Apparently the staffers over at Gannett newspapers have lost their journalistic integrity. The higher-ups have repremanded employees for losing thier bias. Apparently these "journalists" didn't know that their personal envolvment in a recall would be considered a loss of impartiality. Wow, talk about a "F minus" in jouralism 101!

The Appleton PC was the worst of them all. NINE employees!!

Isn't the lack of prejudice the basis of journalism on its most elementary level?

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/appleton-expose-snares-papers-own.html

River Rat, spelling can be a friend.

_________________
Nell

More women die of lung cancer than breast cancer. If you smoke, quit. If you don't, don't start.

Friends never lets friends drive drunk.

River Rat,

I used to work for Gannett (although never as a journalist).

First, none of the journalists that signed the petition report on political news and or have any influence on the reporting.

Second, I personally have a major issue with Gannett's decision. It's not considered a violation of journalistic ethics to vote. Why is signing a recall petition any different other than that people can find out which side you were on? I believe the Post-Cresent (Appleton) also still endorses candidates for elections (admittedly in the editorial section).

When it comes to political decisions that potentially affect people's livelihood (spouses might be public employees), their children's education, etc. I think the employer should keep their nose out of a personal decision.

I give myself an "F MINUS" in spelling. I can't beleive there isn't a spell-checker on this board. Of all the messin' around I do in my various interests on the net this the only board without one.

From what I've seen most modern web browsers either already have, or are adding built in spell checkers, nullifying the need for one running on our servers for the message boards. The only major browser I know of that doesn't already offer this is Internet Explorer, and even that has free plugins that can be added to accomplish the task.

Because of this it's probably not a feature we'll be looking to add anytime soon.

I found this decision by Gannett reprehensible. Regardless of what you do for a living, all citizens have the right to their opinions, have the right to vote however they choose, and have the right to sign petitions.

What many in the news media forget is that personal opinions belong on the editorial page not expressed as "News." Gannett was attempting to show that they have some integrity as a company. Newspapermen(News Media of the Past) at one time were often seekers of the truth but that day has passed, sadly.

A prime example of that is the Trayvon Martin case in Florida the liberal media has convicted that neighborhood watch guy without the police investigation being completed. They've printed pictures of Trayvon Martin that were taken when he was a child of 14 years old just to stir sentiments. Anderson Coper(CNN) and Al Sharpton(MSNBC) have done anything they can to make a villain out of that guy with no real proof of wrong doing. They seem to want a modern day lynching. In fact some other opinionated news idiot gave out an address that this neighborhood watch guy was supposed to be staying and some Florida retired couple has been terrorized as a result. Reprehensible, you bet.

This is probably close to the truth when it comes to most of the media.

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.
-- Mark Twain

_________________
God and the Soldier we all adore,
In times of trouble and then no more
when war is over and all things righted
God is forgotten, the old soldier Slighted.

Tooten,

I try to keep an open mind but it really isn't looking good for the neighborhood watch shooter. Two independent experts released today that the person screaming on the 911 calls was not the shooter. They don't have an audio recording to compare if it was Martin, but they said they can be relatively certain it was not the shooter that was screaming...

Also, if they were just trying to make personal cases there would be a lot more coverage over the kid that got shot in Wisconsin. It's another unfortunate case, and realistically, one that no one should have been shot. An underage adult ran from a party that be was being broken up by the police. He hid on an enclosed porch (which may, or may not have been locked) and the home owner, who knew the police were a few hundred yards away and I believe had even reported the party, shot him while he was unarmed.

That shooter also is immune from prosecution because of Wisconsin's new Castle Doctrine. While I fully agree with the right to defend yourself, I also FIRMLY believe you darn well better be in legitimate danger before shooting another human being! In both cases, I suspect extremely poor judgement was used by the shooters!

I just love the way that the media has him tried, convicted and ready for execution when the police haven't even finished the investigation yet.

And can anyone expect any real justice.

As Joe Friday used to say "Just give us the facts".

They need to keep their opinions to themselves.

_________________
God and the Soldier we all adore,
In times of trouble and then no more
when war is over and all things righted
God is forgotten, the old soldier Slighted.

I don't have a dog in this fight so I could care less about the watch guy but Old Scout has this one right when he said "I just love the way that the media has him tried, convicted and ready for execution when the police haven't even finished the investigation yet."

What this post was originally about was Gannett attempting to show that they have some integrity as a company by reprimanding some journalists on their staff for signing recall petitions. Integrity is an idea that many on the left fail to grasp weather it be many of our public school teachers with their narcissistic me-me entitlement attitude toward the taxpaying public or liberal Wisconsin judges, as many as 25 or more, who signed recall petitions and some of those who choose to rule on cases involving the Walker administration. Mimi61 stated "I found this decision by Gannett reprehensible. Regardless of what you do for a living, all citizens have the right to their opinions, have the right to vote however they choose, and have the right to sign petitions." The liberal Wisconsin news media treated these judges as heroes when the state constitution requires a semblance of integrity and impartiality in the judiciary. WI statutes SCR60.06 states: "Wisconsin adheres to the concept of a nonpartisan judiciary. A candidate for judicial office shall not appeal to partisanship and shall avoid partisan activity in the spirit of a nonpartisan judiciary" and under SCR 60.03: "A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge's activities. (1) A judge shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary." These judges either never read the Wisconsin Code "about what they do for a living" or simply choose to ignore it. I find the actions of those judges and their news media cheerleaders reprehensible. Gannett was at least attempting to show it has some journalistic integrity.

