Last December, Wisconsin-based conservative watchdog Media Trackers earned a special evaluation from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s PolitiFact team for an article detailing privacy and security concerns over information contained on public recall petitions. PolitiFact chose to evaluate the truthfulness of this Media Trackers statement from November 17, 2011:

With the signature gathering phase of the Recall Walker effort only three days old, a flaw in the security of the system has been discovered. Under Wisconsin law there are no privacy protections for those who sign a recall petition.

PolitiFact, a creation of the Tampa Bay Times, is a “fact-checking” column found in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and eight other newspapers around the country. The writers pick and choose statements made by elected officials, candidates, organizations, and advertisements in an effort to sort through the rhetoric and present only the facts. They make no bones about it, they intend to “call balls and strikes” utilizing their arbitrary ranking system that ranges from “True” to “Pants on Fire.”

On December 1, 2011 PolitiFact published it’s determination that Media Trackers’ statement was “Mostly False” citing the following conclusion:

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In the wake of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s “expose” that Wisconsin Republicans were actively recruiting “fake candidates” to run against Democrat challengers in summer primaries to the advantage of incumbent Republicans, the hysteria of those in the media and on Left shows a glaring hypocrisy.

Last summer, a candidate named Andrew Wisniewski ran as a Republican in Assembly District 25 against conservative Independent Bob Ziegelbaur. Ziegelbaur, a Democrat assemblyman since 1992, defected from the party in the summer of 2010 because he felt “they became more enthusiastic about big government and big tax increases and farther away from pro-life issues.”

But instead of running an honest campaign against Ziegelbauer, AFSCME union organizer Jason Sidener recruited Andrew Wisniewski to run as a Republican in an attempt to siphon votes away from Ziegelbauer in the conservative district. Wisniewski initially did not receive enough valid signatures to get on the ballot, but a GAB error revealed he had enough signatures to be placed on the ballot despite objections by the Republican Party.

On Wisniewski’s recruitment and candidacy, Ziegelbauer said:

“It’s pretty obvious to everyone that the Madison Democratic machinery put up a fake candidate to put a name on the ballot because they think it will screw up our election in the 25th Assembly District. From my perspective it points out how bad things have gotten in Wisconsin.”

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In light of a recent plot to put stickers on the products of targeted companies in grocery stores, Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Nuenfeldt issued a statement on Thursday claiming “no knowledge” of the plot. His statement reads:

“We have no knowledge beyond unevidenced assertions made to the media by the Wisconsin Grocers Association of any such campaign, but let’s be crystal clear – there are not, nor have there ever been, any boycotts encouraged by our organizations.”

While Nuenfeldt is right that the “Sticker Campaign” plot has yet to materialize (according to reports it is supposed to occur on May 1), his statement is profound in its gross disregard for the truth about events in the past two months. Nuenfeldt says that “there are not, nor have there ever been, any boycotts encouraged by our organizations.” This is a lie.

On March 30, it was first reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the Wisconsin State Employees Union (AFSCME Council 24) was circulating a letter among businesses in southeast Wisconsin that demanded the placement of a window sign declaring support for “worker’s rights.” The letter went on to threaten “failure to do so will leave us no choice but (to) do a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means ‘no’ to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members.” Field Representative for AFSCME Council 24 Jim Parrett “confirmed the contents of the letter, which carries his signature.”

Of course, when the boycott letters backfired and public outrage swelled against the tactics, Marty Beil of AFSCME blamed the it on “some overzealousness in the field.”

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The national liberal blog Daily Kos – aided by a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – is raising misleading questions regarding the April 5 Supreme Court election because election results on the website of the Waukesha County clerk for past elections showed more votes than ballots cast.

However, the blog and the newspaper that reported on its propaganda failed to tell readers that the reason for the gap was widely known at the time it occurred – and had nothing to do with failings by Kathy Nickolas or nefariousness that would call the races into question.

Indeed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel itself reported on the reasoning back in 2006 (two communities’ decisions to use new voting machines that year caused them to not electronically report all votes, although they were counted). Although some were unhappy with slow returns as a result, the election results weren’t questioned, and did get completely reported to the state, meaning the Daily Kos’ “big gap” is a complete non-story, and the Journal Sentinel, missed basic journalism 101 (looking up its own archives) by covering it as such.

Although several elections were part of the criticism, the Journal Sentinel and Daily Kos are focusing on the 2006 fall election, when Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen defeated Democrat Kathleen Falk by less than 10,000 votes statewide.

In a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel posted Tuesday, Nickolaus explained that the reporting gap on the website between ballots cast and votes resulted because not all votes were electronically sent to her by municipalities. The results for ballots cast did not include votes not electronically sent (although all votes were included in final tallies given to the state). After being asked about the situation, Nickolaus added asterisks to the ballots cast results for several past races to indicate they did not include the ballots that were not electronically sent.

However, those ballots WERE counted in the final tallies sent to state elections officials.

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