I won’t bother inventing any invective for the string-of-non-letter-characters Wisconsin Republicans; this one’s a self-Pitter.
From the Green Bay Press Gazette:
MADISON — A provision that would force the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism off the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus blindsided the center’s leader, who said Wednesday he’s still trying to understand why his group was specifically targeted.
The center, a nonpartisan investigative news organization that offers its stories free to mainstream media outlets, operates rent-free out of two offices in the university’s journalism school, said Andy Hall, the group’s executive director. Under an agreement signed in 2011, the school covers the cost of utilities and Internet access, and in exchange the center hires some of its students as paid interns and provides academic support.
Hall and the school, who agree the arrangement has been mutually beneficial, stopped short of interpreting the move as some sort of political payback. But the budget modification, proposed early Wednesday by two Republicans, left the center and the school scrambling for answers.
The proposal, one of several put forth by state Sen. Alberta Darling and state Rep. John Nygren, would do two things: Prohibit the Center for Investigative Journalism from occupying facilities on any UW property and prohibit UW employees from doing any work related to the news center.
In the WCIJ’s words:
On June 5, the Wisconsin Legislature’s budget-writing committee, with no public warning, approved a measure evicting the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from its campus offices and forbidding university employees from working with the Center. The full Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker have the power to remove the measure before approving the budget, but only days remain. Many journalists, journalism educators and members of the public across the nation say the Center’s collaboration with the school must be saved because it’s an important experiment in a future model for investigative reporting and journalism education — one that already is producing high-impact stories that strengthen democracy, while training young journalists at no direct cost to taxpayers.
In the spirit of fairness-even-for-the-Pit, I would quote/link an editorial or something supporting this decision – except that I can’t seem to find any such by Googling. (Well, whaddaya expect? If you mess with journalists-as-such, you won’t get good press unless you buy it.) But here’s some rich anti- editorials:
Chris Rickert: Guilt by association snares Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.
The belief that those who produce the news at mainstream media organizations lean Democratic only pours fuel on that particularly paranoid right-wing fire.
And therein lies the rub. It’s not just that the center has made the right look bad (because it’s made the left look bad, too). It’s that the people and organizations that produce its product include alleged liberals.
The Open Society Institute, for example — founded by liberal leviathan George Soros — has given the center $535,000 since 2009. The center’s money and politics project editor worked for 25 years at the left-leaning weekly Isthmus.
But it’s also received funding from the Ford Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. (And full disclosure: My employer and some of my co-workers have given, too.)
The Center’s getting hit with a favorite weapon of the nakedly partisan — selective guilt-by-association. Another recent example is the way Madison’s leftists jumped all over Urban League of Greater Madison CEO Kaleem Caire’s conservative-leaning associations to help do in his nonunion charter school proposal.
From a prof at the UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications:
Under attack
So everyone associated with WCIJ was blindsided by an overnight move to expel the center from its offices within our journalism program. The school provides no funding to the center, which is supported entirely by outside grants. It receives free space through a facilities-use agreement, in return for guaranteed paid internships for students like Koran, as well as guest lectures, class visits and educational support.
The state’s legislative Joint Finance Committee on Wednesday added a budget measure barring UW from housing the center in its space. But even more critically –- and dangerously -– the measure purports to end any interaction between journalism faculty and staff and the center:
“In addition, prohibit UW employees from doing any work related to the Center for Investigative Journalism as part of their duties as a UW employee.” (See the full motion from Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette)
This direct attack on our collaboration with WCIJ is an assault on our academic freedom, as well as on student learning. I had the privilege of meeting with Koran when he was just beginning his look at recidivism in the criminal justice system as a WCIJ intern. I told him I was astounded to learn of the proportion and cost of returning offenders to jail in the state and encouraged him to hunt for angles related to that. I did this in my capacity as a journalism professor, for which I am compensated by the university.
Threat to freedom and independence
To be clear: As written, the legislative budget measure would bar this conversation. Bar it. It would similarly prevent other things I have done with the center over the years -– reviewing intern applications, teasing out ideas from datasets, consulting on leads. And my association with the center pales in comparison with that provided by some of my colleagues.
Milwaukeemag.com : “The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s Puzzling Rebuke: Why would Republican lawmakers turn on an organization dedicated to remaining nonpartisan?”
“The school provides no funding to the center, which is supported entirely by outside grants.”
What are those outside grant sources? George Soros?
Have Darling or Nygren explained why they felt the eviction is necessary?
Bricker:
“The school provides no funding to the center, which is supported entirely by outside grants.”
What are those outside grant sources? George Soros?
WCIJ funding.
