Milwaukee Magazine writers score well

Bruce Murphy this month offers some interesting comments about the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, suggesting it is allowing its local bias to give Rep. Paul Ryan the edge in stories over President Obama in the battle of the budget. Some suggest it's the basic conservatism of top editors. The paper has long been promoting Ryan so it's really not surprising to see an observer spotting different treatments, but Murphy's is quite well done.

Meanwhile, Murphy links to his magazine's Eric Gunn and his Pressroom Buzz column (another one I read regularly) who tackles the mysterious non-coverage of the much-denied -- but much suspected -- plan by state Republicans to offer a proposal that would allow the state to take over cities it deemed in "fiscal crisis," like Milwaukee may well be after the shortfall between cuts from the administration hits home. Gunn ties rumors back to a website set up by the secretive, industry-dominated Greater Milwaukee Committee that doesn't make its ties to the GMC very clear and does indeed reference the controversial and, in my opinion, extremely undemocratic Michigan government takeover system (albeit with language explicitly saying it isn't endorsing any such plans for Wisconsin).

Excellent work by both, and be sure to read the comments.