Brew City Brawler

Tom Daykin schools Patrick McIlheran

In a flagrant act of journalism, Journal Sentinel Tom Daykin takes a look at the myths surrounding workforce housing, the sort of affordable housing that's slated for New Berlin's failed City Center. His finding:

But there's scant evidence that such projects in other communities have caused property values to drop, or crime to increase, based on a check of public records and interviews with elected officials and neighborhood residents.

Predictably, Daykin's work triggered howls of outrage from the ignorati who see workforce housing as the second coming of the Cabrini Green towers. Daykin, who shows an admirable willingness to engage readers in comments weighed in:

Finally, the point of the story was to make clear the differences between Section 8 and Section 42 housing, and why most of Section 42 projects [note: the type of project proposed for New Berlin] draw little opposition while a few proposal draw high-profile protests. This is not an attempt to tell you what to think. It's just an attempt to provide some facts about the situation. 

One has to wonder if he had coworker Patrick McIlheran in mind when he wrote this, given Patrick strenuously tried to connect the New Berlin development to Section 8 during a bout of predictable fearmongering.

Why does the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's coverage of Paul Ryan suck?

(Cross posted at Paul Ryan Watch)

In today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel we learn that Paul Ryan is "praised" for his alternative health-care plan.

Who's doing the praising? A guy from the Heritage Foundation and a former McCain advisor.

Shocking that two rightwingers would praise Ryan.

The story says:

Ryan's proposal, part of what he calls "A Roadmap for America's Future," would replace the existing Medicare benefit for people under 55 with a voucher that could be used to buy private insurance. The payment, which Ryan has said would initially average $11,000 a year, would be adjusted for inflation and tied to income.

That would lessen the fiscal challenges facing the Medicare program because health care spending outpaces overall inflation. But at the same time, it could lower costs by putting pressure on doctors and hospitals to become more efficient.

The story fails to note that the way Ryan's plan really lowers cost is by balancing the budget on the backs of poor seniors.

McIlheran: Feingold "down in the polls"

Russ Feingold has had a bad week, Patrick McIlheran intones.

Why?

Well, it appears he's down in a poll against Tommy! Only thing is, Tommy! isn't running and there's strong reason to think he won't. Oh, and the other thing is that the pollster who ran that poll has a track record ofunderestimating Democratic candidates. One other thing: He didn't check to see how Feingold polled against actual GOP Senate hopefuls Wall and Westlake. Wonder why that is.

Another reason he had a bad week? He apparently had to bail a few minutes into an interview on WMCS 1290 -- which Patrick McIlheran and other white conservatives, legitimized by James T. Harris claim is going to cost Feingold big in the black community. Only thing is, host Earl Ingram weighs in(apparently)  to say no harm, no foul.

So let's see: There's no question that Feingold would pulverize the two declared GOP Senate hopefuls. Evidence that Tommy! would win in a walk is dubious at best. And there's a noncontroversy about a radio interview. Most pols would kill for a bad week like that. McIlheran threatens that he will weigh in further on Feingold's problems in his Sunday column. Can't wait.

Less Patrick McIlheran is a good thing

Too bad the reason.

The Brawler wonders which right wing think tank will pick up Alan Borsuk or Steve Walters.

Perhaps the Journal Sentinel's Alan Borsuk needs to go back to reporter school

The Advocates for Student Achievement -- a pro-voucher group that's trying to unseat Peter Blewett -- has been a source of much unintentional comedy of late. From their dubious polling to their getting sued for hinky activities to their discussion of hinky activities in a secret forum that was in plain view ... these guys are a hit machine that rivals Air Supply at their peak.

But for the Brawler, the biggest chuckle came when he saw that this gang that couldn't shoot straight was communicating with Alan Borsuk, the not-at-all self-righteous education reporter who'd be exactly the last guy you'd turn to if you wanted to understand shortcomings in the Milwaukee voucher regime.

From One Wisconsin Now's coverage:

But none of this would matter much is Alan Borsuk, education reporter for the Journal-Sentinel, wouldn't cover it. And in response to ASA's appeals, and the gathering storm around the "push-poll," Borsuk apparently had gotten cold feet:

From: "Anne Curley"
Date: Mon Feb 2, 2009 4:21 pm
Subject: Need your immediate advice on handling question raised by Alan Borsuk

Alan seems most interested in the issue of whether we included push-polling questions against Blewett in our survey. He wants to know how the questions about Blewett were worded. He doesn't care about the results, just the questions.

