Common Ground
A homeowner in Waukesha for 20 years, Steve is president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization and enjoys motorcycling, fishing and staying on top of politics.
JS PolitiFact Distorts Reality
When The Journal Sentinel announced that they were launching the PolitiFact Wisconsin feature, I was skeptical. After all, like the parable about the scorpion and the turtle, people have a basic nature which can be difficult to change. Knowing that, I often find PolitiFact conclusions which I believe are not accurate, usually erring to the liberal side. Notice that I said usually. Sometimes they nail a liberal just to think that they are being "fair and balanced". Maybe they will honor me with a PolitiFact check of my statement!
Today's (Thursday) PolitiFact is one of those that gets it wrong. To refresh your memory, the statement in question is Governor Walker's "We're broke, We don't have any more money". Reporter Nelson asks some local experts, all from Madison, if that statement is true. True to the scorpion and turtle parable, they respond that it is not. Nothing is said about qualifying these experts, such as their political leanings. Remember, we are talking Madison here.
You may not be aware that there are people who listen to speakers, radio and TV shows only for the purpose of playing gotcha. Gotcha is a tactic using a statement out of context and dressing it up as menacingly as possible. Secretary of State Clinton calls it politics of personal destruction.
Ok, so let us do some nit picking here. No, we are not broke. We have a cash flow deficiency. But to label the Governor's statement as false is to mislead the readers. Too many people are of the mentality that if we have checks left in the checkbook, we still have money. Obviously, there are people who really believe that the state can make ends meet. It is a mentality that was displayed during the OJ Simpson murder trial. Never mind the evidence, the facts, we are going to stick it to the man, the taxpayers in this case.
Talk show host extraordinaire, Jay Weber, had a segment today about how this budget issue is affecting friends and family. There were many callers telling about deep divisions in their circle of people over this. It is serious and we don't need a politically slanted reporter fueling the fire by distorting the truth.
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