“You are welcome to my opinion.” — William F. Buckley

Scrubbing the floors on hands and knees, the indentured servants here at Stately Blaska Manor sang “Praise the Lord” as we read them Friday’s editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal.  Madison WI’s favorite morning daily newspaper has lobbed a juicy spitball at a worthy target: the taxpayer-supported Madison Metropolitan School District. Where sunlight never shines, where open records requests fossilize. More secretive than Kim Jong-un’s stash of girlie magazines.

Where is that 21-year-old Air National Guardsman when you need him?!

Their editorial, “Madison School District must turn around its awful record on transparency” balances out its inexplicable endorsement of a Woke critical race theorist for school board. (“Our schools are products of white supremacy.” )

The WSJ 04-21-23 delighted in pointing out that the school board discussed its open government policy in virtual secrecy! Its own public information officer is suing the district to prevent the release of more public documents! The district superintendent LIED about retiring. He just wanted out! The Werkes has despaired of ever getting an answer to our info request, that being whether the Behavior Education Plan is working. (The open records system isn’t working, so why should the BEP?)

Pardon our opinion

Which bring us (however circuitously) to our point — and we DO have one! We love opinion! The more sharper-edged the better! Sand for our oyster! Whets our blade. We subscribe to Buckley’s National Review AND The Nation (John Nichols’ day job) for their varied opinions. We read Ross Douthat AND Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. Look in on Tucker Carlson at Fox AND Joy Reid at MSNBC until (like Popeye the Sailor Man) we can’t stands it no more (usually about 10 minutes in)! 

But local print opinion appears as endangered as someone with dirt on Hillary Clinton. Went looking for the editorial page at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel before reality slapped us upside the head with a wet, rolled-up newspaper They don’t have one! The once-great Journal Sentinel — itself a merged newspaper — began cutting back five years ago when it became one of 250 titles in the Gannett archipelago, we learned only today. 

The great (and sorely missed) National Lampoon once issued a tabloid-sized news sheet it called the “Dacron Republican-Democrat.” “A cult classic of puerile genius,” it parodied the mergers of so many city dailies and the resultant attenuation of their editorial voices. A far cry from the early days of the Republic when Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson squared off in their own partisan sheets.

A big reason, we suspect, is that cash-strapped local news outlets fear alienating fickle readers in today’s uncompromising War of the Worlds political environment. Readers and viewers are choosing their own news silos, opinions from like-minded echo chambers.

At least the WI State Journal has an editorial page, which we appreciate.

Where is our local Republican voice?

As a reporter and low-level editor, Blaska did his part to drive down the circulation of The Capital Times, one of the last remaining afternoon dailies until it went weekly and virtual 15 years ago on 04-26-08. We staffers rued the day when founder William T. Evjue relinquished the Sunday edition and, during merger negotiations in 1948, demanded that the Wisconsin State Journal take the morning slot. Both had been afternoon papers, with the CT leading the circulation war. Both competing newspapers were peppered with display ads for something called “television.”

The Capital Times still serves as the bullhorn of the progressive wing of the Democrat(ic) party. (Never a discouraging word about our Woke Madison school board. Everything is just hunky dory!) Editors Evjue, then Miles McMillin, demanded their opinionated and partisan columns start on page one. The WI State Journal was once reliably Republican. Even supported Joe McCarthy’s crusade against Communism. No more.

Blaska’s Bottom Line — Today, the last daily in the Emerald City of the Woke endorses abortion champion Janet Protasiewicz for supreme court, soft-on-crime Mandela Barnes for U.S. senator, and critical race theorists for school board. (And they say Fox News caters to its audience!) Any-who, that’s my opinion. If you do not agree, write yer own damned blogge, you pinko Commie!

Should Blaska get his own column in the State Journal?