You would think after
the firings over the badly edited George Zimmerman 911 audio that a journalist who cared about his professional reputation would resist putting out material like what we're seeing coming from Brad Lichtenstein, a documentary filmmaker (who has contributed to Tom Barrett, Governor Walker's opponent in the recall election).
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
In the video shot on Jan. 18, 2011 - shortly before Walker's controversial budget-repair bill was introduced and spawned mass protests - [Walker donor Diane] Hendricks... told Walker she wanted to discuss "controversial" subjects away from reporters, asking him:
"Any chance we'll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions -"
"Oh, yeah," Walker broke in.
"- and become a right-to-work?" Hendricks continued. "What can we do to help you?"
"Well, we're going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill," Walker said. "The first step is we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer."
You've got to watch the video clip at the link to hear how starkly it's cut in the middle of a sentence. Very inflammatory. Fortunately, the Journal Sentinel reporters were able to get access to the raw footage:
"So for us," the governor continues, "the base we get for that is the fact that we've got - budgetarily we can't afford not to. If we have collective bargaining agreements in place, there's no way not only the state but local governments can balance things out. . . . That opens the door once we do that. That's your bigger problem right there."
He goes on to talk about curbing liability lawsuits and government regulations.
The inflammation goes away when you let Walker natter on. (Also at the link is new video from Walker stating, today, that he's not seeking right-to-work legislation.)
Lichtenstein said he did not accept any funding for his film from labor or Democratic groups in filming his documentary because of the ethical standards required by the Public Broadcasting Service, which is expected to air the film in the fall, getting his funding instead from groups like The MacArthur Foundation and the Sheldon and Marianne Lubar Family Foundation.
"I have no political agenda with the film and I'm not releasing the trailer to have a political impact in Wisconsin," Lichtenstein said Friday.
Really? Why did you edit the clip like that?
Lichtenstein said he was still talking with his lawyer about a request by the Journal Sentinel to allow the newspaper to post the raw footage of the Walker comments. Reporters for the newspaper have been able to review the raw footage and make a transcript of it to get the context of the conversation.
Pathetic.
Still talking with his lawyer. Put up the full clip. You are serving a political agenda. Shame on the Public Broadcasting Service.
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70 comments:
Is there any reader of this blog who couldn't have exactly predicted this post to the word? One?
Even the Swiss are suspicious of Lichtenstein; they view the little Duchy like the Europeans view Switzerland--as an insoluble little piece within the peace.
garage mahal said...
Is there any reader of this blog who couldn't have exactly predicted this post to the word? One?
*raises hand*
garage - whining about predictable Althouse is *rich* coming from you, our most reliable, predictable leftist scum.
garage - no sirEEE those are not death camps, merely readjustment centers for conservatives!
Lichtenstein gave Barrett $100 in 2010
Hendricks gave Walker $510,000 in 2011
See. All even!
""that a journalist who cared about his professional reputation
That's quite an assumption.
Lichtenstein? I thought he was one of the Fighting Illini? What's he got to do with WI politics? Heh.
garage does make a good point - why do we look the other way at these massive cash donations to Walker? Sure it's quid pro quo?
The media is full of idiots like this who are not smart enough to resist or hide their childish crushes on silly people and ideas, yet we have them thrust upon us daily for one reason only: The got a college degree somehow in something.
That sheepskin is such an extremely poor filter now days, it's completely useless at weeding out those who are bright from those who simply learn the language, but never the logic or skills it's supposed to represent. You people in higher education need to get your shit together and set some standards.
A degree in Philosophy and he still thought this was cool. What exactly did he learn there?
Obviously Walker wants to divide and conquer the unions from the Democrats, that's no big mystery. Why run from the truth? Do Republicans have to lie in order to win in blue states? Sooner or later the lie will be figured out and they'll be voted out in 2-4 years. What will save Wisconsin isn't Walker, but the people waking up to the fact that the unions are anathema to growth. Once that happens, it won't matter who is governor.
garage mahal said...
Lichtenstein gave Barrett $100 in 2010
Hendricks gave Walker $510,000 in 2011
See. All even!
Reminds me of progressive tax rates. Maybe Hendricks had more to give.
Isn't "from each according to his/her ability" your creedo?
Quite aside from his small campaign donation, Garage, do you mean to say that Lichtenstein has no political agenda? You don't buy that do you?
Do you think that the video was not edited in a way that Lichtenstein believes makes the Governor look worse?
Alex, the very worst thing about Walker is the alternative...