"Experts" are hired and used in courtrooms throughout the country on a daily basis. They will use their expertise to prove a point in favor of what ever side of a case that paid their fees. This neighborhood watch guy is being denied his rights as well as that retired couple that I spoke of courtesy of the media. What about the Police Chief that resigned or the cops conducting the investigation? Do they have rights? Do they have the right to conduct an investigation with out it being interfered with by the accusatory leftist media, liberal politicians, MSNBC's Al Sharpton, Black Panthers or whatever. The Constitution be dam***d for it interferes with the left wing media's agenda.

The Special Prosecutor on this Florida case said that she wasn't going to have any arrest warrants issued until the investigation is complete and that investigation proves illegal actions on the part of someone. There are reporters following around the detectives on this case re-interviewing potential witnesses in an attempt to prove that the cops are doing something wrong or provide cover for this watch guy. One potential witness, a woman, stated to the camera that the detective implied that they, the Police Department, were trying to make a case against the watch guy. Hardly sounds like a cover-up. The cops gather information, present to the prosecutors and the prosecutors go to the court and request an arrest warrant which is usually issued under the signature of a judge if there is probable cause for the warrant to be issued. But what the h*** do I know, I'm not a liberal media type, so I'll stand corrected, as usual, Kerry. Did you ever read the Tawana Brawley story?

Ahhh.... if only all news outlets could be as unbiased and non-opinionated like Fox News.....

That is not what Castle Doctrine is, it does not give immunity. The law basically requires juries to presume defendants were justified in using force to protect their home at the beginning of a trial. If a prosecutor can produce evidence that proves a homeowner committed an illegal act during the defense of his home the homeowner can be, and should be, found guilty.

If you commit an illegal act you are held liable, the castle doctrine does not shield you from that.

A person had the right to defend his home prior to the castle doctrine law as well. The only difference was that prior to the law the jury was not instructed to presume justification. Adam Kind had the right to defend his home prior to castle doctrine. He did nothing illegal in the defense of his home regardless of the law being in place or not. The prosecutor choose not to charge him because no illegal act occured, not because the legislature passed a law, and not because he is immune from from prosecution.

xyz1 and Carry,
Check Google News it sounds like NBC and MSNBC altered the 911 tapes to make this guy sound racist in his call to police.

"Ahhh.... if only all news outlets could be as unbiased and non-opinionated like Fox News....."

Fox might be opinionated but these clowns stepped way over the line with this stuff, a little more integrity from the left.

Kind of like when Fox News was covering the protests at the capitol last year by using videotapes of thug union guys with palm trees in the background...

Also, can you give me a link to the stuff you saw on Google News. I'm not seeing it, but could just be because Google News customizes the stuff it shows you. Thank you.

Google "Altered 911 Tapes" and see what you find. It was all over the Google News this morning but I'm sure that some of MSNBC friends in the media are attempting to shut it up. My thoughts on this subject are about integrity in the media but it doesn't fit the left wing agenda. Kind of like all those greedy WEAC protesters in Madison saying "Its all about the children." I don't know about palm trees but I do know little bit about civil disorders and some of those people in Madison certainly behaved like thugs.

Is standing up for your beliefs using your right of free speech make you a thug? I thought that was being an active participant in a democracy. So did the founding fathers of our country. During the Boston Tea Party, people broke onto a private ship and dumped privately owned things overboard as a form of protest. Were they thugs?

Aside from that, I agree the altering of the tape was misleading and bad journalism. Whoever did that should be held accountable. But, these things happen on both sides. To write it off as something simply happening in the "left wing media" is not true.

The palm trees in question....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRcmeA1k-ik

Tooten,

Were you there? Did you actually come see the protests or did you just watch them on the news?

Yes, there probably were a few people there that didn't behave well. I'd challenge you to get 10's of thousands of people anywhere and not have a couple troublemakers. However, and this is a BIG however, considering the size of the crowd and the fact that people's livelihood were the discussion point things were extremely calm.

I took my mom there just to show her what was really going on. We walked around the entire building (where the police would let you), took pictures of signs and protesters, etc. At no time were we concerned about safety. I even watched over a counter-protester in the middle of the crowd to make sure they weren't harassed. They were allowed to stand and hold their sign, no one was yelling at them, no one was even talking to them the entire time I watched.

There was a daycare setup in one wing (yes, people were safely able to bring even young children). There was a first aid station that offered basic cold & headache medicine, etc. There was a food/supply station with bottles of water, etc. There were even cleanup crews that walked around the building cleaning up. All of these were organized, funded and run by the THUGS.

Well I stand corrected again your majesty, but that "funding" came right out the taxpayers pockets, extracted from those taxpayers by bought and paid for politicians, and recycled through the public employee unions. How about news media making an "error in production" as NBC/MSNBC stated in their public statement when they got caught. Must be no ethics classes in those journalism schools.

Tooten, well said. I was thinking the same. If Thugs funded those protests then I'm a Thug, for I pay taxes.

Oh, I'm glad to hear there was first-aid and water available too, because I know that many of the protesters had a doctor note to excuse them from teaching our children. Being so sick and all, it’s good that medical care was accessible.

Good points being made here.

Who wants to meet me at County Market and follow around any public employees, military personnel, etc.. and make sure they're spending our money the way we want them to? Maybe we can get Scotty to bring his bat too.

Speaking of Scotty one must wonder how much, taxpayer paid, public servant time has been has been spent on overturning the last election instead of doing the jobs that they have been paid to do.