Posted on 09/09/2015 6:04:12 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A Gannett reporter who writes for both the Appleton Post-Crescent and USA Today covering local and Wisconsin politics, including Gov. Scott Walker’s presidential bid, signed a petition in 2011 to recall Walker from office.
Madeleine Behr is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison, and she wrote for a number of publications before joining Gannett earlier this year.
Her first story for the Post-Crescent appeared online on July 2, and since then she’s published 35 stories, including four that focus on Walker’s presidential bid, and others that cover the political aspirations and maneuvers of high profile Democratic candidates.
In 2012, then-Post-Crescent publisher Genia Lovett disclosed that 25 Gannett journalists, including nine at the Post-Crescent, signed Walker recall petitions, but none of them were assigned to the political beat. “It was wrong, and those who signed were in breach of Gannett’s Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms,” Lovett wrote.
There’s no mistaking Behr’s contribution to both the Post-Crescent’s and USA Today’s political coverage. On Twitter, Behr claims she is, “Covering Wisconsin politics for @USATODAY. Local government @postcrescent.”
On November 18, 2011, Behr signed a petition to recall Walker from office. The address she lists is a UW Madison residence hall.
Joel Christopher, vice president of news for Gannett Wisconsin Media, responded to a Media Trackers inquiry about Behr’s assignment to cover Walker, saying, “We indeed are aware that Madeleine signed the Gov. Scott Walker recall election petition in 2011 because Madeleine made it a priority to tell us before she even interviewed for a reporting position with us.”
Christopher further explained that, “With Madeleine and every Gannett Wisconsin journalist whose work we put in front of the public, we invite people to read with a critical eye because we’re confident they will discover strong journalism reported fairly and accurately in a nonpartisan fashion in service of the public interest.”
“Scott Walker had his own email controversy,” blares the headline of Behr’s July 30 story about Walker, which claims that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s e-mail controversy involving classified information and secret personal servers is similar to a private e-mail network established by Walker aides when he was Milwaukee County Executive.
“While Clinton has been scrutinized for her use of private email for public purposes, Walker’s county executive office once faced questions, and even a criminal investigation, over its use of a private email system to do campaign work on public time,” Behr wrote. Her story went on to quote Jay Heck of Common Cause Wisconsin, a far-left group, and a former Democratic attorney general of Wisconsin who downplayed Clinton’s actions and played up what they thought was wrong-doing on the part of Walker.
Unlike a similar Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story, Behr never mentions that it was Democrats who first compared the Clinton e-mail situation to Walker’s aides’ actions.
Other stories Behr has written for Gannett about Walker include a column musing about the importance of Iowa to Walker’s presidential prospects, his poll numbers in Wisconsin, his plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, and his performance in the first GOP presidential debate of the cycle.
Prior to joining the Post-Crescent / USA Today, Behr wrote for the leftwing Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, a non-profit that receives public support via its offices at a University of Wisconsin facility. A piece she wrote for the group criticizing Walker’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) was published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In college, Behr wrote for The Badger Herald, the UW Madison student newspaper. While there she penned a sympathetic portrait of a pro-union protester, wrongly claiming he was a member of the press. In another story she took up the Left’s anti-ALEC crusade, rehashing state Rep. Chris Taylor’s (D) points about the number of Wisconsin lawmakers who have attended or otherwise participated in the right-of-center legislative exchange. She also wrote about Walker.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Behr was an intern at the ultra-leftwing Center for Media and Democracy before leaving college.
The Clintons are in a class of their own, so it is hard to compare them to anyone. They’re like a one family crime syndicate. Still, I believe even Bill Clinton shows more loyalty to supporters than Obama. Obama no doubt beats them in other areas as well.
The Obamas and the Clintons, formerly neck and neck in the Crime Derby. But in the home stretch it’s Obama, pulling out in front with a big surge for the finish. This could be a Secretariat win, with Obama ultimately ahead by 31 lengths.
His Chief of Staff had an illegal router in her office and his email was on that router, too. This is what got the investigation going.
Not wasting any more time on this. Walker supporters have a difficult time dealing with reality when it does not flatter Walker. That is another reason his goose is cooked, not everyone is willing to deny facts.
Walker is not attending a cookout at which Dayspring happened to be present. Walker’s superpac hired Dayspring—the most loathed GOPe operative in the country. The least Walker could have done was put Dayspring on notice: “No more law breaking and/or slime tactics to ‘win.’ We’ll win honestly, or not at all.”
I’m going to go slow, not that that will help it sink into your liberal brain.
There are two roles for most politicians. One is to get [re]elected. The other is to do your official function.
Everything you do as a politician serves these two purposes - fulfilling your role as an elected official, and preparing for the next election.
