"NOW" newspapers: Duped or complicit in abandoning context?

Now do you see what's wrong with this picture? Read on ...

Backstory

It's a sad mark of our complacence that we in the Milwaukee area have long since accepted without a whimper that Wisconsin's largest metropolitan area is served by just one daily newspaper. Last year Journal Communications made their monopoly complete by utterly obliterating the local character of CNI's "community newspapers." As reported last year in the Business Journal, now deceased are papers like the Wauwatosa News-Times, the West Allis Star, the Franklin-Hales Corners Hub, the Brookfield News and the Whitefish Bay Herald. These papers were re-branded under the new "NOW" moniker; The 80 year-old Franklin Hub, for instance, died and became part of a paper called (evidently) "Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Oak Creek NOW."

These weekly "NOW" papers are now included in Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel subscriptions, meaning that folks in Franklin who'd never subscribed to the Hub now get their region's "NOW" paper every Thursday with their MJS.

An intriguing component of the otherwise disappointing "NOW" transition was the creation of web sites coordinated to each paper, along with a "community bloggers" function. Simply put, CNI-Journal Sentinel Inc.  provides blogging space to any local person who would like to comment on local and national events. So, in theory, you get the viewpoint of the average Franklinite on this, that and the other thing via FranklinNOW.com. The NOW online editor is Mark Maley.

For quite some time, these blogs had no "comment" function; i.e. there was no way to interact with the bloggers if you agreed or disagreed with them. "Franklin resident" Kevin Fischer - - who I honestly hadn't heard of up to that point - - embraced the platform firmly and wholeheartedly, an unabashed locked-on-FOX conservative just to the right of Sean Hannity.

Before things got really, really ugly over there, I participated in Franklinnow discussions now and then. I eventually learned a few things about Mr. Fischer (besides the fact we share a fondness for Elvis). As I noted in a post this past July:

Mr. Fischer is an employee of Republican Wisconsin state senator Mary Lazich (as his FranklinNOW.com bio emphatically avoids mentioning) and a right wing radio fill-in host. He's on a short leash; he will not be long for either gig if he suddenly goes off-message.

Fischer's blog bio said only that he worked "for the state." (Shades of the Bruce Springsteen song: "My name is Joe Roberts/I work for the state/I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville/Barracks number 8...")

Well, Mr. Fischer is no State Trooper ala the protagonist of Springsteen's song. Make no mistake: He gets paid to advance the cause of his boss and the GOP; he serves at their pleasure and discretion and is beholden to them. And, in turn, his boss is beholden to a long line of corporate, individual and PAC contributers to the party and her specific campaigns. In other words, you won't see Kevin Fischer speak critically about Wal-Mart (or other big boxes such as Target at Shoppes at Wyndham Village) while Wal-Mart Stores/WAL-PAC is a contributer to the Lazich campaign (though you will see Lazich and Fischer heap praise on Wal-Mart).

This is, of course, not behavior confined to the GOP. Plenty of Democratic leaders have similar entanglements and we should expect full disclosure from them as well.

Journalism 101 - Context is everything

I'd emailed Franklinnow editor Mark Maley in February of '07 questioning what I felt was Fischer's very careful concealment of his true professional affiliation on his blog. Maley answered that he saw no problem.

I replied:

Hi Mark,

Thanks for taking time to respond.

I have no issue with Mr. Fischer's right to blog, but to say in his bio that he "works for the state" is simply facetious. It smacks of hiding something. You should make it clear, up front, that this guy collects a paycheck in service to the Republican agenda OR have him stay off any political opinions. Why should CNI give the Republican Party free ad space under the guise of "your neighbor's opinion"?

I hope your sites will address the lack of interactivity in the near future as well.

Thanks again,

John Michlig

That roused no response, and I didn't hear from Maley until June 12th when he asked if I'd consider becoming a blogger on the FranklinNOW.com site. I took that opportunity to reiterate my concerns with Fischer's concealment of his professional affiliations. Frankly, I held out very little hope that the change would be made even though Mr. Maley conceded that I'd raised a good point (irrespective of whether or not I'd agree to blog for CNI, I should add).

Then, on August 13th I noted the following item added to Mr. Fischer's blog bio:

"Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) ..."

It's only a dozen-or-so words, but they are words Kevin Fischer seemed loath to admit. (He even wrote in one blog entry "Another local blogger on a different web site likes to go after me and my profession" - -without actually mentioning his profession. Well played!)

