It's a Sad Day
No jokes. No satire. No gloating. No smiles.
It is a sad day for Wisconsin.
It is a sad day for my Republican Party.
It is a sad day for Mrs. Jensen and for their handsome kids.
And I do pray for some level of mercy at sentencing -- more people share guilt with Scott Jensen, including Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard.
BUD FOX
Dad, I'm going to jail and you know it.
CARL FOX
Maybe that's the price, Bud, maybe so.
It's gonna be rough on you but maybe in some screwed up way, that's the best thing that can happen to you...stop trading for the quick buck and go produce something with your life, create, don't live off the buying and selling of others...
posted by Slide @ 12:35 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Guilty verdict a victory
for investigative reporting, tenacity, open government
By Rich Eggleston
If P.T. Barnum had said, "You can fool all of the reporters some of the time and some of the reporters all of the time, but you can't fool all of the reporters all of the time," he would have been looking forward to the career of Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin State Journal.
Five years ago, Hall wondered how a state employee could be working full time for the Legislature and managing a legislative campaign at the same time.
A reporter who was unfamiliar with the Byzantine workings of the Wisconsin Capitol, she just wanted an answer to that simple question. She got the runaround but wouldn't give up until she uncovered a massive corruption scandal, and prosecutors took over.
The end result was the dismantling of institutionalized political offices in the Legislature and charges against five legislators: former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, Sen. Brian Burke, former Assembly Majority Leader Steven (Mickey) Foti and former Rep. Bonnie Ladwig.
The others pled to reduced charges; Jensen and aide Sherry Schultz went to trial. After 17 hours of deliberations, a jury found him guilty of three felonies. But it wasn't cause for celebration for the prosecutors or Hall. Wisconsin's onetime reputation for clean government had been indelibly altered, and Jensen's political career stood in ruins.
If we didn't have freedom of the press, if we didn't have an Open Records Law, our public employees might still be working behind our backs on their own business, or special-interest business, not for us.
The Wisconsin State Journal and Dee Hall did an immeasurable service to the state and all its citizens.
But it's a measure of the woman that she didn't gloat.
"I can't say I'm happy," Hall told WISC-TV in Madison. "You can't look at a man like Scott Jensen, who has three young children and a nice wife and say you're happy about it."
(The author is treasurer of the Madison chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. A version of these observations was posted earlier on the chapter's web site, spj.org/madison )
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home