Journal Sentinel Reporter Sourcing Story I Broke About Aprahamian Contribution to Walker Campaign Without Credit?
How’s that for timing?
A day after I made the connection (thanks to a commenter who corrected me about who the contract was awarded to) between a recently awarded County cleaning contract to a company owned by a man who contributed $1,000 to County Executive Scott Walker’s campaign, the Journal Sentinel decides to run a similar story.
Yesterday morning I pointed out that Edward Aprahamian, owner of MidAmerican Building Services, made a $1,000 contribution to Scott Walker’s campaign for Governor on June 30th, 2009. Last week, his company won the new contract to provide janitorial services to the Milwaukee County Courthouse, a move the County Executive had been pushing hard for since last year.
In tomorrow’s Journal Sentinel, there will be an article (linked above) that highlights exactly that.
Now I can’t say with absolute certainty that the journalist who wrote the piece for the paper sourced my blog without giving credit, but I can tell you it’s happened several times before and that yesterday there was an abnormal amount of traffic to my website from a network registered to “Journal Communications”. To be honest, it’s awfully coincidental.
I don’t have a problem with “journalists” sourcing blogs, or those who write them, for their material or leads. That’s great. What I do have a problem with is “journalists” trolling well known local blogs for stories that might have legs so they don’t have to do the hard work of doing the initial investigation and then presenting it as their own work.
How hard would it be to just include a simple line in that, or any article, that acknowledges that fact?
When they don’t, or can’t, or won’t you have to ask yourself why. Perhaps the continuing reluctance of the “traditional media” to acknowledge that many of the “citizen journalists/blogs” are beating them to the punch on many stories is exactly why the “traditional media” continues to bleed subscribers while the same blogs they’re ripping leads and ideas from are more popular than ever for local news and happenings.
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Amen, Dan. It’s blogs like yours that are paving the way in Milwaukee. You keep up the good work.
Good catch.
BTW, my experience is most sources play bloggers for a second contact in case the paper doesn’t come through. Yes, even good sources.
Dan
Here is a list of Journalism Ethics, touted by the young and already corrupted Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism itself. It sounds good and most media would publicly buy these principles, but they are learning we are going to be their watchdogs. Keep us posted.
http://wisconsinwatch.org/?page_id=212
#3: “— Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.”
#9 “— Never plagiarize.”
I do a bit on investigative journalism in UppityWis.org as SocratesChildren.
We are honored by your integrity
Bill
I am not favorably impressed with the Journal’s ethics. They were very much for having Miller Park built and their coverage was not very balanced (at least in my opinion) and did not disclose that getting the stadium built was going to help their business.
Lately they seem to running feature / editorial type stuff on the front page as if it was neutral coverage. In particular they have been advocating particular solutions (while ignoring others) to the drunken driver problem and have been publishing very pro-patent articles fairly regularly the last couple of months.
Good work Cody. The MJS continues it’s slow slide towards irrelevancy. The fact is people like you who are doing the hard work are the future of community journalism. When the major paper only has one person to cover the entire County beat, it’s going to have to cut corners. Journalists taking leads from bloggers is the next logical, if unforunate step. But yes, the least they can do is at least give credit to the people like you who are doing the initial work.
“”Aprahamian also has donated to Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, both Democrats.”"
Hm, now there is a little snippet we would not see reported in these halls. Looks like he is simply a businessman who plays on both sides of the fence, like many business people do. I think I may lose a bit of respect for you on this one Dan. First you accuse Walker of going out of state. Then, when you are proven dead wrong, rather than apologize, you imply that Walker gave the contract to a political supporter. You then ignore the Journal honest (did I just put Journal and honest together in a sentence?? Wow) reporting that this fellow Edward Aprahamian simply donates to politicians the way many businesses do, on both sides of the aisle.
Frankly, I am a bit disappointed in you, Dan. While you are often a strict partisan, I’ve always felt that you were honest in your opinions and I have actually made comment in other places that Left on the Lake was a very fair site.
