Monday, February 13, 2017

Walker says 'no' to DNR mag; why is DATCP farming mag OK?

More negative publicity in the Wisconsin State Journal today for Walker and his 'chamber of commerce mentality' and anti-science appointees over the Governor's completely indefensible budgetary wipeout of the subscribed-supported DNR magazine Wisconsin Natural Resources which Walker buried in his proposed 2017-'19 budget:
Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to do away with the subscriber-supported Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine fits a pattern that included suppressing articles on climate science and endangered species that started after Republicans took over state government, the magazine's former editor said Monday. 
Meanwhile, two former Department of Natural Resources secretaries said eliminating the magazine would undermine volunteer conservation groups and public understanding of DNR programs in ways that will harm the environment over time.
I think this decision can be reversed, as was Walker and his party's sneak attacks on the Open Records law and the UW System's truth-searching mission system if traditional media, legislators and conservationists went to bat for the magazine's continuation on the same grounds: that in Wisconsin, government should not be intentionally limiting the flow of public information.

I perceive great interest in this story. My blog version has been viewed thousands of times and has been shared more than 80 times on Facebook. The numbers mean something.

Which legislator or organization or mainstream editorial board can pick up the ball and run with it?

Add this into the mix.

Walker's spokesman Tom Evenson also made this preposterous statement about the magazine wipeout:

"This magazine is not a part of the DNR’s core mission. It is not the government’s role to produce magazines that duplicate what is available in the private market."
Oh, really? 

*  How much more "a part of the DNR's core mission" could a 99-year-old publication be?

*  And if a state agency isn't supposed to be in the magazine business, or to "duplicate what is available in the private market," you might as well shut down the multiple publications put out by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and separately, by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.


*  Including this magazine offered through the DATCP website - -  


Growing Wisconsin 2017
.
- - further described there this way:
A guide to Wisconsin's farms, forests, food and exports, Growing Wisconsin is published in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection and features stories about the state's top crops, livestock, agribusiness, tourism, food safety and local products.
I guess some magazines and their readers are more equal than others.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In fact, the February issue profiled a potato farmer, a cheese maker, a brewer and a cranberry farmer. Maybe DATP isn't doing a good enough job of promoting agriculture in the state if the Natural Resources magazine had to pick up the slack.