Brew City Brawler

Sykes to McBride: You're dead to me

When Jessica McBride was canned from WTMJ, who could forget how Charlie Sykes described her on-air as his friend? Or how he wrote this on his blog:

When all of this calms down I hope folks remember two things: in radio ultimately our fates are determined by the marketplace; and although these are controversial and painful issues, they do involve actual people.

Oh, the compassion! And Jessica was not shy in sending some love Charlie's way:

If it weren't for Charlie Sykes, I wouldn't have a blog. Charlie Sykes encouraged me to start my very first blog.

It's touching stuff.

You would have thought that, after all this mutual appreciation and emotional support, that Sykes would have continued supporting his pupil.

But apparently not. The easiest way for Sykes to help McBride would be by continuing to link to her blog. Which he no longer does on his overhauled site (also, it appears the treasure trove of lies that is his archives has been vaporized in the redesign as well). Although he does have links to the intellectual powerhouses at Tom McMahon, Real Debate Wisconsin and, humorously, Boots and Sabers. Was it her crazy talk after she was canned that's led Charlie to distance himself from her? Her crazed support for Vang Pao's planned coup in Laos?

For what it's worth, fierce McBride defender Jeff Wagner no longer links to her either.

Jessica once referred to her blog as "widely read." For how much longer?

From the department of a failed AG candidate

In retrospect, one has to wonder if Jeff "Mr. Stupefaction" Wagner's gallant defense of Jessica McBride wasn't aimed at her paymasters as they struggled to figure out why WTMJ was sullying its reputation by employing La McBride.

Before Jeff "Let's talk more about American Idol" Wagner's defense of a fired talker goes down the memory hole, the Brawler posts it in its entirety:

MONDAY, May 14, 2007, 5:55 p.m.
Stalking Jessica

It seems that my colleague Jessica McBride has attracted her very own cyber-stalker. It would probably be somewhat flattering if it wasn't so - well - downright creepy.

Jessica's Rupert Pumpkin (uh, Jeff or Amber, whoever wrote this: It's Rupert Pupkin -- The Brawler) has created a blog that offers, on an almost daily basis, an unrelentingly hostile critique of all things Jessica. To do this, it appears the stalker listens to all her shows and scours other media outlets looking for any references to Jessica and her family. Talk about God's way of telling you that you need to get a life.

Frankly, I've never really understood the obsession that some people have with radio talk show hosts that they dislike. I mean, if I don't care for a particular show, I simply don't listen.

For a variety of reasons however, the kook fringe seems especially obsessed with Jessica.

First, a lot of her critics are undoubtedly insanely jealous of her. She gets paid to teach journalism, write and host a radio show - and they don't.

Second, I think there is a huge element of sexism in the attacks on Jessica. My guess is that listening to her radio program is the closest that a lot of her critics ever come to having a woman other than their mothers (at least one that isn't inflatable) in their homes during the evening. In other words, they are unfamiliar around and don't deal well with women. (The Brawler suggests Crawford's Take might take exception to this characterization -- The Brawler.)

Finally, Jessica baits the nut cases in a way that most of us in the business don't - and this unquestionably fuels their fire.

To my way of thinking, this small dark corner of the internet is so tiny that the the mushrooms who thrive there could probably avoid risking carpel tunnel but signing up for AT&T's "five friends" plan instead of blogging. Nevertheless, what they lack in numbers, they make up for with a crazed sort of intensity - with an emphasis on "crazed". I've personally always thought it was a waste of valuable air time to spend it commenting on the ramblings of so few.

In contrast though, to help pass the time and entertain the evening audience, Jessica chooses to use these fringe elements as props. I presume that the only way her props feel they can fight back is through web sites like the one in question. Whatever.

In any event, Jessica now has her own cyber-stalker. Congratulations Jess, you've hit the big time.

I wouldn't get too excited though. Anybody who has the time and inclination to spend cyber-stalking Jessica McBride (or any radio talk show host for that matter) is probably someone for whom life isn't really working out all that well in the first place.

C'mon Jeff Wagner: You should know a dirty trick when you see one!