This kinda shit will have no impact on the result, which I expect to be a larger margin of victory for Walker than was true in the first go-round. It may give John Nichols an erection, but outside of the 2nd congressional district - nobody is fooled.
Well he does use the words "divide and conquer" and that is what he has managed to do; it doesn't take any editing to figure out that was his plan from the start of dropping his bomb-- now if enough folks in Wisconsin can figure our moving forward together for jobs and education is the right direction, we can kick out the ALEX representative Walker.
Sure, it's evil editing. But I really don't see how this hurts Walker. He's not going to get many private or public union votes anyway, but it does bring back his dealing with public unions into discussion....that dirty little secret that public unions and Barrett want to go away.
Doesn't help that the Democrats, out of sheer spite, killed the mine bill and the hundreds of PRIVATE union jobs that with it.
Moving forward for jobs and education IS important in Wisconsin. Which is why it's so important to vote for Walker. It's patently obvious that the teachers' unions aren't for education.
I also think we should stop using the term "public unions". They're really GOVERNMENT unions.
"roesch/voltaire said...
now if enough folks in Wisconsin can figure our moving forward together for jobs and education is the right direction, we can kick out the ALEX representative Walker."
Moving forward together for jobs and education = you pay for my pension, healthcare, and benefits.
We figured that out. We said no. And will again June. Your free ride is over.
"Petunia said...
I also think we should stop using the term "public unions". They're really GOVERNMENT unions."
Not teachers. Hence public.
Now the right is concerned over video editing? The hypocrisy is enough to choke a fucking horse.
Rielle Hunter wasn't available?
"Now the right is concerned over video editing?"
-- It's adorable you still think that meme lives anywhere outside the confines of an echo chamber.
Editing? Obama? Hello?
"Well he does use the words "divide and conquer" and that is what he has managed to do; it doesn't take any editing to figure out that was his plan from the start of dropping his bomb..."
That makes no sense as a response to the edited video. The question is what was he talking about dividing and conquering when he used the phrase. You could, separately, criticize Walker for dividing and conquering something... whatever you want to say that something is. But the question here is what did he say, and he's cut off mid-sentence.
The Journal Sentinel acquired access and gave us the transcript, and it's completely just a moderate comment about how you need to get state and local governments into a position to balance their budgets.
The quote was out of context and the context makes it non-inflammatory.
Garage earlier:
Petunia
That's such an awesome argument.
______ did this! See! All even!
Garage now:
Now the right is concerned over video editing?
Plus: HE DIDN'T WEAR THE PIMP COSTUME!!
2 words - flop sweat.
shorter edited RV: Well he does take folks in Wisconsin forward together for jobs and education. Walker.
PBS, your tax dollars @ work. Well, @ least they do work unlike govt. employees.
What's orange and sleeps 3 comfortably?
A State Highway truck.
I don't agree-- just what does Walker plan on dividing? and later in the quote just what does this open the door to? If it is just about getting a balanced budget, why the terms used? As this quote makes clear the first step is to what?
The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer. So for us, the base we get for that is the fact that we’ve got - budgetarily we can’t afford not to. If we have collective bargaining agreements in place, there’s no way not only the state but local governments can balance things out…That opens the door once we do that. That’s your bigger problem right there.”
A little re-edit here, a little re-edit there. If we're not careful this re-editing crap is going to become the new norm that we all sink to and then nothing will be a reliable source. To the delight of our overlords.
Even if you're a Barrett fan, you should not be delighted by this.
it's completely just a moderate comment about how you need to get state and local governments into a position to balance their budgets.
And that's what we're not supposed to talk about. The fact that public sector unions and their pensions are not economically sustainable. Period. This is not hyperbole. Look at the numbers.
The number one concern of school districts here in PA, and around the US, is not test scores, not the cost of incorporating technology into the classrooms, not bullying, not student self-esteem, not safety...it's paying for employee pensions.
We're raising taxes in my school district by $2.5 million this year -- every penny of the increase goes to pay for the *increase* in teachers pensions. Not books. Not busses. Not even the pension itself, the *increase* in the pension. What Walker is trying to do is more important for well-being of schools and local governments than anything else being done, anywhere. And the anti-Walker forces know it.
Lichtenstein gave Barrett $100 in 2010 Hendricks gave Walker $510,000 in 2011. See. All even!
Hahahahahahaha. That is so funny. I laughed and laughed at that in the post where the $100 guy is also contributing a documentary that apparently uses propaganda techniques to benefit someone and hurt someone else. Hahahahaha sophistry is so funny sometimes.
