June 30, 2013

Gov. Walker vetoes the effort to kick Center for Investigative Journalism off the UW-Madison campus.

We talked about this provision in the budget bill back last week, here, noting the opposition from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

I'm glad to see that Scott Walker is vetoing this.
Instead, he will ask the Board of Regents to review its policy on housing organizations such as the center, which gets office space from the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Communications in exchange for paid student internships and guest lectures.

“It’s appropriate for (the Regents) to look at it,” Walker said in an interview Friday with the State Journal. “But it should be done in the context of a larger policy, not just specific to one organization.”
Right. Otherwise, he trips over the very principle he ought to want to promote: Don't discriminate based on political viewpoint.

42 comments:

edutcher said...

On this we can agree.

traditionalguy said...

Walker is good. Why do they hate him again? Is defeating the public employees union scam a never to be forgiven act?

Original Mike said...

Devious. Right, garage?

FedkaTheConvict said...

" Otherwise, he trips over the very principle he ought to want to promote: Don't discriminate based on political viewpoint"

I'm pretty sure that supporters of the Center for Investigative Journalism have asserted that it is non-political and non-partisan. So how would it be possible to discriminate against an organization that doesn't hew to a particular political viewpoint?

Lewis Wetzel said...

Number 387 on the list of things Leftists think that make them insane:
"'Education' is just another word for indoctrination. But being pro-education is non-partisan and non-ideological.

fivewheels said...

Fedka, you can discriminate by viewpoint by favoring one viewpoint, i.e. attacking both those who are against you and the neutral. Just for instance. I'm not familiar with the particulars here.

I'm glad this post links to the original one, which I didn't read, because the late comment from Shibley probably wasn't seen by many commenters.

fivewheels said...

I don't want to say this in an inflammatory way, but as an example, there was a major 20th Century movement that wasn't really content just to silence critics. People were forced to join the party and mouth the words. Non-partisan doesn't cut it with some people.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Devious. Right, garage?

You know what?... This an opportunity for Garage to throw away everything he has ever believed in and recast himself as a Walker follower.

Stand With Governor Walker Garage.

Meade said...

Lem,

Hah!
My favorite line: "Because he does what he says, he's not just some big fancy talker".

Joseph Blieu said...

I think the courts would judge these agreements by whether there was statistical evidence that groups of one political bent were being approved at higher levels than those of other bents. Are there any other groups that have these agreements or is this the only one, has anyone else applied, that should be the standard. I think Walker defused the issue well politically.

gadfly said...

Given the opportunity, year after year, to end the cozy relationship between the UW-Madison faculty and Wisconsin Watch (two very liberal groups) the Board of Regents has ignored this obvious lack of fairness in favor of purposely shunning conservative groups such as MacIver Institute.

Why does the governor expect the regents will do things differently now? The blinders have been in place for far too long.

Chip Ahoy said...

My favorite part was, "From hard work he's not a balker," and "Of fine ladies not a stalker," and "Would never be caught reading Gawker," actually I have a lot of favorite lines, "Used to be a window caulker," "And once a Christmas tree flocker," and "Then a Ginzu knife hocker." What a great song it's like an ear bug. Oh wait, sorry, that was that tinnitus cicada thing again.

Bayoneteer said...

The reps really, really, really are the stoopid party. By the time they figure out what it is they're up against the enemy is so thoroughly ensconced that they cant be defeated. Put this non-starter down with the Defund NPR, and other solutions to spilled milk.

Quaestor said...

I'll wager my last dollar that some of those regents were members of the free speech movement back in the day.

Of course it never was free speech they were interested in, was it?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"Because he does what he says, he's not just some big fancy talker".

Chris Christy says he'll get there by 2016, by hook or by crook.

Lydia said...

"Because he does what he says, he's not just some big fancy talker".

That is a good line. And seems tailor-made for Hillary's opponent in 2016.

Big Mike said...

I'm pretty sure that supporters of the Center for Investigative Journalism have asserted that it is non-political and non-partisan.

No one believes them.

JAL said...

Cut that baby in half, he did.

It seems rightfully so, as FIRE had a point.

That's speaking as a non- Cheesehead©®.

Meade said...

Chip, you left out: On heaven's door he's not just yet a knocker.

JAL said...