Of all the Republican hyperventilating over failed Supreme Court candidate Linda Clifford's perfectly legal robocals citing a Milwaukee Sentinel Journal (inversion deliberate) endorsement, some of the loudest came from WTMJ's blandly malevolent Jeff Wagner:

If Clifford and her pals at The Greater Wisconsin Committee didn't run another ad, Clifford would already win the award for conducting the sleaziest judicial campaign in the history of the State of Wisconsin. As a matter of fact, I can't recall another political campaign - period - where the candidate didn't run a single positive ad. Of course, when you stand for the things that Linda Clifford appears to stand for, its no surprise that she wouldn't want to dwell on the issues.

There's a lot to be said about the Clifford campaign. But as far as accusing it of sleaziness -- while ignoring Ziegler's ads denouncing Clifford for being an "immigration lawyer" -- please. Since when is it sleazy to let the public know a candidate for the highest court in the state has a brazen disregard for judicial ethics?

You think Jeff would know better about sleazy tactics given his own experience as a failed  state attorney general candidate.

Remember "handgunhotlinegate," when GOPers including a Wagner staffer, tried to embarrass then-attorney Jim Doyle? The plan was to try to buy a handgun while using  a felon's name. The hope was the name wouldn't show up during a hotline check because it hadn't been entered in the crime laboratory's computers. Voila (or whallah), Jim Doyle gets embarrassed over the backlog at the crime lab (yes, that has been an issue for more than a decade).

Thing is, the hotline worked.

From the 10/14/94 Milwaukee Journal:

(State rep John Dobyns was) accused of political dirty tricks after he and two other Republicans used the names of convicted criminals in an attempt to get clearance to buy a gun. Democrats say it was an attempt to embarrass Attorney General Jim Doyle's gun hot line.

Workers on the hot line, however, red-flagged the names: One was of a convicted rapist serving 30 years in prison and the other was that of Leonard McDowell, convicted in April of killing Wauwatosa West High School Associate Principal Dale Breitlow last year.

Doyle's office says the law may have been broken in the incident because it is illegal to give false information when buying a gun. In addition, Doyle's office says other crimes may have been committed, including impersonating a police officer.

Dobyns, though, scoffs at that and other allegations, and says he only went along as an observer when a party staffer (Lisa B. Nelson) and the campaign manager for Republican attorney general candidate Jeff Wagner (Steve Lyons) went to a Marquette County gun store Wednesday.

They wanted to see if they could get clearance from the hot line to buy a gun using the names of the convicted felons.

"The bottom line is you're not doing anything wrong because there's no criminal intent you're just testing the bureaucracy to see if the gun hot line works properly," Dobyns said. "I think we have a perfect right to test the system."

Sleazy!

But don't worry: Jeff claimed he had no knowledge of this situation. And anyway, Jim Doyle was worse!

From a 10/14/94 Mike Nichols story in the Journal:

Campaigning with Gov. Tommy G. Thompson on Thursday, Wagner told reporters: "I can't imagine that this will have any impact on my race. I think it is much to do about nothing given the huge scandal that is going on in the crime laboratory."

Safe to say it didn't help.

The bloody shirt, the knife in the back

The story of an employee of an ostensibly West Allis-based company sending a rude email to a U.S. soldier in Iraq has raised hackles across the country.(For the record, the Brawler found it offensive.)

For the MSM -- Milwaukee's stupider media -- it provided occasion to knock liberals (you know, the two-thirds of the country that's opposed to the occupation).

Jeff Wagner weighs in with his typical bland malevolence:

The next time you hear someone from the Left proclaim that while they "don't support the Iraq War, they support the troops", please understand one thing: at least some of them aren't telling the truth!

The way Viet Nam veterans were treated when they returned from their "unpopular war" remains a national disgrace. In almost all cases, the people heaping the most scorn on the returning soldiers were the "compassionate Liberals" who professed moral superiority over the troops who were serving their country. For many of today's Left, those days of protest remain their "salad days" - the high point of their lives. Unfortunately, it appears that many of these folks haven't learned a thing after all these years.

The Brawler's not a failed state AG candidate. But that seems a lot to read into a single email.

Patrick McIlheran, Jessica McBride and Lying Charlie Sykes, meanwhile, rip into a peace activist who gave this quote to the Journal Sentinel:

Anti-war and free speech advocates were equally offended, by the widespread criticism of the company and the individual who responded to the soldier.

"This is a matter of free speech," said Julie Enslow, an organizer with Peace Action Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "It is totally irresponsible for radio stations and bloggers to attack a person for his personal political views."