I was satisfied. Moreover, in the comments section to my post "Better late than never: Franklinnow.com makes blogger's professional affiliation clear", I went so far as to extend an olive branch to Mr. Fischer. Despite the fact that he and I disagree on certain issues, I saw no reason that we couldn't be friendly combatants in a positive clash of ideas. (A bad idea, I later found out, but that's a different story.)

So all was well with the world. Anyone who read Mr. Fischer's blog could see at the top of the page what he does for a living, and they could contextualize his "opinions" based on that important knowledge. More importantly, his more and more frequent incidents of online short temper and name-calling became something Mary Lazich had to take note of now that she was appropriately linked to him. (It should be noted that Mr. Fischer is currently exhibiting exemplary blog behavior since another local blogger named Cindy Kilkenny began a campaign to learn whether proper bounderies exist between Mr. Fischer's day job and his online adventures. Obviously someone had a serious conversation with Mr. Fischer, because his online demeanor since Ms. Kilkenny began her campaign is remarkably different now. In a good way.)

Hiding Again: What's wrong with this picture?

Let me make it clear that what I'm about to say falls squarely at the feet of either Franklinnow.com editor Mark Maley or Community Newspapers Editor-in-Chief Roger Bartel; they are the gatekeepers ultimately responsible for providing accurate context for their readers. For his part, Mr. Fischer is simply taking advantage of a lax gatekeeper.

Why do we open the February 7th Franklin edition of the "Now" newspaper  - -  delivered to ALL Milwaukee Journal Sentinel subscribers in the Franklin-Greendale-Hales Corners-Oak Creek  region, regardless of whether they've been online or not - - and see one of Mr. Fischer's blog entries reprinted there accompanied by a bio-line that reads nothing more than, "Franklin resident Kevin Fischer is a Community Voices blogger on FranklinNOW.com"?

No information about his day job work for a Republican state senator. Nothing about his right wing radio fill-in host gig. Kevin Fischer is presented as just another Franklin resident with an opinion.

Which is, of course, hogwash. Let Mr. Fischer go "off-message" just once and you'll see his current livelihood shrivel up rather quickly. That fact provides vital context for anything Mr. Fischer writes, and it is the responsibility of the paper's editor to provide that context in their pages and on their website.

I sent two emails to Mark Maley asking at whose discretion Kevin Fischer had originally concealed the truth of his day job on his CNI blog. He didn't answer either email, so I called him. Mr. Maley's curt response: "I don't even want to answer that question. I did get your email, but I don't even want to answer that question."

Yes, it would probably be better if he didn't answer, as neither possible response flatters him. He was either duped by Mr. Fischer, or he enabled the deceit of his readers by consciously hiding information they needed for context. Now that egregious omission has leaked to the print version.

So, legislative aides to any senator or other representative, get on the stick! CNI-Journal Sentinel is providing propaganda soapboxes - get your "Community Blog" space while they're still available for dissemination of your daily and weekly talking points, unencumbered by silly hindrances like an accurate bio line to provide context for your agenda.

And to Kevin Fischer: Kudos to you for seeing the hole and running through it.

Comments

[Bryan Maersch]

Yes, what you say is true John.

But lets make it clear that none of the Best of the Blogs have personal information included. Not the one that Marjorie Pagel had in there, not the one that Janet Evans had in there, not the one that Greg Kowalski had in there.

Why just point this out with Kevin Fischer?

[Josh Strupp]

Come on Brian, you know better than that.

Because Marjorie, Janet and Greg aren't employed in the public sector as a Legislative Aid to a State Senator.

[John Michlig]

It's all about context.

However, Marjorie Pagel's early career as a CIA counter-operative should be mentioned in columns where she argues for the morality of assassination as foreign policy.

[John Michlig]

Just kidding about Marjorie :)

[Bryan Maersch]

Come on guys. You know what I am saying.

In print, they are not including the profiles that are included in the NOW site.

I repeat, JS is not just excluding Kevin's bio, but all the blog writers for NOW.

Admit it John, the way your blog is written. It sounds like they are making an exception for Kevin by not putting his bio which links him as an assistant to Mary.

Although I believe Marjorie's blog about Billy the Brownie could have a hidden meaning to the Nazi's. :)

Just kidding too Marjorie.

[John Michlig]

I have to disagree with you in the strongest possible terms about Fischer's bias and the fact that it needs to be acknowledged.

And, yes, the way my blog is written is intended to shame the editors at CNI-NOW. They dropped the ball, and it looks more and more like they did/do it consciously.

[Josh Strupp]

Brian, I agree that it appears that they weren't excluding Kevin's bio. on purpose. I just have a bit of an issue when something like this isn't fully disclosed to the reader, regardless if it was a conscience effort on the part of CNI-NOW.