Monthly Archives: May 2024

Wisconsin stations win 27 regional Murrow Awards

Twelve WBA member radio and TV stations won 27 regional Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA). RTDNA has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971. Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Murrow set as a standard for the profession of electronic journalism. Wisconsin is part of Region 4, which also includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. Here are the awards:

Television | Large Market

Breaking News Coverage Parking Garage Collapse WISN-TV Milwaukee, WI

Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Milwaukee Teacher in Controversial Ad WISN-TV Milwaukee, WI

Feature Reporting My Block: How Pewaukee Became the Unlikely Center for Indian Culture and Religion WTMJ-TV Milwaukee, WI

Newscast Parking Garage Collapse WISN-TV Milwaukee, WI

Podcast Open Record WITI-TV Milwaukee, WI

Television | Small Market

Breaking News Coverage Westside Condo Explosion WMTV 15 News Madison, WI

Continuing Coverage Problems at the Harmony WISC-TV Madison, WI

Digital Supporting Students: Youth Mental Health WSAW-TV Wausau, WI

Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Wisconsin in Black & White PBS Wisconsin Madison, WI

Excellence in Video Angel on the Ice: Born out of Tragedy, Ashland’s Ice Rescue Craft Continues to Make a Difference Northern News Now Duluth, MN

Excellence in Writing Saved by a Stranger WMTV 15 News Madison, WI

Feature Reporting Jack the Magnificent PBS Wisconsin Madison, WI

Hard News Special Report: Duluth Employers Band Together to Spark New Home Construction Northern News Now Duluth, MN

Investigative Reporting 15 Investigates: MMSD Open Records Roadblock WMTV 15 News Madison, WI

News Documentary A Complicated Loss WXOW 19 La Crosse, WI

News Series Rough Roads WXOW 19 La Crosse, WI

Newscast 2023 Spring Election Night WISC-TV Madison, WI

Podcast Forgotten: Wisconsin Cold Cases WSAW-TV Wausau, WI

Overall Excellence WMTV 15 News WMTV 15 News Madison, WI

Radio | Large Market

Digital WUWM WUWM Radio Milwaukee, WI

Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Home is Here Wisconsin Public Radio Madison, WI

Excellence in Sound Oldest Lionel Railroad Club Chugs Along in New Berlin Wisconsin Public Radio Madison, WI

Excellence in Writing ‘Do For Self’ Exhibit Chronicles Milwaukee’s Black Cross Nurses WUWM Radio Milwaukee, WI

Investigative Reporting State Reviewing Milwaukee Business’s Suspicious Use of COVID Relief Funds Wisconsin Public Radio Madison, WI

News Documentary How We Got Here: Abortion in Wisconsin since 1849 Wisconsin Public Radio Madison, WI

Sports Reporting Lifting Spirits and Honoring Ancestors: Snow Snake is Back on Madeline Island Wisconsin Public Radio Madison, WI

Radio | Small Market

Continuing Coverage The Pelican River Forest WXPR Public Radio Rhinelander, WI

The full list of winners is available here.

Zoie Henry named weekday live desk anchor for WISN-TV

Zoie Henry is the new live desk anchor of ‘WISN 12 News This Morning’ which airs weekdays from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.

Henry steps into this role starting June 3 to deliver breaking news, live updates, and cover the latest developments of stories impacting southeastern Wisconsin.

She will join the news desk co-anchors Gerron Jordan and Mallory Anderson, as well as Meteorologist Lindsey Slater and reporter Matt Salemme in News Chopper 12. Henry is taking over the role left by Mallory Anderson, who shifted to co-anchor of ‘WISN 12 News This Morning’ earlier this year.

“Zoie is a Midwest native with a true understanding of the issues that matter in our region and our community,” said Jan Wade, president and general manager of WISN 12. “She has a lot of experience in broadcast journalism as both an anchor and a reporter.”