She's talking about taking away OUR free speech, whined the responsible members of the MSM.

All of these worthies, however, don't put the quote in context. Which probably (the Brawler is making an assumption here) informed Enslow's comment:

Military supporters were outraged[by the company's comments], calling it disrespectful and urging one another to flood the company with e-mails and calls.

Several posted Khetani's name, telephone number and address, which is also the business address, though Nasir insists it's for mailing purposes only.

Many of the messages invoked anti-Middle Eastern or anti-Muslim sentiment. (Khetani is Muslim, Nasir said.) Others vowed to shut the company down, and a few suggested they might make a personal visit.

********

West Allis police said Monday that they were aware of the controversy.

"We're monitoring the situation, in case somebody decides to retaliate," Capt. Tom Kukowski said.

"But we're hoping people use good judgment."

Charlie played a clip of a WTMJ story which included a profane, racist and vaguely threatening message that was left on the Khetani answering machine.

Now, the Brawler believes in freedom of speech. But he would suggest that those on the right, who regularly bash Muslims in general (McBride, who famously doesn't want to learn about Islam, whined about Muslim groups complaining about stereotypes on 24 immediately prior to writing about the mats company), should take into account how their readers will react.

Charlie said the caller captured on WTMJ was an idiot -- but he didn't sound dumber than Charlie's average caller. Is it responsible to attack somebody, implicitly or explicitly encourage your audience to do so as well, with reasonable knowledge that they're going to be threatened. If Charlie et al believe so, fine. But be honest about it.

But of course the MSM's demonizing of liberals is nothing new.

Remember the Pendleton 8? The guys accused of the Haditha massacre? Charlie and company rushed to their defense last summer as I recall. But that wasn't only about defending people who hadn't been found guilty.  It was also about attacking the press for reporting the massacre. 

Of course, Of course as more facts have come to light, Haditha looks as bad as reported.

And, of course, who could forget about the rallies to support the troops -- but also to demonize those who opposed the war.

From the 4/13/03 Journal Sentinel:

The "In Our Name" rally for the troops was organized by Just Cause Wisconsin, a privately funded, grass-roots group, and aided by radio talk show hosts Charlie Sykes andJeff Wagner, of WTMJ-AM (620). Just Cause Wisconsin has collected 50,000 signatures on a petition supporting the troops.

************

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) told the crowd that the troops in Iraq are aware of media reports from the U.S.

"They have seen the protests," he said. "They have heard from the anti-war movement, and today they're hearing from us."

The crowd cheered U.S. Rep. Mark A. Green (R-Wisconsin) when he said that "for too long I think too many of us have allowed other voices who claim to speak for us to go unchallenged. We've heard from the Hollywood half-wits who confuse their fame with intelligence or, worse yet, relevance. We've seen the peaceniks marching back and forth at our campuses carrying signs that say anything and everything, everything except for things like 'Saddam must disarm' or 'Freedom for Iraq' or 'We support our troops.'

"My friends, the folks who are here today, we don't have agendas," Green continued. "We have mortgages. We don't chain ourselves to trees. We drive our kids to school. We don't burn our flags or block the traffic. We pay our taxes, and we try to make payroll. We are the silent majority. Today, we are speaking up."

Did Mark Graul write that?

The Mats-com email was contemptible. But instead of leaving it at that, it became the latest excuse for the MSM to wave the bloody shirt -- the shirt they themselves have bloodied -- and accuse their political enemies of trying to stab our country in the back.

UPDATE: Michael Mathias hates America.So does Tim Rock.

Badgering Barrett

Shockingly reading from the same script, WTMJ talkers Jeff Wagner and Jessica McBride took shots on their blogs at Mayor Tom Barrett for suggesting maybe, just maybe, we needed more regulation of handguns in wake of the Memorial Day weekend shootings.

Curiously neither praised him for scrounging the budget for dollars to “resources for police to have overtime in this hot time of the year,” as the Journal Sentinel noted.

But as so often is the case, McBride is the worst offender.

McBride nips at Barrett’s ankles over his comments that he wants to sit down with the ownership of Badger Outdoors – which last year led all gun shops in the nation for guns linked to crimes – and “sit down and roll up our sleeves and see that the guns they sell don’t end up being used in crimes.”

