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What Is the Mainstream Media Missing In Covering Wisconsin’s Labor Protest? Millions.

Wisconsinites and many across the nation have received a wake-up call in the past two-plus weeks with the labor protests in Madison, in Wisconsin and in the other 49 states.

"This movement is one we will look back on as a brand-new awakening for our nation," said Center for Media and Democracy Executive Director Lisa Graves, speaking as part of a panel on Media and the Wisconsin Labor Struggle. "This awakening has been long in coming and it's going to need to be sustained."

Graves was among the panelists for the free public forum held Thursday night, March 3, at the Orpheum Theater in Madison, and organized by the The Labor & Working Class Studies Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Haven's Center. Graves said the eyes of all have been opened to how little corporations pay in taxes, and how they have shaped the divisive budget debate in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

Scott Walker Down the Rat Hole with the Palace Guard

The Wisconsin State Capitol has erupted in a torrent of lawlessness this week that schoolchildren will be reading about for years. No, I don't mean rowdy protests resulting in mass arrests. Even though some 300,000 people have visited the capitol in the last two weeks, the crowds have been peaceful and fun; and only a few arrests have been reported. I mean the convulsion of lawlessness that has seized Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican leadership -- a track record that would make Richard Nixon proud.

Wisconsin Protests, Friday, March 4, 2011

LAURA FLANDERS INTERVIEWS MICHAEL MOORE ON MADISON PROTESTS

NEW REPORT DEBUNKS "LEAGUE OF AMERICAN VOTERS" ROBO-CALLS FOR WALKER

The Center has issued a new report debunking the misleading robo-calls unleashed in Wisconsin this week and providing readers with information to get off LAV's call list and other actions they can take. CMD/PRWatch has also issued a detailed report on who the DC-based group is and what their connections are to the moneyed interests, including to a FOX "analyst." Click here to read the full report.

New York Times Retracts Information on Front Page Story Implying Union Support for Walker

On February 21, the New York Times created a stir in Wisconsin by printing a front page article giving the impression that union families supported Governor Scott Walker's attempt to remove collective bargaining rights from workers. On February 26, The Times retracted information related to this article.

The lead of the story, entitled "Union Bonds in Wisconsin Begin to Fray", featured a former Janesville General Motors employee Rich Hahn, who was characterized as "...a man who has worked at unionized factories, [and] a supporter of Gov. Scott Walker's sweeping proposal to cut the benefits and collective-bargaining rights of public workers." In the story reporters A.G. Sulzberger — said to be the son of New York Times Co. Chairman of the Board Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.— and Monica Davey spend very little time quoting Hahn but a lot of time characterizing him. "He says he still believes in unions, but thinks those in the public sector lead to wasteful spending because of what he sees as lavish benefits and endless negotiations," the story says of Hahn.

National Right-Wing Spin Machine Gears Up In Wisconsin

National Republican donors, apparatchiks and strategists are coming to the defense of embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Shadowy "issue ad" groups that do not disclose their funders as well as heavy hitter political action committees are rushing to the aid of embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, whose poll number are dropping like a rock. The list of outside big money attacking Wisconsin state workers and teachers read like a "who's who" of the Republican donor and special interest group apparatus.

Wisconsin Protests, Thursday, March 3, 2011

JUDGE ALBERT'S INTERIM ORDER, ISSUED THURSDAY NIGHT:

"Based on the hearings before the court on March 1, 2011, through March 3, 2011, and the court having concluded that the current Department of Administration policy regarding access to the State Capitol violates the State Constitution and that unauthorized materials and people remaining in the State Capitol beyond closing each day are in violation of state law, now therefore, is it ordered that the defendant DOA shall do the following:

1. DOA shall immediately enforce its inherent authority pursuant to Admin. Chapter 2, including, but not limited to, taking such action as allowed under law to remove unauthorized materials and people remaining in the State Capitol after 6 p.m. today.

A CMD Special Report: Who Is the League of American Voters?

MADISON--A Special Report from the Center for Media Democracy, part one of a new series. A gaggle of secretly funded DC groups has launched an expensive PR blitz in Wisconsin in support of Scott Walker's controversial efforts to undermine union rights, part of a national assault on worker rights. A few unions have also begun running public education ads, but their sources are not kept hidden from public view; union dues are used for collective bargaining and union members can choose to make a separate donation to a Committee on Public Education fund for advertising. The total amount of anti-union spending in the works by groups funded by corporations or corporate CEOs or their foundations is unknown. What is known is that many such groups hide behind tax provisions that allow them to keep the identities of their major funders secret, insulating from public scrutiny the wealthy financial interests they are fronting and that are largely bankrolling their general operations.

New Rules in "Walker's Wisconsin"

Republican Senate Leader Cracks the Whip on Missing Democrats, While Dem. Assembly Reps. Set Up Offices on the Capitol Lawn

As the Wisconsin Senate remained in almost complete lockdown today, Wisconsin Republican leadership turned up the heat on the missing Wisconsin democratic legislators with an unprecedented series of new rules.

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