Paul Ryan Working Exclusively For Journal Times

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For over a year now, I thought something was different with the usually cozy relationship Congressman Paul Ryan has had with his hometown newspaper, the Janesville Gazette. The newspaper used to post stories about local small-town businesses and tie in business management legislation sponsored by the congressman. Or when the newspaper soft-pedaled campaign contributions to Ryan's sponsorship of trucking legislation from trucking mogul Dennis Troha. Nobody did it for Ryan like the Gazette. Ahhhh, those were the days.

But apparently, Ryan has found a new squeeze.

Milwaukee Magazine Excerpt:
Paul Ryan has a media platform that any politician would envy.

Nearly every week, the Republican U.S. representative from Janesville gets his own column on the Racine Journal Times Web site, where his analysis may include attacks on congressional Democrats and the Obama administration while promoting his own views...Adding to the air of protectiveness surrounding Ryan’s columns is that the Journal Times doesn’t allow reader comments, which are nearly ubiquitous throughout its Web site.

Like a jilted lover, is it out with Gazette and in with the Journal Times? Not quite.

With the Janesville Gazette subscriber base, Paul Ryan has few people to win over to his way of thinking. Heck, most of the Gazette's readers are urban-interloping rural traditionalists and card-carrying Republicans except when it came time to protect their UAW benefits and GM paychecks. If they're not his cousins or campaign workers, the rest are DINO's, political sell-outs and renegade Republicans from the first progressive movement. These are his people. With the JT, the Congressman has a much larger and hostile audience to work over and try to capture. They don't drink the kool-aid. He's taking his radical message into enemy territory but not allowing any rebuttal...no comments please.

Anyways, this little deal begs the obvious questions. Can a person declare exclusive rights to his public works written in the capacity of a U.S. Congressman? Can a newspaper declare publishing ownership and exclusivity to a Congressman's written or spoken words? Who pays the congressman's salary, office and staff salary, stationary and all of its attachments? What about the duties he's owes exclusively to his constituents? Should taxpayers get a cut of any newspaper's profits gained by this "exclusive" agreement?

Read more here: Favorite Son: Ryan's "exclusive" deal with the JT