Racine Journal Times Shows Its Bias

Cross-Posted at Texas Hold 'Em Blogger.

This is a letter from Kurt Vlach, the chairman of the Racine County Democratic Party. The Racine Journal Times chose to publish this letter:

GOP witch hunt

The Republicans are at it again. Instead of focusing on jobs and healthcare and other issues that are important to Wisconsin families, the Republicans are engaged in the politics of distraction.

The Republicans have now begun a partisan witch hunt against Governor Doyle in their desire to take back the governor's office.

The contract awarded to Adelman Travel saved the state $30,000 and was handled by an employee hired by former Gov. Scott McCallum, a Republican. Whether the employee acted improperly is being investigated, but the Republicans are falling over themselves trying to connect this to Gov. Doyle.

The reason is clear - the Republicans are trying to distract the people of Wisconsin from their lack of leadership on the issues that matter most. The December Unemployment rate in Racine was 8.7 percent, but the Republicans would rather focus on allowing more guns in the street.

Health care costs have skyrocketed, but the Republicans would prefer to work on amendments to discriminate against selected groups in our communities.

I urge everyone to watch the Abramoff probe and the corruption it uncovers. Watch the Fitzgerald probe of the White House and Karl Rove.

Watch the trial of Tom DeLay and his co-conspirators in the Republican Party. You will see that the Republican Party is rife with corruption and dirty money.

Kurt Vlach

Racine

Editor's note: Vlach is chairman of the Racine County Democratic Party.

This is the letter from Bob Trapp, 1st District Chairman of the Republican Party, which the Journal Times declined to publish:

I would like to address the endless attacks from local Democrats who are trying their best to make the Abramoff scandal stick to our Congressman Paul Ryan.

In 2000, Jack Abramoff donated $950 to Ryan's campaign, and Ryan recently donated the entire amount to charity for our troops. As we now know, Abramoff sent contributions to nearly 300 members of Congress, including Democrats. Did he influence our congressman? Nope. Especially since Ryan never even met the guy. Sen. Russ Feingold recently returned $1,600 in contributions from Abramoff's law firm. Does this make Feingold corrupt? Not at all.

So what are these attacks all about? Elections. Each election year, both parties use a new theme to run against the other party. From Patients Bill of Rights (1998) to Prescription Drugs (2000) to Homeland Security (2002) to Jobs (2004). Those elections were about issues. This year's election issue may be about character assassination. It is often said that the oldest trick in the book in politics is if you don't want to make your argument based on the merits of your case, impugn the motives of your opponents.

I, for one, am glad that Congressman Ryan is focusing on issues that matter to us, such as tax reform, pension security, health care and jobs. Apparently, the Democrats' playbook doesn't accommodate an honest debate about issues this year. So get ready for the smear campaign of 2006. I've already purchased my nose-plugs!

BOB TRAPP
GOP chairman, 1st Congressional District
Salem

Trapp's letter was published by the Janesville Gazette in its entirety. Same exact topic, opposite viewpoints. Why was the Democrat's letter published but the Republican's letter refused?

If there is no media bias at work here, why won't anyone from the Journal Times respond to my request to explain this rather obvious inconsistency?

I have offered them unedited space in this forum to do so. So far, the publisher and editor of the newspaper have refused to respond.

My offer still stands.