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 fighting back against the city’s decision to build a $9.6 million center fire station, saying he and other residents are “fed up” with both the city’s spending and the closed session the council held last year regarding the plans for the new station. McCoy has started a petition asking council to resend its decision.
“It’s time that these people realize, you know they say one thing and turn around and try to do something else, or they go behind closed doors and want to do something. The citizens are fed up with it,” he said.
McCoy needs the support of 3,165 residents to sign the petition. A referendum would require the city to allow residents to vote to support or reject council’s decision to build the new central fire house during the November elections….
Spending. Ordinary residents see that $9.6 million is a lot of money, but so many local politicians get in office and forget as much. Politics is littered with candidates who say they’ll hold the line on spending, but who become incumbents who can’t spend fast enough.
Whitewater has one or two ‘proud conservatives’ whose political careers were exercises in backing every insiders’ big-ticket project that came along.
Closed Sessions. Janesville residents know, and so does the Gazette, that Janesville’s city council held at least one unlawful closed session about the proposed fire station. Excessive spending is a piker compared with unlawful concealment to bring it about.
Caving on Open Government. Knowing that there was a council vote that was unlawful, the Gazette‘s editorial board still chose to cave on defending open government from government transgression: “The Gazette or the district attorney could attempt to make the council pay for its illegal meeting, but that time and money might be better spent elsewhere….”
Later, that same editorial board backed the fire station, and told this to residents who learned that their houses would be destroyed to make room for a multi-million-dollar project:
….No, it wasn’t a perfect decision, and neither was the process. The biggest mistake was making the initial choice to expand at the same location behind closed doors. Madison attorney Bob Dreps, an expert in media law, said the council’s closed-session November vote violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law.
Regardless, what’s done is done. Residents don’t have to like how the decision was made, but it’s time to accept it. Sometimes, thinking long term creates immediate pain. That’s the case here…
That’s not watchdog journalism…it’s lapdog journalism.
Look at the Madison station’s account linked in my first paragraph above, and you’ll see that they’re covering this story without patronizing and condescending to Janesville residents.
Not only that, they’re covering the story without a subscription fee, and with the added value a video clip of residents’ concerns.
A local paper should be leading the charge against this station, and the planning behind it. Instead, they’ve capitulated to government insiders, and now a Madison news station is poaching their readers. Running a story now about voters’ concerns is simply scrambling to catch up.
Worse, anything now comes after a shut-up-and-eat-your-peas attitude.
Still, press capitulation to government causes damage, but not indiscriminate damage: other media gain at the expense of a local newspaper’s sycophancy.