If Ron Johnson falls in the forest ...

When Milwaukee County Supervisor Peggy West mistakenly said recently that Arizona didn't border Mexico, she became an instant celebrity and object of ridicule, both locally and on the national scene.

A one-second search of the JS found at least seven articles about West's gaffe.

And it was a bad one. Whether she really didn't know about the Arizona-Mexico border or experienced a brain fart while she was debating on the County Board floor, she really embarrassed herself.

Fast forward now to this week, and a TV commercial by Senate candidate Ron Johnson, airing statewide at saturation levels, in which Johnson claims that Russ Feingold was the only Great Lakes Senator to vote against an energy bill cooked up by Dick Cheney and the oil companies in 2005. (It's relevant because it contained a permanent ban on Great Lakes oil drilling.)

Just one problem: New York is one the eight Great Lakes states, and both of its Senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, also voted against the bill.

That came to light Thursday, and has been circulated by the Associated Press and aired or printed in many news outlets, in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

But not a word in the Journal Sentinel, even in its online edition or blogs.

Maybe what it takes to get it covered is for Mark Belling to complain about it. He loved the Peggy West story; maybe he's like the Ron Johnson story, too.

Just another daily reminder that when you are the only newspaper in town you can decide what news is and isn't.

If Ron Johnson falls in the forest, or trips over his own tongue and the JS doesn't report it, those who rely exclusively on the newspaper won't hear a thing.

UPDATE: RoJo's campaign claims NY is not a Great Lakes state, and his commercial gets a "barely true" rating.