The J-S story says:

In 1998, Badger had the most crime guns traced to it among all gun dealers in the United States and then fell from the top spot, only to regain it last year. Badger has been criticized for selling cheap handguns, which were bought by “straw buyers” with clean records and then passed on to gang members. In a 1999 sweep, the majority of straw buyers bought the guns legally at Badger.

McBride – who moans that the city is “too weak-kneed to stop gang members from loitering on street corners” (something her hero Jack Bauer certainly wouldn’t tolerate) – goes off.

What behavior by Badger Guns and Ammo is he trying to correct? They are FOLLOWING THE LAW. It’s not the fault of the gun dealer that people legally purchase firearms and then pass them to people who can’t legally possess them, such as felons, who commit crimes.

Last year 537 crime guns were traced back to Badger, which apparently was doing all it could to ensure the cheap handguns it sells didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Just think how many they could have sold if they hadn’t followed the law!

Really, what’s with all this piling on? It’s as if they revel in their crime gun status.

As it turns out, they hadve!

In 1999, the year after they received their first No. 1 crime gun ranking, Badger put up a sign declaring it was “Voted number one by the Milwaukee Journal” (which broke the story about its status).

In a Journal-Sentinel story at the time (11.30.99), the civic minded owners said they thought the sign was funny and helped business.

“We’ve been pounded so much it was time to make a joke of it. We didn’t mean to offend anyone. It was meant in a jovial way,” [said co-owner Mick Beatovic.]

The story quoted Michael McCann and then-Milwaukee Police Chief Arthur Jones, neither of whom thought the sign was funny.

It’s not clear why the Journal Sentinel didn’t mention this anecdote in the story. It adds a little color to the gun shop that’s kept selling cheap handguns for years after it was obvious they wind up in the

hands of criminals.

And it's not clear why law and order Jessica McBride, who has no problem with aggressive police action, is troubled by the city pressuring a gun dealer that has reveled in how many of its guns have wound up at crime scenes (including a case in 1999 where a weapon bought at the shop was used by a criminal who shot at a cop).

After all, she knows all about the sign. She wrote the original story.

Fearmongering 101

It’s too early to tell whether the Memorial Day shootings are the prelude to a violent summer in Milwaukee.

But it’s a safe bet that it will be a summer of talking about scary brown people on WTMJ. Or rather, talking about scary brown people while not saying scary brown people.

Failed state attorney general turned WTMJ talker Jeff Wagner got the chatter going Tuesday afternoon. The Brawler listened in as he tooled through the rainy streets of the city. And what the Brawler recalls is that Wagner was lamenting that suburbanites are going to be too afraid to come into the city for fear of getting caught in the crossfire – or in the goddamn cruiser-created congestion on Lincoln Memorial Drive.

He said, again and again, that he didn’t want to tell people not to come. Which he didn’t. He let his listeners do that.

They called and emailed from Cedarburg and Hartland and Port Washington. Too scared to go to Summerfest. Too scared to go into the city – even if there was a concealed handgun law. Hated driving home to the North Shore after leaving work at night.

No one said they were afraid of scary brown people. Instead they said things like “they all have guns.” Or how they drink all day. One caller broke the mold and referred to “inner city people.”

Like Wagner, the Brawler is a native son of Milwaukee. And the Brawler knows when white people talk about “they” or “inner city people” they’re referring to blacks and Hispanics. That’s really not a secret.

Here’s something else that’s not a secret: Rather than seriously taking on how to solve these problems all Wagner and Co. are going to do is demand draconian police action. And the Brawler isn’t saying that there is a role for more cops on the streets – something Barrett already has called for.

But the Brawler also believes that simply sending out cops to lock up black kids and Hispanic kids – an image that surely warms the cockles of Wagner’s suburban listenership – isn’t going to solve this problem. In fact, it could exacerbate it.

The Brawler does not pretend to know the answers to the very real challenges the city faces -- and faced before Memorial Day weekend. But the Brawler knows that Wagner and company -- do not have them either.

As a side note, a friend of the Brawler missed the South Shore Park shooting by five minutes. Somehow the Brawler’s friend found the courage to bike around the city.

So if Wagner’s  listeners are too scared to come down to Summerfest, that’s great. Just fewer slow-walking, sunburned yahoos clogging up the beer lines.