As you can imagine, broadcasters along the area where Hurricane Florence is about to hit are preparing themselves to stay on the air to keep their local audiences informed.
If you want on the ground reporting, the local broadcasters will be providing community-by-community information you won’t get on the national news.
Poynter has collected a list of stations and newspapers to follow as the hurricane hits. You can find that here.
Stay safe!
Wisconsin is known for its harsh winters, which often come with debilitating snow storms. But Wisconsin is fortunate that it is not subject to hurricanes.
With Hurricane Florence taking aim on the East Coast, broadcasters along the coast are preparing for the storm and expanding their coverage ahead of the storm.
Broadcasters are among a unique group of people who make a commitment to serve the public. We wish good luck to the journalists and other station staff preparing for the storm and thank them for demonstrating broadcasters’ dedication to serving the public.
Wisconsin voters will be choosing in November the next Secretary of State and State Treasurer, but how many Wisconsin residents know who they are or what they do?
Perhaps you don’t know either?
The Secretary of State is required to: “maintain the official acts of the Legislature and Governor, and to keep the Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin and affix it to all official acts of the Governor. In addition, the Office administers program responsibilities set forth in approximately 100 sections of the Wisconsin Statutes, issuing authentications and apostilles; filing oaths of office; and filing deeds for state lands and buildings.”
Running for this office are Republican Jay Schroeder and Democratic incumbent Doug La Follette.
The State Treasurer is: “the state’s chief banker and makes certified copies of deeds, bonds, and documents filed in the treasurer’s office.”
Running for this office are Republican Travis Hartwig, Democrat Sarah Godlewski, and Constitution party candidate Andrew Zuelke. Incumbent Matt Adamczyk is not running for reelection.
Make sure you’re giving your audience information about these offices and races ahead of the November elections.
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is celebrating 10 years on the investigative news beat and celebrated Thursday night at Memorial Union on the UW campus in Madison.
The celebration featured a panel discussion with David Maraniss, Associate Editor at the Washington Post, Cara Lombardo, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and Michael Wagner, an Associate Professor at the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The panel talked about state of investigative journalism nationally and in local communities and highlighted the work of the WCIJ.
WISC Chief Political Reporter and and Assistant News Director Jessica Arp served as MC.
The WCIJ is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization aimed at increasing the quality of quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin while training current and future investigative journalists. It’s based at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication on the UW-Madison campus. Its reporting is available for newsrooms to republish for free.
If you’re already licenses to fly a drone, you probably know all the rules, and you also know that the rules can vary from location to location.
As an example, the City of Madison is considering regulations that would basically mimic state law, but would give the city the power of enforcement of those laws, along with establishing potential fines. State lawmakers passed a bill in the last session that sought to address the patchwork nature of the regulations in Wisconsin. Municipalities can create their own rules, as long as they’re not more restrictive than the state rules.
So, when in doubt, look up your local rules or ask your local officials about flying before you use your drone for news purposes. Better still, get licensed so you can have a fuller understanding of all the rules that need to be followed.
Early this morning a man was arrested after repeatedly ramming his truck into a Dallas TV studio. You can read more about that here.
It’s another reminder of the dangers newsrooms seem to be facing with increased frequency.
The WBA will be holding a panel discussion about newsroom security and personal security at the Broadcasters Clinic on Oct. 17. We have special pricing for those who are only interested in this important session. Look for the special pricing on the registration page.
The panel discussion will be moderated by WLUK-TV News Director Juli Buehler and includes panelists Dan Shelley, RTDNA Executive Director, Tom Allen, Quincy Media Regional Vice President, Dave Devereaux-Weber, WORT-FM Board President, David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, and Mike Koval, Madison Police Chief.
Juli Buehler, Dan Shelley, Tom Allen, Savid Devereaux, David Oxenford, and Mike Koval
Perhaps no other political issue receives so little attention, relative to its importance, as open government. Elections come and go without candidates addressing this fundamental tenet of a democratic society.
That’s because virtually all candidates, when asked, will say they are big fans of transparency. It’s an easy position to take, a harder one to live up to.
But in Wisconsin’s fall elections, fidelity to open government has come up in several races, for governor, attorney general and U.S. Senate.
Two former state officials have accused Gov. Scott Walker’s administration of dodging the open records law. Former Corrections Secretary Ed Wall and former Secretary of the Department of Financial Institutions Peter Bildsten both allege being advised to not create records that would be subject to release. (Wall was fired in 2016, purportedly for urging another state official to violate the records law by destroying a letter.)
Three state advocacy groups — Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Center for Media and Democracy and One Wisconsin Now — recently urged the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council to rescind the award it gave Walker in March for issuing executive orders directing state agencies to improve their performance on open records requests. They noted other occasions in which Walker has failed to release information, and dinged him for signing a 2015 bill ending the requirement that donors of more than $100 to political campaigns identify their employer.
The council declined to rescind its award. As the group’s president, I agree that Walker’s record on openness has been mixed, but his executive orders provided some welcome clarity and direction on the law.
Similarly, even though we think Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel also has a mixed record on openness, we welcomed the recent announcement that his office, in response to “a noticeable and concerning increase of inquiries” regarding high records fees, would slash what it was charging and urged other government officials to do the same.
Schimel is up for re-election this fall. His Democratic challenger, Josh Kaul, says Schimel “waited until the middle of his re-election campaign to take action that he could have taken much earlier.” Kaul says that, if elected, he would keep the lower fees.
Meanwhile, Republican state Sen. Leah Vukmir’s ill-considered effort to evade the records law became an issue during her successful bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. In that 2014 case, taxpayers got stuck paying $15,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the Center for Media and Democracy.
In advance of the Nov. 6 election, the Council is surveying all candidates for state Legislature, as well as state Senators not up for reelection. We’re asking a small number of transparency-related questions, like whether respondents think legislators should follow the same records retention rules as all other state and local government officials. (Right now, lawmakers legally can — and some do — destroy records at will.) We’ll publicize the results.
Open government is not the only standard by which public officials should be judged. But it is among the most important.
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (www.wisfoic.org), a group dedicated to open government. Bill Lueders, managing editor of The Progressive, is the group’s president.
To the broadcasters working through the holiday weekend, thank you!
WBA Newsroom