Before joining WISN 12, Henry served as the weekend morning anchor and a multimedia journalist at WLTX News19 in Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to that, she was the weekend evening anchor and a multimedia journalist at KFSM 5NEWS in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Henry began her career working as a reporter for KOMU 8 News in Columbia, Missouri.

“I’m so happy to be coming home to the Midwest bringing my contagious enthusiasm for storytelling and local news to WISN 12,” Henry said. “I can’t wait to explore and connect with Milwaukee and surrounding area residents and join in calling Wisconsin home.”

Henry earned her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with an emphasis on anchoring and reporting. While in college, she was an investigative news intern at WLS-TV in Chicago, Illinois. Henry is also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the National Association of Black Journalists.

Geisler to lead Anchor Leadership Summit

From RTDNA:

When anchors get an opportunity for professional development, it’s usually in the form of “talent coaching” – to polish their on-camera delivery.

That’s important.

But my “co-anchor” Scott Libin and I have long believed anchors deserve more. 

That’s why, more than 25 years ago, as faculty members of the Poynter Institute, we developed Anchor Leadership seminars. Anchors from across the country and the world spent time focused on coaching, collaboration, conflict resolution, ethics, and diversity – all steeped in journalistic values.

Anchors, we’ve missed you.

The RTNDA annual conference, , is going to be in Milwaukee. It’s not only my home turf (and in a neighboring state of Scott’s), but it’s also a city where anchors from every station have taken part in past Anchor Leadership programs. How cool is that?

So we pitched RTDNA to do this program and got a quick green light. Then we reached out to our Milwaukee anchor alums to help us as guest faculty — and they immediately volunteered.

That should tell you a good deal about how much a program like this means to those who’ve attended. We hope you’ll join them — and us — on June 12 in Milwaukee for the.

Column: Rights clash in records dispute

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will soon hear a case involving records related to the voting rights of mentally incompetent people. No matter which side wins, the public has in some ways already lost. That’s because while the case pits the public’s right to scrutinize voter eligibility against the rights of voters to protect their own private health information, elected officials have missed a chance to solve the underlying problem.

Wisconsin law allows a court to remove someone’s right to vote in certain cases. The idea is to prevent their vote from being co-opted by someone else, like a nefarious relative or nursing home attendant.

State law specifies that court records dealing with mental competency are not public records unless a court decides otherwise. It’s one of the limited exceptions to the state’s open records law, which holds that most public records kept by state and local governments are public information.

Lacking clear guidance in law, the courts have developed a system by which a form is sent to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The commission updates its voter records and then alerts a local election clerk to remove the person from the voter rolls. It’s public access to that form that is being disputed in the case now before the state Supreme Court.

The plaintiff in the case is conservative Wisconsin Voter Alliance president Ron Heuer, who previously worked on former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s partisan, $2.5 million taxpayer-funded 2020 election investigation that found no evidence of widespread fraud.

What it did find were a few examples of nursing home residents casting absentee ballots despite their families saying they were incompetent. However, in most cases, Gableman presented no evidence that a court removed their voting rights.

After the Gableman investigation fizzled, Heuer continued investigating the issue and filed lawsuits in 13 counties seeking records related to those deemed incompetent.

Heuer lost at the circuit court level and appealed in two separate appellate districts. He lost before the District 4 court based in liberal Madison. But then, in an unusual twist, the District 2 court based in conservative Waukesha County ruled in his favor. Wisconsin appellate courts aren’t supposed to contradict each other. And so the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

The problem is that, in order to check whether people adjudicated incompetent to vote have actually been removed from the voter rolls, their names have to be disclosed. And that could violate their right to privacy about their personal health.

Heuer wants access to the records because he claims there could be as many as 20,000 adjudicated incompetent people still casting illegal ballots. That’s incorrect. A Wisconsin Watch investigation found that’s an artificially inflated figure based on everyone under a court-ordered guardianship, not everyone who has lost their right to vote.

But the number is not zero. At Wisconsin Watch’s request, Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell reviewed the voting record of adjudicated incompetent people in Dane County. He found 95 examples of people who combined had cast more than 300 ballots since 2008. The Wisconsin Elections Commission checked its files and advised clerks to review their records.

