Why do we publish editorials?
An independent voice for Wisconsin helps hold the powerful accountable.
At times in 2020, Wisconsin was at the epicenter of all three of the biggest challenges facing our nation:
The coronavirus pandemic: Wisconsin was the first state to hold an in-person spring election after the pandemic began and became a COVID-19 hot spot in the fall.
The protests for equity and justice: Demonstrations began in neighboring Minnesota and spread to Milwaukee and Madison; eventually, at least 46 Wisconsin municipalities would have Black Lives Matter protests. In Kenosha, two people were shot to death and a third seriously wounded during demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake.
The presidential election and its aftermath: Wisconsin was a key Electoral College battleground state and remains
one of the most politically polarized places in the nation.
In each case, we published editorials to promote discussion, encourage sound public policies and hold powerful politicians to account.
Editorials are drawn up with the consensus of our state editorial board, which discusses the issues, decides what to write and when to write it, and always operates independently of our news reporters.
The editorial board represents the 11 main sites in USA TODAY NETWORKWisconsin: Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Wausau, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids and Marshfield.
Here’s how we operate:
How do you decide what to write about?
The role of editorials has become more focused in recent years at many independent news organizations, including ours.
Larger regional newspapers like the Journal Sentinel used to publish several editorials every day, necessarily about a wide range of topics.
But the media landscape has changed dramatically in recent decades.
Opinions have replaced news as the mainstay at cable outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC, at national and local talk radio stations, and on political websites, many of which are quietly funded by the same special interests contributing heavily to election campaigns.
As the opinions of celebrity hosts aimed at a specific audience filled the airwaves, newspaper editorials became less valued and less read. With so much intermixing of opinion with reporting in other places, people began conflating the two in our publications — where editorial writing and news reporting have always been kept separate.
We decided to to rethink how we used this unique tool — the editorial.
As a result, we now write fewer editorials and focus on issues where the public widely recognizes our unique expertise or recognizes our special duty. Our editorials defend the First Amendment, public records and public access to government meetings. They also highlight government corruption and ensure minority rights and viewpoints are respected by the majority in our democracy.
Our editorials have continued to have major impact.
On the eve of the Fourth of July Holiday in 2015, for example, legislative leaders secretly attempted to gut the state’s Open Records Law with language slipped into a budget bill. We quickly declared it a “Declaration of Secrecy” and said in an editorial that this outrage ran counter to American values. In addition to news coverage that day, we published the editorial on the front page, urging readers to contact their representatives.
By the time politicians marched in parades that weekend, they were already reversing course due to a huge public outcry from people across the political spectrum, conservatives as well as liberals.
Let me be clear: We remain independent of any politician, political party or special interest group. We work for our subscribers — period.
What have you written about lately?
During the pandemic, we have repeatedly challenged Gov. Tony Evers and the Republican-controlled Legislature to stop bickering and save lives by enacting a comprehensive plan to fight the coronavirus.
We supported new laws to improve policing after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha last summer by a police officer. (In past years, we called for independent investigations of all officer shootings, which became state law with strong citizen support.)
We called for the resignation of the chairman of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission after he acted on behalf of a politically powerful client and did all he could to quash an investigation into a reported sexual assault. (He resigned last month.)
We called out three Wisconsin Republican politicians, led by Sen. Ron Johnson, for violating their oaths to defend the Constitution by spreading lies about election results and supporting former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented attempt to overturn a fair and free election.
We encouraged ethical, responsible Republicans and Democrats to run against Johnson and U.S. Reps. Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany in the 2022 election. All three lied about election fraud for weeks leading up to Congressional recognition of state-certified electoral votes on Jan. 6. All three threatened to vote against the official results, and Tiffany and Fitzgerald actually did that, even after the U.S. Capitol was sacked earlier the same day by violent Trump supporters seeking to overturn the election.
In early January, we published two additional editorials condemning this disgraceful behavior — and a response from the senator — annotated by the Editorial Board to point out his continuing errors, lies and disinformation.
In mid-February, we published another editorial, as Johnson joined a new propaganda campaign to spread disinformation about the Capitol attack and who was behind it.
The Editorial Board of the Journal Sentinel and its predecessors have a long legacy of holding state politicians accountable for malicious lies. Most notably, The Milwaukee Journal’s Editorial Board was an early critic of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, pointing out his lies and propaganda years before his career ended in public disgrace.
Do members of the Editorial Board have other jobs?
Yes. In the past, when we wrote multiple editorials a day and published far more commentary than we do now, we had a staff that only worked on editorials and commentary pages.
Now, our editorial board members all have other tasks within our network but we take great care to insulate them from the daily decisions about how our organizations cover the news. The board operates separately and independently of the news departments. If any board member feels they may have a conflict because of other work, they recuse themselves from those discussions. Reporters have nothing to do with editorials about the issues they cover.
How often do you write editorials?
We have no set schedule but write editorials as issues arise. We’re posting fewer per month now than we used to per day.
What is the Ideas Lab?
The Ideas Lab is where we showcase our editorials, solutions-focused stories, and expert commentary and analysis on public policy.
Solutions stories focus on best practices for solving problems, with evidence that they work. One example from 2020: After the pandemic made voting in person risky, we examined how at-home voting was working in the five states that use it exclusively. We found evidence it was safe and efficient in both red states (Utah) and blue states (Washington).
The Ideas Lab also publishes stories that offer additional context and insight to the news of the day. We published a story last weekend by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica that uncovered an array of mistakes that led to the bloody riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, based on interviews with officers who defended it. By bringing these mistakes to light, the citizens can demand better.
The Ideas lab publishes expert analyses from people in our state. Mike Gousha and John D. Johnson of Marquette University Law School, for example, have explained why homeownership has fallen in Milwaukee and how the end of a residency rule for city workers fundamentally changed the makeup of the city.
The Ideas Lab is also a vehicle to take our journalism into the community through public events and listening sessions, where people can ask questions about what we do and give us feedback. We have strong partnerships with public radio, public television and the Milwaukee Public Library through our Listen MKE project.
Do you still publish Letters to the Editor?
Yes!
Letters to the Editor are published each Sunday in the Ideas Lab. Send letters to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at jsedit@jrn.com.
As always, if you have any questions about our editorials, the Ideas Lab — or anything else — please get in touch. We are here to serve readers through thoughtful commentary and stories that help explain potential solutions for our city, region and state.
David D. Haynes is editor of the Ideas Lab. Email: david.haynes@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidDHaynes or Facebook.