Alternative title: Passion’s Just Another Word for Nothing Substantive to Say. Only recently, small-town Evansville rejected a $5.5 million tax-incremental funding demand from the Southern Wisconsin Agricultural Group to locate in that community. See, Demanding Millions from Small-town Evansville. To accede to SWAG’s demands, Evansville would have had to abandon street repair, water-system upgrades, etc.,…
Press
Local Government, Press
The Police Chief Turned City Administrator Turned School Public Relations Man
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Gazette has a Monday editorial in support of hiring Milton’s former police chief-turned-city-administator for a public school, public relations job. It’s almost a self-parody of insiders flacking for insiders. (See, subscription req’d, Our Views: Was Milton School District’s Hiring of Jerry Schuetz a Reasonable Move?) It’s grandiose and wasteful to think that Milton’s schools…
Local Government, Press
The Vacillating Paper in Janesville
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
If you’ve watched politics in Janesville lately, you know that there’s a proposal for a new fire station that’s both expensive (about nine-million dollars) and that would require the demolition of about a dozen residents’ homes. The controversy over the station might have been mitigated, but the entire episode represents a succession of unforced errors…
Local Government, Press
Anger and Exhaustion Stalk Local Elites
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Years of asking for money for big-ticket projects for big-talking cronies, and insisting on imaginary successes and fabricated accomplishments, have left local insiders facing community anger and exhaustion. Of the two, exhaustion is – by far – the more debilitating to town squires’ plans. Anger flares over a project, here and there, and sometimes prevails…
Local Government, Open Government, Press
Janesville Doubles Down
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s an update about Janesville’s fire station debacle: Janesville’s city attorney reportedly contends that Wisconsin law does not allow a petition to overturn what the City of Janesville contends is an administrative decision. See, City attorney: Fire station question not for voters to decide. For now, consider the politics of this position. (Here, I mean…
Local Government, New Media, Press
Insiders’ Press Choices: Stagnation or Decline
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There is not a single newspaper in our part of Wisconsin that is not stagnant or in decline. Not one. (Stagnation, truly, applies only if one keeps the interval of measurement small; look over any reasonable period and you’ll find ongoing decline.) When town squires and self-declared ‘movers and shakers’ look for a compliant publication,…
Local Government, Open Government, Press
How the Local Press Fails
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a story at Channel 3000 (the website for WISC-TV) entitled, Janesville resident to petition council’s decision to build a new fire station. The story says much about (1) government spending, (2) unlawful use of closed sessions to conceal projects, and (3) press competition. Here’s the cause of residents’ ire: Janesville resident Billy McCoy is…
New Media, Press
The Newspaper that Touts Chilling Effects
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One would think that a newspaper – in the business of printed and online speech – would wish to reduce chilling effects, that is, threats of lawsuits or government action that might intimidate citizens into refraining from the exercise of free speech rights. One might think that about some newspapers, but for the Janesville Gazette…
Corporate Welfare, Press
The Foul Air in Which Chicanery Breathes Easily
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In nearby Janesville, they’ve a state senatorial candidate hinting that he’ll bring General Motors back, and a big talkin’ developer (with whom the candidate is associated) now saying the same thing. These economic promises are no sounder than the hooting and screeching of apes. (Less sound, actually, as even foul quadrupeds in the rain forest…
Business, Local Government, New Media, Press
Three Key Insights for Local News
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I grew up reading and loving newspapers. I didn’t aspire to write in that field; like so many others, I wanted to read what others carefully and insightfully wrote. Love doesn’t sustain an industry; sound perspectives and tenacity sustain an industry. The trends for newspapers are inauspicious. See, only the latest in a long string…
Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Press
The Gazette’s Ideological Albatross
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It was Carl Denham who once declared, famously, that “It was beauty killed the beast.” In the same way, nothing matters more for a publication of news and opinion than its ideology, its intellectual outlook. A misguided outlook will prove debilitating, if not fatal. A strong set of principles helps a publication steer true in…
Press
The Gazette’s Impossible Task
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Not long ago, the Gazette‘s editor and vice-president for news, Scott Angus, wrote about a mistake that newspaper made when it reprinted an old section of the paper in a current edition (See, subscription required, Editor’s Views: Wrong page prompts headscratching, thorough review.) Mistakes of proofreading and printing happen from time to time, even a…
Press
Oops
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Press
Local Printing-Press Consolidation
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Daily Union and Good Morning Advertiser will use the Bliss Communications press: The change, effective Monday, Feb. 10, will end 131 years of printing the newspaper in Fort Atkinson and result in the layoff of approximately 20 employees…. Other changes will include a slight reduction in the page size, as well as an altered…