"busses" = "buses"
Doesn't matter what they do; the Milwaukee DA could file charges against Walker today and he'll still win. The problem the Dems have is by now the voting public is inured to these tactics so they wouldn't work except to give the media something to chatter on about.
How much is Lichtenstein's wife collecting from the state of Wisconsin?
Come on Ann - you know that Walker is very anti-union, why try to argue semantics here?
hey R/V - does Wisconsin have a budget crisis or not?
Isn't there any video of Walker swallowing a few of those dried baby capsules from China?
Throwing mineral oil on the steps of the old folks home?
Eating homeless fat gay puppies?
Forcibly cutting the hair of a high school classmate?
No?
Well, go with the truncated quote that sounds a little harsh out of context.
It's all you've got, so what the hell.
@Pogo wrote: Well, go with the truncated quote that sounds a little harsh out of context.
It's all you've got, so what the hell.
Let's hope truncated quotes don't morph into "trunkated votes" if you know what I mean!
I thought Barrett was trying not to talk about unions.
The help he's getting from the PBS filmmaker could backfire.
I mean, here you have this "divide and conquer" quote, and it's bandied about, but that can only make people say "Divide and conquer what? What's he supposed to be talking about?"
The Barrett people have to posit a particular strategy they are pinning on Walker. Then they have to defend that and defend their own counterstrategy.
That breaks up the return-to-civility theme of Barrett's.
Barrett could try to keep it on track at an abstract level: Walker divided us, and I will reunite us.
But I don't think you can keep it that abstract.
St. Franken's blessings are oft bountiful.
Thus spake Al to the pre-filled ballots: be fruitful and multiply, and he told this parable:
The St. Paul Senator went out to sow his ballots.
As he was scattering the pre-filled ballots, some fell along the street, and Republicans came and swept them up.
Some fell on Independents, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, but when the truth came up, the ballots were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
Other ballots fell among illegal aliens, felons, students, and the dead, and lo! did they grow and produce a victory, multiplying votes thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”
When will Barrett break out the photos of his broken paw again?
And, where do we all toss our hats when this guy has a hat trick..losing 3 times. Maybe in the rotunda?
Or, how about an octopus!
Hahahahahahaha. That is so funny. I laughed and laughed at that in the post where the $100 guy is also contributing a documentary that apparently uses propaganda techniques to benefit someone and hurt someone else. Hahahahaha sophistry is so funny sometimes.
Do you even know what the documentary is about? Did you watch the trailer? Do you even know where Janesville is? The background of the film centers on a Janesville GM plant that closed in 2008, and the plight of people that were effected.
Nobody really comes looking good from what I'm told. But, to Althouse hacks of course it's all irrelevant. Must.Protect.The.Republican!
"Do you even know what the documentary is about? Did you watch the trailer?"
I fully expect that the half-dozen people who watch it will be moved to continue to vote for Democrats.
It's like Kony, but boring and out of context.
GM raged: Do you even know what the documentary is about? Did you watch the trailer? Do you even know where Janesville is? The background of the film centers on a Janesville GM plant that closed in 2008, and the plight of people that were effected.
Nobody really comes looking good from what I'm told.
Lemme guess...the documentary is called "Scotty And Me"
_____________
Do you have cousins and uncles who worked in that plant?
The Janesville plant closed after Jim Doyle failed to negotiate an agreement w/ GM. To be fair, GM saw an old plant and entrenched union workers not willing to concede anything so they said "fuck you" to the powerful and dynamic former Dem guv w/ bad teeth. Just like everyone has said, "Fuck you" to Doyle, including his own party.
Lichtenstein tried to make his sources of funding sound innocuous. The political sensibilities of the MacArthur Foundation certainly seem to be in line with that of Barrett & D's in general. They support groups that advocate gun control and were also part of the Annenburg Challenge (a failed attempt at Chicago Public School reform) that Obama and his buddy Bill Ayers ran in the 1990s. It appears that there is a political agenda here for someone in this relationship. As for the Lubar Foundation I could not find much on them. What their political take is if any, I don’t know.
"Shame on the Public Broadcasting Service."
You can't shame the shameless, Althouse.
This is good news for Walker.
And Democrats are to blame for everything.
Informative thread, as always.
Oh, I am sure this will swing some of the lefties in Madison even further left than before.
