The Slumber of the Journal Sentinel

by krshorewood

Those who anguish over the so-called "liberal media" should take solace in the editorial staff at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They were strangely somnolent during the Tommy Thompson/Scott Jensen reign when Madison quickly drove away from it's clean politics image and drove over our proud progressive tradition.

Of course this reality will not muzzle Charlie Sykes over at the Journal broadcast division but hey, he has a mob to run.

So now the watchdogs rummaged around and found their dentures to sink into Jim Doyle's behind. With the gallons of ink breathlessly splashed on the front page -- usually -- of the Journal recounting Doyle's supposed corruption, you'd think the current administration stumbled out of the woods and discovered every angle possible to corrupt our government.

While most if not all of the cases against the Doyle administration are literally so flimsy you can see through them, the Georgia Thompson by-stander shooting was the most gossamer of them all.

You don't need to read it here because it is all over the place, but there wasn't much of a case adjacent Thompson as evidenced by her springing from prison this week. This was so much so that Federal Prosecutor Steven Biskupic failed to show up to defend what he did last year.

No matter for the Journal. Every detail real and imaginary was without fail reported as the trial against Thompson unfolded.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for crusading, bold, deep digging journalism. But at the Journal it only goes half way. They seem to run out of gas when it comes to Republicans.

Witness the screaming outrage in the Journal about supposed deals of disgraced business man Troha and Doyle over campaign contributions. This torrent becomes a trickle when it comes to any relationship with Congressman Paul Ryan and Troha.

Sorry George Stanley. We do have the internet and despite your protestations it is easy to verify the coverage in the Journal news-hole lists seriously to the right.

Now this morning we read in the Journal that their victim Thompson, as I had thought, is hundreds of thousands in debt thanks to this fizzled prosecution. This is no get out of jail free card.

When civil servant Thompson washed up on the shore she would be economically ruined. But as usual she is one of the many eggs the right wing breaks when it makes another of their omelets.

When are people going to wake up to the notion that if you yank in under a quarter of a million in annual income, you are just so much detritus to those on the right?

Want more proof? Look at another story that details how after FOUR YEARS an upset father of an Iraq US military fatality forced the Dept. of Defense to finally greet the bodies of returning soldiers with an honor guard, rather than unloading the body "like so much luggage."

Millions in this country see their life-savings sacrificed on the altar of our "free enterprise" healthcare system. But no matter. We somehow vaguely benefit from right-wing business as usual.

I hope someone starts a fund to pass the hat for Thompson.

As for the editors at the Journal, how do they sleep at night? File this whole thing under disgusting.