Monthly Archives: December 2021

Six Wisconsin broadcasters won 13 awards from the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The following awards were announced Sunday:

Outstanding Achievement for News Programming – Evening Newscast: Smaller Markets (51+)
WKOW, Madison: Protests in Downtown Madison
Danielle Maxwell Zerebny, Producer; Caroline Bach, Producer; Jennifer Kliese, Amber Noggle, Anchors; Francisco Almenara, A.J. Bayatpour, Lance Veeser, Reporters; Rob Fick, Director; Matt Cash, Senior Executive Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Gathering – Daily News Report
WITI, Milwaukee: Recusal Refusal
Amanda St. Hilaire, Reporter; Jerry Imig, Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Education/Schools
WMTV, Madison: A Year Long Project at West Middleton Elementary
Leigh Mills, Reporter; Curt Lenz, Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Health/Medical
WITI, Milwaukee: The Pregnancy Experiment
Amanda St. Hilaire, Reporter; Jerry Imig, David Michuda, Sara Smith, Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Human Interest
WITI, Milwaukee: One Tip At A Time
Andrew Konkle, Producer; Carl Deffenbaugh, Reporter; Sara Smith, Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Societal Concerns
WBAY, Green Bay: Power 2 Change
Cami Rapson, Reporter; Pat Mayo, Will Sentowski, Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for Documentary Programs – Cultural
PBS Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s Scenic Treasures Southern Vistas
Laurie Gorman, Executive Producer; Grant Fenster, Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for Interview/Discussion – Short Form or Long Form Content
WISN, Milwaukee: Kenosha in Crisis Part 1
Adrienne Pedersen, Producer; John Eddy, Susan MacDonald, Dewayne Walls, Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for Children/Youth/Teen (19 and under) – Short Form or Long Form Content
PBS Wisconsin: Carrie Frost: Fly Fishing Boss
Jessie Nixon, Producer; Ian Glodich, Producer; Megan Monday, Executive Producer.

Outstanding Crafts Achievement for On-Camera Talent – News Anchor
WITI, Milwaukee: Mary Stoker Smith: Composite

Outstanding Crafts Achievement for On-Camera Talent – Weather Anchor
WITI, Milwaukee: Rob Haswell: Composite

Outstanding Crafts Achievement for On-Camera Talent – Daily News Reporter
WISN, Milwaukee: Derrick Rose: 2020 Notebook.

Outstanding Crafts Achievement Off-Air – Photographer – News
WITI, Milwaukee: Andrew Konkle: Composite.

The full list of winners can be found here.

From the Society of Professional Journalists:

The Society of Professional Journalists has launched Ethics Central, a hub for journalists on its website that brings together the most current industry news related to journalism ethics, newsroom diversity and inclusive coverage in one spot.

Ethics Central will be the place for industry professionals to discuss the latest ethics and diversity successes, failures and controversies circulating in journalism. The page will be updated daily and represent a range of perspectives that will surely prompt provocative newsroom discussions.

“We want to start conversations in newsrooms around the country. We will feature a question each week based on current journalism ethics and diversity issues and ask journalists to share their thoughts on how a situation should be handled,” explained Rod Hicks, SPJ director of ethics and diversity. “These questions are a way journalists can think about real-life situations and how the SPJ Code of Ethics can help in making tough decisions in their own newsroom.”

Hicks and Samuel Robinson, SPJ ethics and diversity associate, will manage Ethics Central, which includes links for journalists to access platforms to connect them with people of color who are experts in numerous disciplines or get answers on deadline to sensitive questions about race and gender. SPJ’s popular Ethics Hotline is another tool on the page for those who need immediate help.

While most stories will be aggregated from other sources, such as journalism newsletters, there also will be articles written for the page by SPJ staffers, volunteers and journalists across the country, linking issues to the SPJ Code of Ethics. Interactive forums will let visitors share their opinions on industry news related to ethics and diversity.

“Ethics Central is one-stop shopping for journalists, both professional and students who are looking for direction and answers on ethics and diversity,” said SPJ National President Rebecca Aguilar. “We are confident that journalists will find this SPJ resource as the right tool to understand better the important role of ethics and diversity in journalism today.”

This project was made possible through a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

Two years ago this month, a Madison East High School teacher chaperoning a Minneapolis field trip creeped into students’ rooms using copies of their room keys and planted hidden cameras in their bathrooms.

On Nov. 22, a few weeks after the teacher, David Kruchten, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, Madison School Board finally updated its field trip policies to prohibit chaperones from holding on to student room keys.

Why did it take the school board longer to make field trips safer for students than it took the courts to bring the creepy teacher to justice?

One reason is the school district’s decision to withhold from the public investigative records related to the incident. A report prepared by an outside attorney at a cost to taxpayers of $8,000 was completed in June 2020. But the district kept the report from parents, reporters and even the Madison School Board until it was accidentally released to the newspaper Isthmus in August 2021.

The report includes recommendations for new field trip policies and revelations — including the outrageous claim that no “reportable abuse” occurred — that might have spurred the school board to take action before this school year started. But the district didn’t forward new field trip policy recommendations to the board until after the accidental release of the report.

“I’m surprised it’s taken this long to get it, and it’s unfortunate board members have to see it in the news,” former Madison School Board president Gloria Reyes told the Wisconsin State Journal. “We need to be transparent about these issues even if we don’t have all the answers.”

Releasing the report also would have reassured families the district was addressing their concerns transparently and expeditiously. Now the students are suing the district and Kruchten for the psychological damage his actions caused.

Even though the district accidentally released the full report, it continues to deny requests for the same record, as well as a $30,000 third-party review of another hidden camera incident in an East High locker room. The locker room cameras were supposedly put in place to catch a custodian napping on the job, but they were in a location where special needs students changed clothes.

The district says it won’t release either report because they are protected from public disclosure by attorney-client privilege.

A 1996 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in Wisconsin Newspress, Inc. v. School Dist. of Sheboygan Falls affirmed that a letter between an outside attorney and a school board did not have to be disclosed under the state public records law. But the law does not prohibit releasing such records..

That’s what should have happened here, in both cases, because of the undeniable public interest in this matter. Now, in addition to the lawsuit over the hotel cameras, the district faces a lawsuit from East High families over its failure to release the report into the locker room cameras.

Perhaps both lawsuits could have been avoided if the district had followed through on Superintendent Carlton Jenkins’ pledge when he started in August 2020 “to be transparent.”

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a group dedicated to open government. Council member Matt DeFour is state politics editor for the Wisconsin State Journal.