Oh, this thread could end badly
;-P Meade and Chip.

Cueing beta ...

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Used to be a window caulker

Your early experience with windows must have been worst than mine.

Meade said...

"Of course it never was free speech they were interested in, was it?"

You mean the way "power to the people" really meant "power to the good people, i.e. us"?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

...And seems tailor-made for Hillary's opponent in 2016.

If they do, it will be a reverse Swiftboating.

Chuck said...

A challenge:

Can anyone name a single major story broken by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, that wasn't in the service of Democrats, the left, union interests, or the interests of the Democrat-left contingent on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, etc.?

In other words, make a good case, in fifty words or less, on why the Center should be regarded as anything other than a megaphone/tool of "progressive" politics in Wisconsin?

Is the Center a 501(c)(3) corporation? It is my understanding that in addition to U-W support, it also gets private support. Do we know exactly where that private support comes from?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lem the artificially intelligent said...

He didn't just pop in to meet the Fockers.

Rabel said...

Bill Lueders writing at WCIJ in 2011:

"That’s what we do at the nonprofit and nonpartisan Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, supported in part by grants from foundations established by lefty billionaire George Soros, which have supplied about 30 percent of our overall funding."

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Too many peas back there.

Speaking of Betamax... the naked mango comment from the other night, I don't remember who made it exactly... but it came back to my recollection while at Costco.

Little did I realize the impact at the time I first read that.

Rabel said...

At WCIJ it's crazy-ass crackers all the way down.

In fairness, I should acknowledge that Wisconsin has a better class of crackers than Florida.

Meade said...

He's metamorphic not just some sedimentary rawker.

Rabel said...

That should be "creepy-ass crackers." It pays to know your crackers.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I was going to say something but I see that somebody died at the next post... so I'm going observe a moment of silence... before a teachable moment passes by and take this magic moment and memorialize it.

Anonymous said...

RE: "It pays to know your crackers."

Or --as Cibo Matto Would say: It Pays to Know Your Chicken.

"I know my chicken
You got to know your chicken
She went to college to study anatomy
I followed her father's butchery
We got 2 babies. is it cool?
One was magenta, the other was blue."

Naked Bob Dylan Robot Understands this Implicitly:

"Little red wagon
Little red bike
I ain’t no monkey but I know what I like"

Chickens and Monkeys Share an Axis that is Perpendicular to the Axis of Ass and Crackers.



Joseph Blieu said...

So chickens and monkeys are orthogonal to ass and crackers, are all poles on right side of plane?

Marty said...

It's about timing, slowing things down a bit and giving people a chance to accommodate to things.

Gahrie said...

It's about timing, slowing things down a bit and giving people a chance to accommodate to things.

Are you talking about anal sex?

Chuck said...

Answering my own challenge posted just above...

Yes, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a 501(c)(3).

The Center gets grant money from foundations. It got a pile (several large piles, actually) of money from the Open Society Institute. Read: George Soros. The Center also gets money from the Ford Foundation and the McCormick Foundation. Read: Lots of the same foundations which fund NPR and PBS.

There is also a list -- the Center publishes it, and you have to give them credit for doing so -- of individual donors. Here:

http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/about/funding/

If I were a summer intern at, say, a center for investigative journalism, I'd compare the CIJ donor list with lists of contributors to Wisconsin Democrats and other progressive causes, and see how many names are in common. I'd want to see which of the law firms making donations to the CIJ are law firms doing work for Wisconsin unions and plaintiffs' personal injury causes.

Petunia said...

The WCIJ and Bill Lueders are about as objective as the Fleeing Fourteen, but good for Governor Walker for vetoing that provision. Just makes him look better and keeps the spotlight on WCIJ.

No doubt the idiot lefties will find some way to protest this, though.

Alex said...

This proves once and for all that the left is only interested in stamping out all competition in the free marketplace of ideas, using the bootheel of government.

Methadras said...

Don't discriminate based on political viewpoint.

Oh you mean how leftists wouldn't hesitate one bit in doing? lulz

Methadras said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chuck said...

What would the WCIJ (and a host of other left-wing media outlets -- the Isthmus, the Wiscsin State Journal, etc. -- both of whom donated to WCIJ) do, if a journalism center with a partisan track record and funded by David Koch, was given facilities and support by the University of Wisconsin?