I may have to retract that now. I think you’ve made a big mess of this issue, and I would heartily encourage you to post a retraction with the same balanced facts that the Journal does.
Well sorry that you’re disappointed TFG. The difference of course is that Barrett or Doyle didn’t award contracts (as far as I know) to the guy.
I don’t get why you and others are more interested in pointing out your disappointment with me personally than you are in the fact that this looks bad for the CE. I don’t get it, but I’m not going to ring my hands and try to figure it out right now.
When I see you holding others to the same standards that you set for Republicans, then I will have some respect for you. Until then, you have become nothing more than a partisan witch hunter. When you become less fair on a story than the Milwaukee Journal, that should be cause for alarm.
I’m still waiting for you to show me where you criticized Doyle for clearly giving contracts (and lifetime Casino compacts) based on donations. If it did not spur you to post a critical piece then, I’d say you have no credibility making that baseless accusation here. You appear to have just become a shill for the Democrat Party. I’d say that’s sad. Credible voices on the left are few.
That’s rich Family guy. As Ssmeone who badgers Dan on a regular basis, calls his principles into question with regularity, and calls his ethics into question you’re now trying the “you’ve gone to far and should reract what you wrote” play??
Walker appears to have taken $1000 from a guy. That guy then gets a contract awarded by Walker. And you’re trying to say Dan of all people is the one who should be apologizing for that because he pointed it out?
How you and your pals who do the same on a regular basis take yourself seriously is beyond me. Get over yourself #1 and then I think an apology is in order.
Dan as for you keep digging and don’t let people like this get you down. They want you to fail for a reason and it’s not because you’re doing a shitty job that should be apologized for.
No, I don’t think Dan needs to apologize. He simply needs to retract his baseless accusations and replace them with clarity and honesty.
Were you outraged when Jim Doyle took millions in Indian campaign assistance and then awarded them an unheard of lifetime sweetheart casino deal? Well, were you James?
Can I expect Dan to investigate Mayor Tom with the same vigor and expose all of the city services contracted from people who gave Tom some dinero? No, of course that won’t happen. Actually, I would never be obtuse enough to imply that just because some guy gave Tom a small sum, that equals a crime. That’s just political fabrication, and so is this. I stand disappointed, but I guess I should not be surprised.
So if Dan declared outrage about the Doyle thing, would you allow yourself to be upset about the current issue at hand? Do we have to run through a historical tit-for-tat on everything when a new issue comes up? Perhaps you’d like to run the scoreboard – sounds like a great idea for your blog.
Is it Dan’s job to investigate Mayor Tom with the same vigor? As you point out all the time, Dan’s a partisan. There are partisans on the other side digging for the dirt on the Mayor. And I’m sure you’ll be sure to tell us when anything comes up.
BTW, I was outraged about the Casino thing. Wish they could take it back.
Dan claims not to be on a partisan crusade against Walker. If so, then he should prove it by his actions.
If Dan had been outraged at the time of the governor’s transgression, then he might have some credibility bringing up this issue. Of course, no one has shown that there was any wrong doing with Walker, it’s just the typical unfounded smears by the usual suspects… of which, I am beginning to suspect, Dan is one.
The City of Milwaukee has many instances where the exact same thing has happened…political donors getting contracts. Does that mean there is wrong doing? Probably not, but it seems that if the Mayor was a Republican, that’s just what some people would publish. Perhaps you are implying that if a person makes a political donation that they are to be totally exempt from any beneficial interaction with government? Is that it?
If you were outraged by the Casino pay for play crimes, then I commend you on that Jill. If someone proves that Walker is doing the same thing, I will be sorely disappointed in him. I will not do what the Democrat party did in Wisconsin though, I will NOT vote to elect him.
I don’t think Dan has time to be a crusader, he seems like a pretty busy guy. He does happen to be a Democrat who watches county politics closely. If you’re waiting for Dan to start blowing kisses to Scott Walker, you might want to reconsider.