The Milwaukee Post

8 • Milwaukee County Post • May 25, 2018 Scott Bauer of The Associated Press, Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the TV news airheads who joined them several weeks ago to "interview" Tammy Baldwin about her mother's drug addiction took paychecks from their employers while doing their work. I guess that means I can't accuse them of prostituting themselves for Baldwin's U.S. Senate re-election campaign. There's another tawdry term for it. The "reporters" were clearly being used by Baldwin in a cynical attempt to use her dead mother to give her cover for the issue that has her so vulnerable in her re-election bid: her role in the coverup of the drugging of veterans at the VA Hospital in Tomah. The question is whether Glauber, Bauer and the airheads knew they were being used and are brazenly biased hacks palming off campaign spin as "news." Or were they merely suckers played like chumps by Team Tammy? Shortly after Baldwin invited the group of reporters to talk to her about her mother's opioid addiction, the Baldwin campaign released a major TV ad focusing on the same thing. The ad was timed to come on the heels of the "news" stories. The purpose of the ad is obvious. Baldwin is in deep trou- ble because of the reports several years ago that she stonewalled a whistle-blower try- ing to expose the horrifying overprescrib- ing of narcotic pain meds to vets being treated at Tomah. The story makes Baldwin look horrible. She and her staff were begged to intervene. Instead, the requests were spurned. After the stories about Baldwin's role in the coverup were made public, Baldwin tried to blame her staff. The chief scapegoat was Marquette Baylor, Baldwin's Wisconsin staff director, who was thrown under the bus and fired. Still, the story is terrible for Baldwin. Overprescribing of opioids is a major national issue. The awful treatment of vets at some VA hospitals (not all) has become a national scandal. Baldwin was in a position to help the vulnerable Tomah vets but turned her back. Tammy was either too lazy, too apathetic or too much of an Obama suck-up. Lazy is possible. There may not be an entire mem- ber of the Senate who has done less in six years than Tammy Baldwin. Apathetic is also a reasonable explanation. Baldwin is an anti-military leftist and war vets are not her priority. But more likely it's that Baldwin didn't want to offend Obama. The Tomah tips were coming in at the same time news stories were coming about the atro- cious care and long waits at VA facilities while Obama was president. Baldwin may simply have wanted to stay on Obama's good side and didn't want to join in on the criticism of the Obama VA. That was then and the 2018 campaign is now. Baldwin's seat may decide which party controls the Senate. Whether Leah Vukmir or Kevin Nicholson wins the Republican primary, Baldwin's Tomah coverup is sure to be an issue. Baldwin's handlers have decided to try to give her cover by having her talk about her mother's addiction. The notion must be that Tammy isn't heartless about narcotic addicts. (The tactic could backfire; one could certainly wonder why someone exposed to the horrors of opioid abuse wasn't more sensitive to what was happening at Tomah.) So the ads are run- ning on TV stations across the state. But to give the ads credibility, Baldwin's handlers wanted news stories before they aired. The tactic couldn't be more transparent. Yet the AP, the Journal Sentinel and the TV sta- tions all played along. Bauer's AP story at least mentioned (at the end) Baldwin's Tomah troubles. But Glauber didn't even put it in. I emailed Glauber to ask about this. He said he didn't know that Baldwin was going to run ads about her mother's situation after the inter- view and defends the story as newsworthy because it was the first time Baldwin had talked about her mother's addiction. But since when are the decades-old health woes of a politician's parent newsworthy? The story would have been gratuitous even if Baldwin wasn't embroiled in a coverup of opioid overprescribing. But the real problem is this: Republicans aren't given the courtesy of free news sto- ries in advance of their campaign ads. My side doesn't get to decide on advertising strategy and get the state's gullible news reporters to run puff pieces in advance of the ads. The bias just gets worse and worse. The Baldwin story us something even more insidious than "fake news." It is invented news. And, the beat goes on. Lee Bergquist (nor- mally one of the better reporters at the Journal Sentinel) a couple of days ago did a story he admits was fed to him by the cam- paign of Danny Kohl, the Democrat oppo- nent to Congressman Glenn Grothman about Grothman's use of Congress' free mailing privileges to communicate with constituents. It's another "invented" story because Grothman's total office expenses are not high. The mailing expense was cher- ry-picked out. Here's a guarantee: Kohl will soon run an ad about Grothman's use of the mailings. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE Mainline media resort to inventing the news OPINION Last week's question With a projected $177 million deficit by 2020 for Milwaukee Public Schools, Gov.Walker suggested that if state Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Tony Evers doesn't intervene, perhaps the district should be broken into smaller districts. What do you think? Or, with the opening of IKEA in Oak Creek even while retail outlets like Boston Store and Sears close up, how do you feel about the state of retail sales? (Choose one.) I see Amazon and Walmart are clear- ly doing better than Sears and Boston Store. Let's face it, Sears and Boston Store haven't stepped up to the computer age. Everybody buys online. Nobody buys in the stores at malls anymore. — Tommy Sukkert South Milwaukee This week's question What do you think of President Donald Trump's claim that the FBI might have had informants in his 2016 campaign? Or, what do you think of the Milwaukee Bucks arena as it nears completion? Have your views changed? (Choose one.) Editor's note: When responding to the Question of the Week, please include your full name with spelling, phone number and city where you live. Phone numbers will not be published. Call 744-6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dmuck@ conleynet.com. Question of the week Send your letters to: The Milwaukee Post, c/o Dan Muckelbauer, 3397 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or by email to: dmuck@conleynet.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for style, length and clarity. Letters should be typewritten or printed and include full name, phone number and address. Please keep your letters to no more than 400 words. Letters policy State reporters pass off Democrat spin as actual story

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