Gazette's Radio-Winger Quitting The Show

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Whatever you can make of this article posted at the Janesville Gazette, I thought they did a fairly good job on keeping out all the details why political commentator Stan Milam is quitting the Gazette’s WCLO radio line-up.

My hunch is that two of the more obvious acts of Gazette inspired chaos sent him on a trajectory out the door.

After the Gazette recently published a negative article about Paul Ryan's democratic challenger John Heckenlively, Milam bragged about the Congressman's good fortune to have a newspaper perform such a wonderful hit job on the democratic challenger and declared Heckenlively's campaign over. Milam said, "stick a fork in him, he's over," as he used the newspaper's distortions to further ream him on the air - Fox News style.

In October of last year, Milam made veiled threats of newspaper retaliation to Janesville city council members if they refuse the newspaper's request to start council meetings earlier so the paper can meet its publishing deadlines. That went over real well.

I bring up those two examples only as evidence that Milam merely echoed Gazette office banter and inadvertently channeled what the hierarchy at the Gazette were up to and thinking - one too many times. For this he became dispensable.

Although I rarely found common ground with Milam's political perspectives, I also never considered him a lead technician in the local media’s socio-political agenda, but he did carry their water and it's for that reason he became an honorary subject of about a dozen of my blog postings.

So far it looks like he was forced out, but more details might come out in the next couple of weeks - his last day is August 20th.

Gazette Columnist: 1st CD of WI Requires Presidential Intervention

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After reading Stan Milam's column from last Saturday's Janesville Gazette titled "Could Obama have helped Janesville, too?" I couldn't quite figure out immediately what was missing from the story. Something just wasn't right.

The story (not published on the Web) was primarily about the Bucyrus deal and how the company apparently got lucky because Milam figured it raised President Obama's discomfort level while he was visiting nearby Racine just enough to make a phone call and reverse the Ex-Im Bank's controversial decision. Milam then wonders...

JG Excerpt:
Why did Obama not intervene when the Chrysler collapse resulted in the closing of the Kenosha engine plant? Why did he not intervene to help Janesville by providing a future for this community's assembly plant when he reorganized General Motors?

Then it dawned on me. The common denominator adversely effecting nearly everything Milam wrote about but completely absent from his article was ...yep, you guessed it ...Rep. Paul Ryan! Ryan was noticeably absent from Milam's article about the local economy and potential job losses in Kenosha, Janesville, Racine and south Milwaukee's Bucyrus simply because the congressman is noticeably absent on anything to do with his district's problems.

Just last month, a plethora of groups from the Janesville area comprised of business, labor, health care, education and builder's groups could have and should have delivered a list of eight earmarks totaling $40 million for economic recovery to Ryan while he was hosting one of his ideologically skewed talking sessions at Craig High School in Janesville. But they must have figured, why bother the prestigious congressman with such local frivolity and nonsense when he's got a book to write? Ryan left empty handed from Craig High School.

About one week later, the group turned their wish list over to the White House counsel of community recovery, Dr. Ed Montgomery. So, not only was Ryan absent from his duty to accept and represent his constituent economic recovery needs in Congress, he was also absent from his community's session with Montgomery. Ryan's got other priorities.

When the sitting President of the United States (regardless of party affiliation)visits a community, wouldn't you think the area's district representative would be there to greet him? Sure, this was Obama's show but it was also about the local economy and jobs in the 1st Congressional District of Wisconsin. Most importantly this was the district's show, and Paul Ryan wasn't there. We're used to it.

Milam closed his article with this...

JG Excerpt:
Wisconsin residents delivered for Obama when he asked for our support as a candidate in 2008. With the possible exception of Ex-Im and Bucyrus, has he reciprocated?

Six times, folks in the 1st CD of Wisconsin have delivered for Paul Ryan, and I challenge anyone, anyone to show me what our district got for it. Besides reciprocating absolutely nothing, we have a cynical and disillusioned constituency infuriated just enough to channel their frustration against the first person who shows any genuine interest and reciprocation for our plight - the President of the United States.

So who could blame Milam for thinking, with a touch of crass political infirmity, that our area's economic condition requires presidential intervention. I don't blame him at all.

Newspaper Downplays Friend's Comments

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Part 2 of an earlier post. During his WCLO talk show last week, Janesville radiowinger Stan Milam made a series of tattling statements daring any Janesville city council member to vote against the wishes of the Janesville Gazette.

WCLO Radio Excerpts:
"That will pass without one no vote... Why would you pick a fight you didn't need to pick or why would you even risk it? ... Why would you oppose that? ... But I am eagerly awaiting the council member who does oppose it... I'm just waiting for that one. Heh, heh... When you're in the business of having to be elected, what's the point with starting a fight with someone who buys ink by the truckload... it's not something the Gazette takes lightly... But I'm EAGERLY awaiting the council member who votes no and tells us why." -- Stan Milam

Milam is a well-seasoned journeyman at the mic. So it wasn’t a mere slip of the tongue by an amateur or an accidental soundbite that got away from the talk radio host. He kept on it, made an issue of it and drove his point home by repeating his veiled threat with emphasis against any councilman who dare vote against the newspaper's request. He also knows the office banter that goes on at the Gazette.

So, is Stan Milam credible? Should he be taken seriously?

This past Sunday, the Janesville Gazette finally issued an editorial statement about Milam's comments.

