Big Lot$ Bargain & Liquidation Endorsements

[mojowork_n]

Newspaper and print publications, those same folks who bring us the acutely unhelpful Politifact franchise (appealing to the lowest common denominator and shortest-attention-span voter), have a new game to play.

Last night on the local TeeVee news, the anchors talked about newspaper endorsements and after saying that our state’s biggest daily, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had ‘made no endorsement,’ they seemed at least a little surprised (and even pleased) to announce that the second biggest paper in the state, liberal Madison’s “Capitol Times” had endorsed a Republican. For, like, the first time since Lincoln. (Or whenever it was that the Loyalty League and Fighting Bob LaFollette started not seeing eye-to-eye on foreign policy.)

That kind of thing gets picked up by online as well as broadcast media.

If you google “Wisconsin State Journal + Romney” you’ll see all kinds of resonance and reverberation. Not all of it is from Echo Chamber sites. The Washington Post paid attention, as did quite a few other state and out-state news sources.

But to find out how such a curious endorsement could have been made, you have to dig deep to find out who is actually owning, operating and managing the editorial policy of the paper:

http://uppitywis.org/blogarticle/shocker-owners-wisconsin-state-journal-are-big-donors-gop-and-un

Of the eleven member board of directors of Lee Enterprises -- the company that owns the Wisconsin State Journal and dozens of other newspapers accross the country-- most are heavy donors to republican candidates or PACs.

…Now, I'm sure some will poo-poo this and say these people are just on the board. But keep in mind, Lee's only business is owning newspapers. The head of the board and CEO of Lee, Mary Junck, is also chair of the board at the Associated Press.

It should also be pointed out that Lee Enterprises and its board recently crushed the union at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and gutted the once-decent newspaper even though it was making a profit for the company. And, according to the St. Louis Journalism Review, "Lee has a website for employees that provides negative information about unions."

But that’s the newspaper business these days. It’s not news that their opinions and endorsements are anything like impartial, objective, or always in the best interest of the local community. But all the other media outlets keep on and pretend that they are.

I’d actually be curious to know if other people have seen the same kind of thing, with other publications?

The most obvious recent example I can think of is Newsweek. I had started getting free copies in my mailbox when I found a forwarded viral email in my inbox. Pasting the exchange, below:

(Apologies for the tiny print size, I'm new to formatting for PhotoBucket. It seems to paste the same no matter what dpi or image width I have in the source file.)

[Bluzmann57]

1. Lee Enterprises...

They are based here in Davenport, Iowa and own one of the local newspapers here as well, the Quad City Times. The Times recently endorsed rmoney for PotUS siting a need for "change". I promptly cancelled my subscription, which is pd. through Dec. 3, and when asked why, I told them, "I do not like the right turn this paper has taken recently and I choose to spend my money elsewhere." The woman said she'd pass it along. And she did. A couple of days ago, I got an email from the circulation manager saying that they also endorsed Dems (which is true) and that they wanted me back.
I said that it wasn't so much that they endorsed romney, it was the way they stated it, spitting out rw talking points. And besides, I emailed the publisher and the editor so why couldn't at least one of them return an email? And to top everything else off, I sent in a ltte in which I called romney a liar, and it was rejected. The reasoning was that I sent my Email at 12:02 pm on Weds. and the cut off time for candidates lttes was 12:00 noon that same day. So I shot back another email asking, "2 minutes. Really? Adios QCT". The editorial page editor said he was sorry I was disappointed. Yeah me too. 2 lousy minutes. And the truth about romney.
Sorry to get somewhat off subject but I needed to rant a bit and you brought up Lee Enterprises. Have a great day and GOBAMA! Peace to you and yours.

[mojowork_n]

2. Believe me, I sympathize. My local paper sucks a$$ too.

I still have a subscription, but that's only because I can't choose to subscribe to the sports section and nothing else.

The corporation that owns the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel must be some kind of stealth version of Lee Enterprises.

They are “independently owned” but appear to be utterly in thrall to the Waukesha County demographic. That’s the part of the state that’s had vote tabulation totals exceed 100 percent of the number of registered voters (more votes counted than registered voters), and no one complains or investigates. Overwhelmingly right wing.

The more partisan that politics have become, the easier it's been to see how carefully they dance and tip-toe around republican talking points.