McIlheran Watch: unFairness

Patrick McIlheran and the Brew City Brawler have been having a bit of back-and-forth about the fairness doctrine. I think the Brawler's winning, in part because of my anti-McIlheran bias, and in part because the Brawler seems to understand that the public airwaves do not exist solely to line the pockets of media conglomerates and stockholders. The word "public" actually has meaning.

However, I think it's becoming increasingly clear that everyone sees the "unfairness" currently promulgated by the right-wing yak hacks as a problem. For example, this is from a member of the US Senate:

Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.

Which wacked-out leftist communist socialist liberal Senator said that?

Trent Lott.

I suppose McIlheran will have words for ol' Trent. After all, if the Brawler can't get through to him, I doubt Lott could.

Thursday Thumbs

Another in a series wherein I express my approval or disapproval concerning news of the week, happenings, or other trivia through a cute graphic, rather than with my usual long, hard-to-follow, and humorless rants and rambling.

Thumbs down to Fred Kessler. I like the guy, but his gift-card tax is a stupid idea.

Thumbs up to ClearChannel, the media giant that decided that maybe there is a market in Madison for explicitly liberal radio. (And all you conservatives were so sure it was dead.)

Thumbs down to Judge Annette Ziegler. You'd think I was being hard enough on her already, but she apparently doesn't know simple campaign techniques. And she hasn't entered our contest yet.

Thumbs up to the Brew City Brawler, for showing us all how your local daily buries the lead--and makes you believe that which isn't true.

Thumbs up to me; I don't remember exactly what I wrote, but I don't think they edited it too much.

Thumbs down to stifling information that makes you look bad. That list is bad enough, but Jonathan Singer and Gretchen Schuldt can both find things to add.

Thumbs up to Milwaukee County's unions. They at least know how to play the game so that everyone wins, even if some others we could name would rather pick up their toys and go home.

Monday Reading Assignments

There may be a quiz.

• Dave Diamond gives us a statistics lesson, complete with pretty pictures.
  
  
• The Brawler has a lesson on common sense; it seems that the last person you want to call a "bloodthirsty" lawyer is . . . a lawyer.
  
  
• The Brawler also has a lesson in irony. It's hard to say what my favorite part is: That the person in question champions as meritorious blogs that are so patently offensive I can't stand to read them anymore, or that one blog she names as meritorious that is not on her blogroll is mine. Oh, or that she links to Little Green Footballs. That's good irony, too.
  
  
• I'm hoping to do a longer piece on "All Children Matter" (working title: "I Can Thing of At Least Three Things Wrong With That Name"), but Xoff uses them in today's journalism lesson.
  
  
• Josh Marshall is teaching history today, in advance of claims that Bill Clinton detonated the nuke in North Korea, or something.
  
  
• There's also good history lessons available from Media Matters, who are tracking what the president calls "revisionist history" about the Mark Foley scandal. Glenn Greenwald and Georgia10 have more.
  
  
• Kevin Drum has a basic lesson in economics for us: Buy Low, Sell High At A Rate Inflated By Your Meddling As Speaker Of The House.
  
  
• And speaking of money, Billmon teaches us, in the wake of the Foley scandal, of the number one rule in politics and the mafia: Always the dollars.
  
  
• A couple of lessons about F. Jim Sensenbrenner: One, he doesn't invest the way he preaches; Two, his beloved "fence" (the "Torilla Curtain," as it's being called) is probably nothing more than a cheap stunt.
  
  
• Gretchen at Milwaukee Rising has story time about Tom Reynolds (the nutty Wisconsin one, not the one in New York who helped protect Mark Foley). She tells us about Reynolds's big money from the Wal*Mart heirs. But she leaves us hanging on the ending--all the support Reynolds gives back in return by voting for more private school vouchers (.pdf). It's what Sam would have wanted, I'm sure.

A No-Endorsement, Yes-Entertainment Post

The folkbum household spent the evening wrestling with window air conditioners. I'm in no mood to write my last endorsement post, or write up my primary predictions.

Thankfully, there's bad prose to cheer me up. Jessica McBride bad. Via the Brawler:

The Economist recently noted that Minneapolis produced more crime fiction than Milwaukee. Clearly it wasn't aware that Jessica's on the case:

Here's the opening of The Jumper. It's with an agent now. I've been advised they don't like it if you "publish" it first on the Web, so I may just add excerpts from time to time to this page.

The premise: A Milwaukee police cold case detective jumps off the Hoan Bridge. Or did he? Assigned to investigate the death, homicide detective Michael St. Germaine finds himself embroiled in a decades-old intrigue that reaches into the top echelons of power. Forced to band together with the newspaper reporter he detests, St. Germaine soon finds himself face-to-face with his own past.

Chapter One

Nowhere is closer to purgatory than Milwaukee in November. Death spread its unhealthy pallor across the city. Corpses of Maple leaves fluttered around, given bursts of life from a squall heading over Lake Michigan. Milwaukee police detective Ken Schweppe swung open the door to Blast's Tap, for the last time, thinking that the weather matched his mood. It was hard to be happy in Milwaukee this time of year.

So, a contest: I buy a drink at the next Milwaukee Drinking Liberally (or a thousand imaginary bonus points--your choice) for the worst opening paragraph for an imaginary novel in the comments below. Enter as often as you like; extra weight will be given to those imaginary novels with a title. Contest closes on primary night, September 12th, at the time the AP calls the GOP attorney general's race. Or midnight, whichever comes first. Wednesday morning I'll post the winner and any others I find amusing. The winner can claim his or her prize at Drinking Liberally that night.

Have at it--and I'll remind you regularly about the deadline.