Cable News Coverage of Wisconsin Budget Battle

By Chris Ariens 

If you’ve watched any of the cable news coverage from Wisconsin the past several days, you’re probably not getting the whole story, but that’s not a new trend. The Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik has found the “good, bad, [and] ugly” reporting of the story. He singles out CNN’s Ed Henry for reporting one of the “first clear explanations of the very organized roots” of what’s going on. Zurawik also has thoughts about Wisconsin native, Madison graduate and Fox News host Greta Van Susteren:

More consistently good work is also being done by Greta Van Susteren on her nightly show on Fox News. I was especially impressed Monday night by the informed, strong and perfectly civil interview she conducted with Lena Taylor, one of the 14 Democrat Wisconsin state senators hiding out in Illinois to avoid letting Gov. Scott Walker’s budget legislation come to a vote.

Her interview was in direct contrast to a Chris Matthews conversation with a Republican state senator from Wisconsin, Glenn Grothman, Monday night… Are the protestors taking cues from the MSNBC hosts? Remember how Matthews and his colleagues heckled conservatives who came on for post-victory interviews of election night in November?

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> More: OnMilwaukee.com media critic Tim Cuprisin weighs in on local and national media coverage of the story.

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