This Just In ...

If ONE person raises a stink, it's STOP THE PRESSES at the Journal Sentinel

Posted by Kevin Fischer on July 25, 2012

HT to Mark Belling who talked about this on his program today on Newstalk 1130 WISN. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story today with this headline:

Privatized emissions testing off to bumpy start

One would assume that the headline means this new program is experiencing all kinds of problems, possibly serious that would warrant coverage. The article then proceeds to tell the sob story of 82-year old Marianne Meunier.

"Marianne Meunier said her 2007 Chevy Malibu had never failed a vehicle emissions test, so when a mechanic on Milwaukee's north side told her this month that the car had failed and would need $2,500 worth of repairs to pass an inspection, she was distraught.

'I haven't had a problem with my car,' she said. 'I didn't have the money to fix it. My husband is really sick. So we have to watch how much we spend'."

Fine. She’s got a beef.

Who’s next?

Who else had a problem that the paper can tell us about?

Remember, the program is off to a BUMPY START, our Pulitzer Prize-winning paper informs.

Umm…

Someone else?

Anyone else ?

No one.

Only Meunier.

The paper did report:

”So far, the state has had about 20 complaints from drivers, said Scott Selbach, state supervisor of the vehicle emissions testing program.

‘A couple of concerns about the ability just to find the facility,’ he said. ‘Another concern about inspection facilities, where they felt the inspection facility has tried to sell them something at the end of the inspection. The first week, I think we had a couple of complaints about rudeness from the facilities’."

Sorry, but those complaints to me sound… normal.

Also quoted in the article:

“Her son, Terry Meunier, persuaded her to take her car to an auto-parts store instead, where a worker hooked it up to a meter that confirmed she needed the new sensor and fuel pump unit, but no circuit board. Based on that, a mechanic at another site gave her a new estimate of $417.

‘That's for a tuneup, replacing the NOx sensor and replacing the sending unit in the fuel pump in the gas tank,’ Terry Meunier said. ‘When I found out they were trying to rip my mother off for $2,500 for work she didn't even need . . . Governor Walker shouldn't have done what he did. I didn't have a problem going to those emission test places. Now I have to go to these garages and deal with these crooks’."

WHOA! THERE IT IS FOR THE MJS! THE MAGIC QUOTE!
   
”Governor Walker shouldn't have done what he did.”

Interesting. And good enough for the Journal Sentinel and reporter Gitte Laasby. 
 
Now let’s go into the Way Back Machine and travel to February of this year when columnist for the paper that hates photo ID, Jim Stingl is writing about the big, bad, photo ID requirement.

The headline is:

He elects not to vote to protest photo ID law

Not “they” indicating plural but “he” indicating singular, one.

Stingl quoted the lone source that was disgruntled:

"I'll be damned if the Republican Party or Walker is going to tell me that I have to show an ID to show who I am. That's ridiculous. I'm all done voting until that law is changed," the retired factory worker said. "I don't care who's running. I'm protesting."

And who belonged to that Walker-bashing quote? Let’s return to Stingl’s column that violates a basic journalistic rule that more than one source is necessary and required:

“TERRY MEUNIER called this newspaper to say he would not be voting Tuesday, the first election in Wisconsin that required a photo ID to cast a ballot.”

Apparently the very influential, anti-Walker Meunier family has an inside track to the Bat Phone at the MSJ. Any time they call, whether it is about photo ID or emissions testing, and bitch, especially if the Governor is bashed, guess what?

IT’S NEWS!

By the way, both Marianne and Terry Meunier signed the Walker recall petitions.

Stay tuned for the Journal Sentinel’s next big expose:

Marianne Meunier upset Wal Mart greeter didn't smile

Mark Belling called and e-mailed MJS reporter Gitte Laasby to get an explanation as to why other sources weren’t quoted or found for the emissions article. Not surprisingly. Laasby has not gotten back to him.