The Wisconsin-based, right-wing website Media Trackers reached a new low on Monday when it printed a libelous story against the partner of State Rep. Mark Pocan, accusing him of sending bizarre text threats to a volunteer for Chad Lee, Pocan's opponent in his race for Congress. Although Media Trackers took down the story late in the day, the damage had been done. It was picked up by right-wing sources in Wisconsin and across the nation. The organization's "mea culpa" fails to apologize or take responsibility for its role in the smear and the outlet still has a picture of Pocan and his partner Phil Frank on the front page of its website with a note that it would "continue to follow developments in this story" -- as if there were a story to follow.

With millions of Americans feeling the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is comparing the massive recovery effort to cleaning up "rubbish and paper products" from a high school football field. But don't expect him to discuss how Sandy's severity is directly linked to climate change. Romney shifted his position on climate change in October 2011, around the same time he was seeking support from billionaire industrialist David Koch, a major funder of climate change denial groups and whose profits could be impacted by limits on carbon emissions.

Lawmakers Acknowledge That They Cannot Evade the Open Records Law by Shifting Official Correspondence to a Personal E-Mail Account

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 30, 2012
CONTACT: Brendan Fischer, Brendan@prwatch.org; Nick Surgey, nsurgey@commoncause.org

Five Wisconsin state legislators have agreed to turn over any correspondence and documents with or related to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and held on their personal email accounts; the action settles a lawsuit brought by the Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause.