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Monday, March 26, 2012

Smear and Fear Merchants Targeting Signers Of Recall Petitions

In a bizarre political messaging ploy to shame their employees and all recall signers in general, a handful of Gannett Wisconsin Media newspapers posted an open letter to readers on Saturday, apologizing for 25 journalists who signed the Scott Walker recall petition.

Wisconsin State Journal Excerpt:
Lovett acknowledged that as citizens, reporters have a right to hold opinions about political issues and to share those opinions with colleagues, friends or family. But she said journalists have an added responsibility to protect their news organization's credibility and impartiality.

Let's be clear here. They claim to be worried about the "news organization's credibility and impartiality?" Yet, these are the same news organizations that publish, often with regular climactic enthusiasm, editorial endorsements for partisan public office, and they think they are protecting their credibility or impartiality by prohibiting their employees from signing public petitions? Someone needs to tell them they lost any credibility they may have had long before some of their employees signed those petitions.

Worse yet, Gannett Media engaged in what should be considered a vicious smear campaign when they willingly used a verify data base and spent barrels of ink to "out" sitting state judges, their spouses and children for signing the recall petitions.

The ugly truth is, anyone engaging in publishing or using the names on a recall petition for anything other than signature verification is engaging in political activity of the worst kind. The politics of smear and fear. Shame, shame, shame on Gannett Media.

I wrote about something similar to this before when the editor of the Janesville Gazette explained that the company's policy forbids Bliss Communications employees from signing the recall petition. With these latest revelations, you now got to wonder how many thousands of Wisconsinites withheld their signature out of fear of retaliation from their employers.

Additional Stories:

Voices newspaper - Scott Walker Is Proof Corporate Media Destroys Democracy

Democurmudgeon - "The “Verify the Recall” Blacklist. Will Democrats stop the retaliation? Have they even noticed?"

Blogging Blue - Verify the Recall – Still Working!

Rock Netroots - Prohibiting Employees From Signing Petitions Should be a Crime

1 comment:

Dave said...

Its stunning to think that the local Nuze can be so self-delusional that they think that the public has any respect for their "work". These hacks are a joke as is their imbecilic nuze programs. The nuzemodels aren't even good looking. What type of brain damage causes the shallow and superficial media outlets to believe they are anything more than a sad and dying industry that appeals to fewer and fewer people.

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