Which, of course, defeated the whole purpose. What happened to the good old days, when you could tell a reporter what to write, and he published it?

If Borsuk wouldn't play ball, Curley had another idea:

From: "Anne Curley"
Date: Mon Feb 2, 2009 10:29 pm
Subject: Update on Journal-Sentinel story

Alan Borsuk says he doesn't plan to do a story for tomorrow's paper...not that excited about the poll results...seems to feel they are compromised by the allegations of push-polling. Wants to see all the questions, in the order in which they were asked, so he can judge for himself whether it was a biased or otherwise inappropriate survey. And he's only willing to look at this information on an on-the-record basis.

I have a call in to Mark Kass at the Business Journal to see if we can get a good spread on this there.

Other suggestions on how we should leverage the poll results while they're still fresh?

Journal Sentinel's disparate treatment of scandal figures & Sykes censors emails

Now, the Brawler can't say he blames the Journal Sentinel for highlighting how Wisconsin's new federal lobbyist was linked to the caucus scandal. And,while Tanya Bjork clearly is smart (she ran Obama's campaign in Wisconsin), the Brawler wonders if this is the shrewdest hire.

That said, the Brawler will note that the Journal Sentinel's coverage of this hire differs dramatically from how it covered a local business group hiring a scandal figure.

"State hires aide tied to caucus scandal," trumpets the headline of the Tanya Bjork story. The piece  goes on to quote handwringing types.

The JS's coverage was a bit different when the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce hired as its top lobbyist Steve "disorderly conduct" Baas. Baas worked for Jensen during the scandal, took an immunity deal and gave testimony on the stand that contradicted his earlier statements. From the  2/22/05 brief:

Top Assembly aide to leave post next month

Madison A top aide to Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) will leave the Capitol after 10 years of working for legislative leaders.

At the end of March, Steve Baas will become the government affairs director for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce.

Bass went to work for then-Speaker Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) when Republicans took control of the Assembly in 1994; before that, he worked in the administration of Gov. Tommy G. Thompson.

Strangely, the JS never mentions Baas' background when it's quoting him as a spokesman for industry.

Predictably, Charlie Sykes flagged the story, saying "Maybe Doyle figures that it takes someone withcriminal convictions to help out in the Great Looting to come."

The Brawler submitted a comment pointing out that maybe Charlie has a double standard. The Brawler had his doubts that Charlie would post it (though he posted such bon mots as: "I swear...is there one Dem anywhere that ISN'T a crook?") -- and he was right. That's why god invented screen grabs (For those without magnifying glasses, in the comment box I say: "Charlie: I'm sorry but didn't you recently have Steve "disorderly conduct" Baas on your show? You know,...":

 

Just in...Owen Robinson marches double time to the double standard cadence; the Recess Supervisor leaves this worthy comment at B&S:

Certainly we can all think of her past what we want, and for some, that might be enough to disqualify her from future positions in government.  I respect that opinion completely.

But she’s also damn good at what she does.  Nobody in DC cares about her involvement in a scandal that most big time players think is a absolute joke, and her connections to the Obama administration will certainly be a major asset as she attempts to secure federal funding for projects here in Wisconsin.

You can fault Bjork for a lot of things but you’ll never be able to fault her for being incompetent.  And I’m guessing that’s why Doyle picked her - to him, the pros outweighed the cons.

Journal Communications proxy fight cont'd

The Gang of Three running for the board of Journal Communications -- former Serigraph CEO (and one-time newspaper guy and current Journal Sentinel columnist) John Torinus, former journo Doug Armstrong and former JRN general counsel Paul Kritzer -- are planning to make their case to the ever-growing list of Journal Sentinel alums later this month.

And Armstrong makes his case on a JRN Yahoo! board:

As some of you know, I am a candidate for Journal Communications Board of Directors along with John Torinus and Paul Kritzer. We filed for director positions in November, and in response, Journal Communications in December asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to omit our names from its proxy statement and ballot. Yesterday, we filed a response with the SEC seeking a rejection of the Journal’s petition. (See www.journalshareholders.com/reply.html )

There is a strong possibility that the SEC may agree to the Journal’s petition, however, given its rulings in the past. If our alternate slate wishes to continue to seek election after such a ruling, it would have to create its own proxy and statement and distribute them to all shareholders in accordance with stringent SEC guidelines. I am told that a proxy fight of this nature would cost our group as much as $150,000.