The people you brought with you from the campaign are now your staffers, and will also work on your next campaign.
There are laws against campaigning while doing your official “elected official” role. But how do you split the fact that by passing a law, or signing a bill or whatever, you are both doing your official “elected official” role and also your campaign role?
Most politicians just don’t bother to even try to split the two roles. They are executives, not hourly employees, so there really isn’t any time that they are “off the clock.” Same with most of the staffers. They are not hourly employees.
But Walker tried to split these roles. Even to the point where his staffers had two laptops - one for “official business” and one for “campaign business.” And, to make sure they were not using the government systems, they installed their own phone line into the office for the “campaign” side of things. I think the John Doe found a 3G broadband Internet connection and wireless router (the “email server” being claimed by liberal haters).
So, Walker’s team tried to follow the law exactly by separating the “official” side from the “campaign” side. Clearly even that was not enough to stop his enemies from attacking him.
I think one of the charges for one of the staffers is that she took a phone call on her private “campaign” cell phone while sitting in her office and didn’t walk five feet into the hall to continue the conversation. I guess her office air is not allowed to be used for campaign breathing.
Maybe she should have provided her own air supply. That way liars like you could claim she was using and illegal air router.
At least I’ve gotten you to change your claim from a private email server to an “illegal” router. You are still lying, but hey, what can one expect from a liberal - that’s all you know to do.
The router was located feet from his desk. He communicated by email replying to emails from that router. If he is that clueless, he doesn’t need to be in a position involving national security any more than Hillary does.
-PJ
She shouldn’t have been conducting campaign business on office time, period. The fact that she had a router in her office clearly demonstrates that she was conducting campaign business during her office hours.
I’m so liberal, I’m voting for Ted Cruz, %100 Conservative rating.
Clearly you do not understand technology. This router you keep talking about was a wifi box. It allowed folks to connect to the internet without using government equipment. Because the law says that they cannot do campaigning on government equipment. This wifi "router" is only the highway. It does not host email. It does not store email. The only thing it does with email is pass the data on to the internet, to where ever their email server really was (Cupertino? - I assume they were using gmail).
There was no reason for there to be a separate router in that government office except that it was being used on government time to campaign, which is against the law.
Walker is GOPe supported in full by Priebus, Boehner, Ryan, and Rove.
The GOPe would rather have a Democrat as president than have an authentic, constitutional conservative like Ted Cruz in a position of power within the Republican party.
Unless you are a big corporate executive campaign contributer, a K Street lobbyist, or a member of the country club set, the GOPe does not care about you.
If you are a constitutional conservative, an Evangelical, or a Tea Partier, the GOPe hates you.
Now why in the world I should care if Walker supposedly does not get a “fair shake” from some journalist is beyond me.
Actually, I have not seen “biased” reporting from this reporter yet, so I am more inclined to view this as yet another straw grasping complaint from Walker sychophants who see his lousy campaign sinking.
So, Walker should tell his superpac to fire Dayspring, which would bring an FEC investigation into campaign coordination between Walker and his superpac.....WHICH IS ILLEGAL
Maybe you should think before posting.
Quoting:
“’ strong journalism reported fairly and accurately in a nonpartisan fashion in service of the public interest.”
I don’t believe this has ever existed at any time or any place.
Exactly correct. Every news venue promotes a point of view.
The colonial papers agitated against the Crown,the Northern abolitionists paers agitated for federal force against the South, the yellow journalists (Hearst?) agitated for the totally unjustified Spanish-American War of 1898 and made a hero of Teddy Roosevelt for using a private militia to murder Spanish soldiers.
Just for the record I view T.R. as a self-promoting politician who unconstitutionally grabbed millions of acres of lands rightfully belonging to the western states’ in creating the national parks system.
Yes, Ted Cruz who supports a 500% increase in H1-B Visas and work permits for illegals who are here because the US Chamber tells him to do that.
Yes, Ted Cruz who opposed, then supported TPA, because the US Chamber told him any free trade deal (even from Obama) is better than none.
Yes, Ted Cruz who stood the constitution on its head by allowing Obama to pass his Iran deal with 34 votes in the Senate because the US Chamber told Cruz they want a piece of that $150 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
‘Maybe you should think before posting.’
Maybe you should read before responding. The only one talking about firing is YOU.
Also, I see you have the liberal tactic of taking a tiny quote out of context and using it to underhandedly smear the other party down to a fine art. It’s not a resume enhancer.
How many reporters, local or national can you find that did not either vote, campaign, or contribute money against Republicans yet still report on Republican candidates or hell, even moderate Republican Presidential debates? You might just as well believe in the Tooth Fairy.
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