Xoff's Blog

Commentary on state politics by Bill Christofferson, who often uses Xofferson or Xoff to shorten his 14-letter last name.

Christofferson, a recovered journalist and ex-political reporter, has been a Democratic strategist and consultant for 20 years and is now retired. He lives in Milwaukee.
He is the author of a political biography, "The Man From Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Sen. Gaylord Nelson," published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

No connection here, JS says. Right!

Tuesday morning's Journal Sentinel story about the Clifford campaign phone calls:

The Journal Sentinel's editorial board endorsed Clifford on Sunday. The editorial board is separate from the Journal Sentinel's reporting and editing newsroom.

True, those functions have been separate and schizophrenic of late, with conservative news content and a more liberal editorial policy. But, lest you think they are too separate, consider this. From Tuesday's news story:

"We understand the First Amendment right of free speech," Editor Martin Kaiser said. "However, the Journal Sentinel cannot stand by while its readers are confused and misled by political telephone calls that undermine the newspaper's integrity and independence.

"Any calls that mention the newspaper's editorial page endorsement should let callers know immediately and clearly that the calls are coming from the political campaign and not from the newspaper."

And from Tuesday morning's editorial:

This newspaper certainly understands the First Amendment right of free speech; however, any political telephone calls that mention a newspaper's endorsement or newspaper's reporting should let the recipients know, immediately and clearly, that the calls are coming from a political campaign and not from the newspaper.

Your witness.

Previous post on the phone call hysteria.

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Your coverage of

Your coverage of Thompson/Biskupic has been outstanding. You also were linked to Marcy Wheeler's THE NEXT HURRAH. Monica Goodling Comments. Marcy, aka emptywheel, is the author of ANATOMY OF DECEIT.

You characterization of the editorial board as always more liberal than the news division is imho a little oversimplified. It's accurate on this story, but when the front page news is perceived as "too liberal," they'll use the editorial page to reach out to more conservative readers.

I look forward to reading more of your work.

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