McDonell, a Democrat, and the Wisconsin County Clerks Association advocated for a change in law that would make the law clearer on how the sensitive court records should be communicated to election clerks. Assembly Campaign and Elections Committee chair Rep. Scott Krug, R-Nekoosa, moved a fix through his committee and it passed with bipartisan support.

But the bill died in the Senate because Republicans objected to an unrelated provision allowing absentee ballots to be processed on Mondays before Election Day. Gov. Tony Evers vetoed a separate Republican fix because it would have required nursing homes to contact families before residents could vote.

Wisconsin needs to find a way to make these records available without compromising the medical privacy of individual voters, and then get to work passing bipartisan fixes to obvious problems. A functional government requires both an informed public and elected leaders responsive to problems identified by the public.

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan group dedicated to open government. Matthew DeFour is the statehouse bureau chief for Wisconsin Watch, where this piece was originally published.

Gutiérrez named co-anchor of ‘WISN 12 News at 6 p.m.’

Diana Gutiérrez will be the new co-anchor of ‘WISN 12 News at 6 p.m.,’ effective June 3. She joins co-anchor Patrick Paolantonio, Chief Meteorologist Mark Baden, and Sports Director Dario Melendez on the weekday evening newscast. In addition to this new role, Gutiérrez continues to serve as co-anchor of ‘WISN 12 News at 10 p.m.’

“Diana is an extremely gifted journalist, and a wonderful storyteller,” said Jan Wade, President and General Manager of WISN 12. “She enjoys a wonderful connection with our viewers and has quickly become a staple of our station and within our community.”

The expanded role for Gutiérrez follows the announcement that Joyce Garbaciak is transitioning to a limited “special projects” position at the station. Garbaciak had previously co-anchored ‘WISN 12 News at 6 p.m.’ with Paolantonio since 2018.

“Joyce paved the way for journalists like me,” Gutiérrez said. “I’m humbled to help carry on her legacy of important local coverage that’s filled with depth, put into perspective with context, and grounded with compassion.”

Gutiérrez first joined the station in January 2021 as a the “live desk” anchor of ‘WISN 12 News This Morning’ and co-anchor of ‘WISN 12 News at 11 a.m.’ In November 2023, she shifted to being a co-anchor of ‘WISN 12 News at 10 p.m.’ and a reporter during weekday evenings.

“In these past few years, I’ve found a true home in the Milwaukee area,” Gutiérrez said. “There’s this overwhelming feeling of community, connection, and camaraderie. It’s infectious and gives greater purpose to the essential work that journalists take on each and every day.”

An award-winning journalist, Gutiérrez has been honored with an Emmy Award and a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for her coverage of the Waukesha Parade Tragedy. While serving as co-anchor, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association recognized ‘WISN 12 News This Morning’ as the ‘Best Morning Newscast’ in both 2021 and 2022.

Along with those accolades, Gutiérrez has been recognized as one of ‘Wisconsin’s 40 Most Influential Latino Leaders’ by Madison 365, a statewide online news outlet. She is also a regional director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and an executive board member of the Daisie Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides support for inner city families.

Before coming to WISN 12, Gutiérrez served in various anchor and reporter positions at WCIU-TV in Chicago and WBND-TV in South Bend, Indiana. She is a Mexican American Chicago native who is bilingual and speaks fluent Spanish, having developed a passion for journalism after studying abroad in Madrid, Spain.

Poynter offers guide for newsroom AI policy

From Poynter:

Artificial intelligence is out there, and more people are using it than you might think — including in your newsroom — so Poynter assembled a team to create a guide to help you think through how to make sure your team is using it ethically. 

This toolkit will give you a statement of journalism values that roots AI experimentation in the principles of accuracy, transparency and audience trust, followed by a set of specific guidelines. This framework can be customized by newsrooms of any size.

Find it Here