The Milwaukee Journal's Dan Bice, Minneapolis Post's Brian Lambert and Forbe's Rick Ungar are apparently not as skilled at seeing a news story as the Wisonsin State Journal's columnist and reporter, Chris Rickert.
[img_assist|nid=157533|title=Chris Rickert|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=251]Today, I emailed Chris (pictured left on his hipster high horse) and asked if he would write about the recent 'smoking gun' video showing Scott Walker promising to negotiate with public sector unions before the election. (The Wisconsin State Journal has not printed anything about this story.) Here is what Chris wrote back in response:
"I guess if I was interested in ancient history. You all need to get over it.
Breaking news: Politicians lie!" - Chris Rickert
In other words, Scott Walker lies so much its not breaking news.
Here's the bottomline: If Scott Walker would have actually campaigned on his intent to kill public sector unions before the election, he would have never gotten elected. That's why he lied and said he said he would negotiate with unions. It's also why there is so much anger and why he is being recalled.
Or, think about it in the inverse: Does anyone really think that if Scott Walker had campaigned on union busting and then somehow gotten elected that we would be in the midst of a recall election? There would have never been protests at the capitol on the massive scale we saw and there would have never been the anger to recall him.
The truth is that Walker's union-busting lie is what caused the recall. It's that simple. And that recall is being universally described as the second most important election in the nation, after the presidential.
Isn't it what caused the nation's second most important election, newsworthy? According to Chris Rickert, no.