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Babbittry, Boosterism, Daily Bread, Economy, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, State Government, WEDC, Wisconsin, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 5.31.23: Four Million Won’t Be Enough (Because Marketing’s Not It)

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Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers with a high of 87. Sunrise is 5:19 AM and sunset 8:26 PM for 15h 07m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 85.3% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1955, the U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown…

Boosterism, CDA, Conservative Populism, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Daily Bread, Economy, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Marketing, Misplaced Priorities, Poverty, Recession, That Which Paved the Way

Daily Bread for 9.6.22: The Boosters’ Big Capital but Small Society

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Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with high of 76. Sunrise is 6:25 AM and sunset 7:19 PM for 12h 53m 53s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 79.9% of its visible disk illuminated.  The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.   On this day in 1803, British scientist John…

Boosterism, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Daily Bread, Economy, Foxconn, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Marketing, Misplaced Priorities, Poverty, Recession

Daily Bread for 9.5.22: The Grandiose

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Good morning. Labor Day in Whitewater will be party sunny with high of 74. Sunrise is 6:24 AM and sunset 7:21 PM for 12h 56m 42s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 69.5% of its visible disk illuminated.  On this day in 1942, the Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first major…

Bad Ideas, Corporate Welfare, Development, Foxconn, Marketing, Mendacity, Public Relations, Scott Walker, Special Interests, State Capitalism, State Government, WEDC, WISGOP, YMBFKM

Foxconn’s Venture Capital Fund

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Bruce Murphy has a solid assessment of Foxconn’s much-touted (by Foxconn) venture capital fund in About That Foxconn Venture Capital Fund. It’s well worth reading in full. A few key points: Unfulfilled: Louis Woo of Foxconn had promised this venture fund for startup companies would naturally connect to Foxconn’s innovation centers in Eau Claire, Green Bay…

Advertising, Bad Ideas, Business, Marketing, Newspapers

The Janesville Gazette‘s Time-Share Stage of Decline

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A nearby newspaper, the Janesville Gazette, part of an out-of-state chain (APG) owned by a family that made billions in billboard advertising, recently tried to position half-off advertising as a ‘community grant‘ program. See That’s Not a ‘Community Grant’ – It’s Half-Off Advertising. It’s an old – often true – adage that bad goes to…

Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Disinformation, Fact Checking, Marketing, Mendacity, Misconduct, Police, Press Release, University

UW-Whitewater’s Administration Covers Crap with Catsup

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For months, UW-Whitewater has publicized on its website a sham study from a burglar-alarm company as confirmation that Whitewater has the safest campus in Wisconsin. The study is a shabby fraud, with a methodology so far below proper academic standards that it taints the serious work of faculty and students at the school, in the UW…

Assault Awareness & Prevention, Education, Ethics, Law, Marketing, Misconduct, Negligence, Nepotism, Official Misconduct, Sexual Harassment, University

For UW-Whitewater’s Administration, Talking Points Won’t Be Enough

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Yesterday, I posted on The Marketing of Misinformation: UW-Whitewater’s Use of a Counterfeit ‘Campus Safety’ Study. Today, here is a look at some of the university administration’s talking points in response to long-standing acts of sexual harassment and assault on campus.  (They’re from the new university chancellor’s recorded interview with a local newspaper.) From the video…

Babbittry, Books, Culture, Fact Checking, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Politics, Public Relations, That Which Paved the Way

Fact-Checking is an Active, Ongoing Effort

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Laura Hazard Cohen explains that “First-generation fact-checking” is no longer good enough. Here’s what comes next: “Fact checkers need to move from ‘publish and pray’ to ‘publish and act.’” “The idea that fact checking can work by correcting the public’s inaccurate beliefs on a mass scale alone doesn’t stack up,” write representatives from Full Fact…

Bad Ideas, Crime, Government Spending, Local Government, Marketing, Mendacity, Misconduct

From Festival to Alleged Felony

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One now reads – sadly, any normal person might have expected – that the promoter of Jefferson Wisconsin’s shabby Warriors & Wizards festival faces the prospect of felony charges for theft and misrepresentation. See Warriors & Wizards Fest organizer Cramer charged with theft. 1. Unfortunate, All Around.  I’ve been a critic of this festival, and those…

Babbittry, CDA, Culture, Economy, Fortitude, Local Government, Marketing, New Media, New Whitewater, Newspapers, Politics, Press, Social Media, Writing

What Can Be Done About Rural Newspapers (Even Though It Probably Won’t Be)?

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Yesterday I wrote that Another Local Paper Changes Hands. With the failure of legacy publishing, what are rural communities to do? (Obvious point: FREE WHITEWATER is not an online newspaper – never aspired to be, never will be. This is a website of independent commentary: aligned with no faction, beholden to no faction.) A few…

Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Marketing, Propaganda, Public Relations

The Myth of a ‘Backfire Effect’ to Fact Checking

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When someone debunks a claim or article through fact-checking,  does doing so generally produce a backfire effect where others commit even more strongly to the debunked notion? No, not generally. Laura Hazard Owen writes The “backfire effect” is mostly a myth, a broad look at the research suggests: The growing stream of reporting on and…