Oh, Garage: 571 tax delinquents owing $17 million signed Walker recall petitions
Here's the thing I don't get. Even if GM and his friends evict Walker and the state GOP majority, does he think Wisconsin will roll back everything to Dec 2010? Does he think reality will magically change? Is he aware of austerity being implemented in blue states by Democratic governors? I swear this whole process is simply an exercise in masturbatory excess.
I wonder if the billionaire heiress is the one pumped 60,000 into Walker's legal defense fund. He's already spent 260,000 on Chicago mob lawyers. Oh well, I hear we'll know soon enough!
Is Wisconsin Algonquian for "Land of 1,000 Outrages"?
garage mahal said...
He's already spent 260,000 on Chicago mob lawyers.
Like who? I'm sure those guys got conflicted out.
@Garage
Using hyperbole in your arguments make you seem all shrill and bitter. Try your arguments with out them. "Mob lawyers"? Aren't all lawyers mobsters? Especially from Chicago?
I'm from Kentucky and I know where Janesville is. Got ticketed there once. My wife and I used to come up there about once a year just because it was so nice.
As far as this movie guy, don't we have Michael Moore's making mockumenteries?(alliteration intended). What would be a surprise is when one of these guys made a movie that was based on reality...you know, like Al Gore. Well he's not the best example but you know who I mean...there's...well...oh yeah, the baseball guy, that wasn't to propagandized...for NPR...but I didn't watch it. Hell, I can't watch live baseball, why would I watch a movie that lasted longer than the Viet Nam War about baseball.
garage mahal said...
Now the right is concerned over video editing? The hypocrisy is enough to choke a fucking horse.
Notice how in none of your comments here you can bring yourself to address the fact the video was edited to make Walker look bad.
Notice how "the right" doesn't edit videos despite your continued imbecilic assertion to the contrary.
Now garage supports deceptive video editing for political ends? The hypocrisy is enough to choke a fucking horse.
The WaPo apparently doesn't know how to Google.
Ann, I cannot believe that you think PBS is a journalistic enterprise. It is Pravda 1970, or the New China News Agency under Mao. their sole mission is to trash the GOP and hide the news about the DemonRAT party.
Rumor has it that garage has "tuqu" tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and "oque" on the other.
Hope when Republicans are the majority in the Senate and the House they divide NPR into a Red NPR and a Blue NPR.
Hmmm, just like Walker, divide and conquer.
BTW, Did you hear that Neenah just announced that they saved 1 million dollars by replacing WEA Trust with another insurance carrier? That's a city of 25 thousand.. One million dollars that can go into the class room instead of into the gangster union bosses accounts.
http://www.reforms.wi.gov/docview.asp?docid=23206&locid=185
Neenah schools are hiring teachers for the first time in seven years! School board member John Lehman said, "I know we're going to balance the budget, and we're going to be able to do that without decreasing 10 or 15 staff. We're going to add five. To me, the most important thing is having teachers in the classroom. That makes a difference every day."
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/darling/Blog/Pages/Act-10-Continues-to-Work.aspx
That's moving Wisconsin forward by putting money in the classroom and concentrating on educating the kids instead of the next benefit we can give the unions
The best part comes when Walker starts showing his jealousy that Daniels in IN got to bust the unions by fiat. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/a-transcript-of-the-walkerhendricks-union-discussion-805952v-151052965.html
Brad is tied closely to Creative Capital, run by Jeffery Soros.
Jeffrey Soros campaign contributions:
Listed below are federal donations of $3,000+ reported to the FEC.
Obama Victory Fund 2012 - $35,800 on 4/10/2011
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - $30,400 on 12/21/2009
Jeffrey Soros gave the maximum donation to the following political campaigns:
Obama for America in 2008
Contributions to political organizations reporting to IRS:
Arts Pac - $3,190 on 12/13/2004
Democratic Victory 2004 - $15,950 on 10/25/2004
Shame on the Public Broadcasting Service.
We fund them...why?
Now the right is concerned over video editing? The hypocrisy is enough to choke a fucking horse.
Breitbart put the videos up on his site. All that he had. Meanwhile, the Left refuses to do so. NBC attempted to portray somebody as a racist by utterly slicing up a 911 call.
Yup, same damned thing, moron.
Heck, for giggles --- WHY was the video involving Sherrod put up in the first place? Breitbart was open about why he did it. Can you explain why the video was relevant?
"How much is Lichtenstein's wife collecting from the state of Wisconsin?"
Think, as a filmmaker, his health insurance is through his wife's job..just maybe?
Ok..maybe not "political"..but perhaps personal.
But I have to say that greeting Walker gave her was a bit much.
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