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization that is primarily funded through grants and donations from foundations and individuals. A smaller amount of its revenue is earned through production of commissioned materials — investigative journalism projects and an online tutorial for journalists launching nonprofit newsrooms.
As a matter of policy, funders exercise no control over the Center’s editorial decisions, and all funders are publicly identified.
Wow, that was hard to find.
It was right there in the OP:
But it’s also received funding from the Ford Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, the Joyce Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. (And full disclosure: My employer and some of my co-workers have given, too.)
Bricker:
“The school provides no funding to the center, which is supported entirely by outside grants.”
What are those outside grant sources? George Soros?
Soros’ Open Society Institute is one, as noted in the OP. Specifically in the “Guilt by Association” article that you in particular really ought to read closely.
Speaking at the Joint Committee on Finance Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Robert Wirch called it “shameful” to bar the center from working with UW-Madison staff or using UW-Madison facilities “at a time when newspapers are disappearing before our eyes” and “we have scandals in government.”
But Republican JCF co-chairman John Nygren suggested WCIJ was as biased in favor of liberal causes as media outlets MacIver Institute, Media Trackers and Fox News are toward conservative causes.
If this was about “providing state facilities, state support for one those (conservative) organizations, you might have a little different view on that,” Nygren told Wirch. “We’re just being consistent.”
They aren’t being consistent.
Fox is a business, not a donor-supported nonprofit like WCIJ. And while Media Trackers and MacIver are nonprofit, too, that’s where the similarity ends.
The MacIver Institute keeps its donors secret, and Media Trackers allows its donors to remain anonymous. Neither lists donors on their website. WCIJ lists its donors on its website along with the amounts of large donations.
The center also follows the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics and bars donors from dictating news coverage. And while Media Trackers and MacIver didn’t respond to inquiries about whether they do the same, conservatives generally aren’t interested in such mainstream journalism standards because they think mainstream journalism is out to get them.
The committee vote for this measure was apparently 12-4.
Are there only four Democrats on the committee?
This looks suspiciously like the Throw Everything But the Kitchen Sink Maneuver.
If you think it’s a justified decision, then say so. Don’t do this JAQing bs.
Inner_Stickler:
This looks suspiciously like the Throw Everything But the Kitchen Sink Maneuver.
If you think it’s a justified decision, then say so. Don’t do this JAQing bs.
I have no idea if it’s justified. I don’t have the time to study the issue enough to reach an informed decision.
You’ve got time to ask the questions, but no time to respond to the answers or state a simple opinion-no surprises here, folks.
It takes little time to state an opinion, of course.
But that’s not what I said I lacked.
And what “answers” have I failed to respond to?
Bricker:
It takes little time to state an opinion, of course.
But that’s not what I said I lacked.
And what “answers” have I failed to respond to?
You’ve asked two questions so far, and have responded to neither of the answers. Why don’t you just do what you did with the thread about the john that killed the escort he thought had stolen from him and form a qualified opinion based on the OP? If something comes up that changes your opinion, go ahead and do so-that’s how humans usually operate.
Smapti
June 11, 2013, 6:37pm
14
Reality has a well-established liberal bias.
So? You never let that stop you before.
And it’s not like his questions don’t already indicate what his position is-they aren’t very subtle in their accusatory nature.
Good point.
:dubious:
“Thanks for the answers, folks.”
There’s no real response required, Czarcasm . I had questions; they got answered.
Based solely on the OP, this seems highly suspect – a transparently partisan move fueled by ire at the perceived liberal slant of the organization.
Bricker, I get what you’re saying, I really do. You also think its a travesty that a non-profit, non-partisan group is being kicked out of a school even though it uses none of their money. Its an attack on freedom, I get it. As a lawyer, I know you’re on the right side. A nakedly partisan attack like this is, sadly, typical of Republican behavior nowadays
Yes.
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lfb/jfc/Pages/default.aspx
ETA: Ninjaed by only 2 hours! That’s gotta be a record.
BrainGlutton:
In the spirit of fairness-even-for-the-Pit, I would quote/link an editorial or something supporting this decision – except that I can’t seem to find any such by Googling. (Well, whaddaya expect? If you mess with journalists-as-such, you won’t get good press unless you buy it.)
Well, here’s one – kindasorta – not from what you might think of as media, but from the Wisconsin-based Media Trackers, which is, to put it mildly, not to be taken seriously – and it does not actually mention the story in the OP, since this article is from 2011. Anyway, the point of it is that WCIJ is liberal-biased. But, apart from one story that WCIJ might have got wrong, the only proof offered is Soros’ support for it.