We will attempt to keep you apprised of developments on the Web site we have created for this effort. Visit www.journalshareholders.com for more information or to register with us for news updates. Thank you.

Interestingly, one of theboard incumbents is Roger D. Pierce, chair of a compensation committee that seems determined to find new ways of rewarding JRN brass as the stock price and earnings tank.

Proxy fight at Journal Communications?

John Torinus and two former Journal Communications employees -- former general counsel Paul Kritzer and Journal film critic Doug Armstrong -- last month announced they were running for the board of Journal Communications. They've been endorsed by former Journal Comms president Keith SPore.

Now it seems that Journal Communications is trying to block them from doing so.

The site for the alternate directors slate, journalshareholders.com, lays out Journal Communications effort to block them:

In its filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (see the language in the next column), Journal Communications cited unnamed "adequate disclosure" concerns in the antifraud provisions of the securities laws regarding elections. They claim we are attempting to "circumvent the other proxy rules designed to assure the integrity of director elections." They also refused to provide our slate with a list of company shareholders, despite a Wisconsin law that says they must provide one to any shareholder requesting it.

Here's the letter Foley & Lardner attorney Russell Ryba sent to the SEC asking that the alternate slate be denied.

Lord knows the Brawler has major disagreements with Torinus on health care reform. But the Brawler has little doubt that he would make a positive contribution to a board that's been distinguished largely by showering undeserved rewards upon management.

 

Who would hire Journal Communications' management?

The Brawler realizes he's late to this, but it's a pet peeve of his and he's paying for the right to use this bandwidth so ... why are top managers of Journal Communications receiving retention bonuses? Is anyone seriously going to hire these guys?

The "retention awards" for JRN leaders were described in a December 23 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

Recognizing the importance of retaining key talent to guide the Company through current media industry and macro-economic challenges, as well as the longer-term evolution of the media industry, the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company approved on December 21, 2008 the grant of two-year retention awards to certain senior officers, including named executive officers Steven J. Smith, Douglas G. Kiel, Elizabeth Brenner, and Kenneth L. Kozminski, and principal financial officer, Andre J. Fernandez. The retention awards are in the form of restricted Class B stock granted under the Company’s 2007 Omnibus Incentive Plan with a grant date of December 23, 2008, which will vest and become nonforfeitable on December 23, 2010 if the grantee is then still employed with the Company or its affiliates. A total of 180,000 restricted Class B shares were granted.

What evidence do we have that any of the aforementioned executives have the slightest clue on how to guide the company through "current media industry and macro-economic challenges" or through the "longer-term evolution of the media industry"?

 Given JRN's financial performance and the fact that on December 19 JRN disclosed it might take a goodwill impairment charge "potentially ... up to the total amount of the Company’s goodwill" -- $240.4 million -- the Brawler would suggest the answer is "not" and "much."

Indeed, the Brawler would suggest that the named executive officers should be thanking their lucky stars that they're getting paid. And Steven Smith is no doubt laughing that he has a 9-year contract.

The JRN managers, if they've done anything, have demonstrated they can do well by themselves. By the employees? Not so much.

JUST IN: Bruce Murphy, the best reporter in the state who's not Bob McGinn, piles on. Hey Bruce: How about the courtesy of a hat tip next time?

Did the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel miss the housing bubble?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's John Schmid is a fine reporter and I generally agreed with his story explaining whythe economy will likely worsen in 2009.

That said, this sentence stopped me cold:

The downturn of 2009 has its roots in lax mortgage lending in the United States.

The downturn of 2009 has its roots in the real-estate bubble in the United States.

As noted (repeatedly) by the American Prospect's Dean Baker:

... homeowners have lost more than $5 trillion in real housing wealth since 2006, close to $70,000 per homeowner. As a result, tens of millions of homeowners have little or no equity in their home. This reduce their consumption both because they have more difficulty obtaining credit and also because they feel more need to save.

Lax mortgage lending certainly helped fuel the bubble. But "lax mortgage lending" -- by which Schmid presumably means financial institutions lending to people who weren't credit worthy or were overburdened -- was far from the only factor in the creation of said bubble (a sampling of others are mentioned here, you can add speculation and overbuilding -- and not just in residential -- on top of these, and that's just for starters). Trees -- meet forest.