Gazette Explanation:
My good friend Stan Milam suggested on his WCLO radio show that the council would be foolish to vote against a request from a company that buys its ink by the barrel. Thanks Stan, but I wouldn’t go nearly that far. We’re not vindictive and we would never hold such a decision against well-meaning council members.-- Gazette Editor

Not quite a denunciation but just enough to keep everyone guessing. The newspaper had another opportunity to set the record straight the next day in their weekly “thumbs up or down” editorial. Had they genuinely felt Milam was out of line they would have condemned his comments with a big “thumbs down.”

Make no mistake, had anyone else made those intimidating comments, the Gazette would have made it the dirt of the town and demanded a public explanation or retraction. With Stan Milam, they did not. They would not. They're friends.

Wing Nut Radio Spins Both Ways

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Last week, Janesville talk radio host Stan Milam reeled off a series of baffling comments poking at the Left after he repeated James Carville's Clintoneque "It's the economy stupid" quote in his newspaper column as the basis for his plead for more government interference in the private jobs sector. Afterwards, a newspaper caller forgivingly aligned Milam with the left-wing.

Sound Off (anonymous column in the Gazette)
On Milam: Although I usually don’t agree with Stan Milam’s left of center views, he’s dead on in his article about jobs. Without jobs, nothing else the government is doing is helping our country and especially our state. In fact, everything they’re doing is causing job loss. They all need to be voted out.

Can (or should) state governments afford trying to reverse the damage inflicted on the their local economies from the GOP's "Contract on America" followed by eight years of Bush tax cut wealth re-distribution voodoo economics by offering the wealthiest entities among us hundreds of millions in tax and wage concessions? So far 43 of 50 states have experienced noticeably deep job losses. Is it the state's fault? I'm not implying that something should not be done stateside. However, in Wisconsin, we had a state government and a labor union join forces to offer a global corporation over $400 million in local tax and wage concessions. And that was just one corporation! Can we afford to stay on that course? Milam and his "not left-wing" fans think we can.

Milam's Column Excerpt:
It's jobs, stupid...Although a $409 million bid for production at the Janesville plant fell short of Michigan's $1 billion bid, the exercise was used to help retain thousands of jobs related to Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac.

Milam obviously approves of deep taxpayer (government) involvement for job creation, but only to the ownership side of the so-called free markets.

Milam Show Audio: (Excerpt)
"We are going to see concerned people passionate about causes, and taking matters into their own hands trying to find some funding trying to make changes to make our life a better place…we can’t always rely on the government to solve all our problems…Now do I sound like some left-wing wimp…as they call me in the paper." -- Milam

On his radio show, Milam seemed almost shaken for being considered politically left of center by the anonymous newspaper comment.

Milam Show Audio: (Excerpt)
”I would want you to talk to some of the people I deal with before you accuse me of being a left-wing..ah, nut. I’m in support of any efforts folks want to take that allows them to take hold of situations without involving government. Because I pay taxes, and I don’t mind paying taxes for the essential things that we need, clean water, sewage treatment, decent roads and …recreational activities.

Well, THAT convinced (eyeroll) me. But what about education, health care or the environment? Apparently those are all merely trivial sideshows that can be dealt with while government coddles the corporate sector for jobs.

According to his "jobs" column in last week's Saturday Gazette (Sept. 19), Milam stated "no single issue in America trumps employment" and approved of heavy corporate tax incentive packages while completely avoiding the consequences this relationship will have on non-incentivized taxpayers. Like a politician in campaign mode, he's clearly spinning both ways.

Exactly how is the government supposed to create the demand absolutely necessary and crucial for job creation? I don't think Milam or the anonymous caller had "cash for clunkers" in mind. From their comments, they both support the re-distribution of wealth from the taxpaying masses to the wealthiest at the top, and insist government should play the interferer, decider and job maker. Milam's column referenced here was titled, "Where is the focus on jobs?" It was not directed at the business community, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, venture capitalists, honest-to-goodness developers or the free market at-large. He was pointing to government, and let's be clear - he's NOT a left-winger.

Here's stripped-threads nutism number two: The workers, under the latest definition of global economic progress, were never intended to be the recipients of the hundreds of millions in tax incentive dollars bundled together. In fact, with both GM and Mercury Marine, the workers are the ones whose wages and benefits were slashed or frozen even further, with new hires starting wages cut as much as 40%. We're promoting corporate tax incentives while simultaneously cutting worker wages. The disparity between richest and poorest Americans widened in the wake of job losses and will widen even further under these wrong-headed incentives to fabricate job gains. Do you have to be a left-wing nut to see the death spiral here? And what of the CEO's and their money managers in the meantime? They're not happy like the workers are expected to be just to have a job - instead, they'll collect performance bonuses while the flow of stockholder dividends remains uninterrupted. Obviously then, the tax credits and hand-outs were never meant to support the incidentals (demand, wages, benefits) of job creation (left-wing). They're for lining the pockets of the profit-takers. This is far gone right-wing corporatist nutism well beyond the point of no return.

Milam Show Audio: (Excerpt)
But when we start whining about every single thing that isn’t going our way, and we want government to solve it. Talk to guys like Dean (a volunteer)… For all you listeners who like to call me left-wing Louie and all that sort of thing, perhaps you hadn’t been listening.” – Milam

Just like the folks who occasionally accuse the Janesville Gazette of being a Liberal newspaper, I worry about how far to the right or confused someone must be to lovingly call Stan "left-wing Louie." You got me there, I've never felt so insulted.