporting without tying a political bent or some other kind of advantage in for themselves.
I too found myself going on and on about all this and felt something was seriously wrong here. It's political power, and that's why I started this blog.
The Gazette should thank you for your comments.
The Gazette is totally uninterested in advice as I have tried more than once. I agree with you about the Messenger - better ad rates as well.
Why should the Gazette run stories on local businesses or community groups and events if they are not willing to pay in some way for the coverage? You are mistaking them for someone who cares about Janesville or Rock County in those kind of terms - they don't - but only that the area remains economically strong enough to support them. That's all that matters.
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