Monthly Archives: September 2018

2 additional broadcast debates announced

Wisconsin broadcasters are putting two additional debates on the air this fall to help inform voters ahead of the Nov. 6 election.

WISN-TV will host a live televised Wisconsin Attorney General debate on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. between Republican incumbent Brad Schimel and Democratic challenger Josh Kaul. The debate will be moderated by the host of WISN-TV’s UPFRONT and WBA Hall of Famer Mike Gousha. In addition to airing in southeast Wisconsin, the debate will also air on WBAY in Green Bay, WKOW in Madison, WAOW in Wausau, WQOW in Eau Claire, and WXOW in La Crosse. Some stations may offer coverage on their multicast channels. Check local listings for carriage.

WHBY radio in Appleton is hosting a live debate between candidates in the 6th Congressional District. Republican incumbent Glenn Grothman and Democratic challenger Dan Kohl will debate Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Neenah. WHBY’s Josh Dukelow will moderate the debate.

Both debates will be available via livestream on the host station’s digital platforms.

Broadcasters join open records advocates in Racine case

From mconnors on Morguefile

The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association is one of a number of organizations that signed a letter asking that a Racine County case be opened to the public.

A hearing on the case was held yesterday. You can read more about it here.

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and Wisconsin Newspaper Association was also involved in the hearing.

More tools go online for investigative journalists

Investigative journalists have no shortage of online tools to help when connect the dots on important data-driven stories, but Google is adding to the pile with a new dataset search.

The tool features an assortment of data in searchable format. So, while many tools help you organize data, this is a tool to help you find the data in the first place.

You can learn more about it here.

Wisconsin FOIC celebrates 40 years

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is celebrating 40 years of advocating for openness in government.

A celebration is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Oct. 30 at the Assembly Parlor in the Wisconsin State Capitol. The event will feature speakers and the unveiling of open government artwork and the Wisconsin FOIC’s new logo.

The WBA is a proud member of the Wisconsin FOIC.

Work underway on WBA debates

The panelists for the WBA gubernatorial and U.S. Senate debates are working hard at preparing for the debates coming up in October.

The panelists for both debates met on Tuesday to discuss topics that might later be formulated into questions for the candidates in each debate. Moderator Jill Geisler is working with the panelists on the debates.

The panels will meet at least twice more before the debates.

The U.S. Senate debate is scheduled for 7 p.m on Oct. 13 and will be held in the Wausau/Rhinelander market. The gubernatorial debate is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Oct. 19 and will be held in the Madison market.

Top row:
Moderator for both debates, Jill Geisler
Gubernatorial debate panelists:
Jessica Arp, WISC-TV
Emilee Fannon, WKOW-TV
Leigh Mills, WMTV-TV
Lupita Montoto, La Movida Radio
Bottom row:
U.S. Senate debate panelists:
Holly Chilsen, WSAW-TV
Chris Conley, WSAU Radio
Melissa Langbehn, WAOW-TV
Ben Meyer, WJFW-TV
Jeff Thelen, WSAW-TV

Law enforcement PIOs might not be helpful to journalism

From DodgertonSkillhause on Morguefile

If you’ve ever been on the police beat, you’ve likely worked with a police department that has a public information officer (PIO). More and more departments are getting PIOs, particularly in larger communities. A PIO can be helpful to journalists, creating a single point of contact for the department, but a series of studies from the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) suggests PIOs might do more harm than good, making it more difficult to get access to interviews and information.

Based on the results of the surveys, SPJ and Poynter also have suggestions for how journalists can work with PIOs to get as close to the stories as possible.

You can read more about it here.

Committee comes closer to recommendation on police body cameras

James Friedman and Ben Hart

A legislative committee studying the use of police body cameras held its second meeting on Thursday and made progress in recommending legislation on the issue.

The committee is trying to establish uniform regulations for law enforcement using body cameras. Legislation on body cameras passed in the Assembly but was not brought up for a vote in the Senate before the end of the last session.

WISN-TV News Director Ben Hart and attorney James Friedman are representing broadcasters and the media on the committee.

At its first meeting the committee heard reports from the National Conference of State Legislatures, Wisconsin Department of Justice, attorneys representing local and county government, and a body camera vendor. At Thursday’s meting the committee heard from the Milwaukee Police Department about its body cameras before spending much of the session deliberating on a legislative recommendation.

The bill that failed in the last session would have made footage from police body cameras confidential to the public unless it contained injuries, deaths, arrests, or searches. Victims and witnesses would also need to give law enforcement permission to release footage if the videos violated their privacy.

Open records advocates argued for maintaining Wisconsin’s current standard of a public records being assumed accessible to the public, rather than shifting that to assuming the videos are not public.  The committee raised concerns about the challenge video recordings present to victims and children, and there was some discussion of adjusting existing laws to take those concerns into consideration.

The committee also discussed how much detail the law should include and how much flexibility should be given to law enforcement agencies on issues like retention of video footage and policies for how the cameras are used.

The committee is tentatively scheduled to meet again on Oct. 17 to further refine and potentially finalize its recommendation.