The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s double standard when it comes to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and suspended Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Brett Blomme is a glaring one.
The Journal Sentinel, in its latest relentless attack piece against Johnson, this one by Molly Beck and Patrick Marley, is fervently highlighting the fact that he received donations from an out-of-state business owner who said horrific things about Muslims. This comes on top of a series of other scathing articles, all meant to falsely paint Johnson as a racist in what smacks of a blatant attempt to help the left flip his Senate seat.
However, the newspaper is not running the same fervently negative toned hit jobs – er, stories – on Milwaukee County Children’s Court Judge Brett Blomme’s ties to prominent Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin), Milwaukee Common Council President Cavalier Johnson, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, state Sen. Tim Carpenter, and the state Democratic Party, which helped fund his judicial campaign a few months ago. (The complaint charging Blomme alleges that he shared vile rape videos of toddlers and other children, some using courthouse IP addresses.)
The newspaper did run a story highlighting how surprised Barrett was about the Blomme revelations, but it hasn’t run big, negative stories focusing on Moore, the state Democratic Party, Milwaukee aldermen, and other politicians and community leaders who supported Blomme over the years.
The Johnson story wasn’t cast through the prism of Johnson’s stance, like the paper cast the story on Barrett’s response. Perhaps the best analogy is to Moore since both she and Johnson are members of Congress who are national figures (if you believe the current narrative the media is trying to push that Johnson is a racist, you might read this story on the Joseph Project).
Moore’s endorsement of Blomme was especially glowing. In her endorsement of Blomme, Moore said, “I support Brett because, like me, he is committed to making Milwaukee a better place for all of us. He is a former public defender who has dedicated his career to fighting for justice and equity. Brett is the change we need to help fix our broken criminal justice system.” Here’s a list of other endorsements.
Blomme moved in top Democratic political circles. Photos he posted to Instagram show him at events with other top leaders such as Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Moore, and in a group with DA John Chisholm.
But, you may say: How could Moore, aldermen, Barrett, and the others have known that Blomme was allegedly secretly downloading and sharing vile child porn? Fair point.
In paragraph four of the Journal Sentinel story on Johnson and the donor, we stumble on this paragraph:
The donor, Peter Zieve, “donated $13,200 to Johnson between 2010 and 2016, before Zieve was ordered by the Washington Attorney General to pay $485,000 after an investigation alleging discrimination by the company and retaliation against employees.”
The bold emphasis is ours.
Other Ron Johnson Donors
There are also other Ron Johnson donors, including from a guy named Timothy Mellon that the Journal Sentinel highlights. He made the donations between 2010 and 2015. In 2015, he wrote that Black people became “more belligerent” after welfare expansion and that colleges were cluttered with courses about women, blacks and LGBTQ people.
We looked up what the JS didn’t tell you; WHEN Mellon donated to Johnson in 2015: Nov. 12, 2015. Although published reports say the writings – his self-published book – came in 2015, we found a press release dated February 9, 2016 that announces it.
The release on PR Newswire declares, “Tim Mellon and Mint Leaf Media announce the exclusive look into the life of Tim Mellon.” The book’s website now has a warning page when you try to click on it. An identical February 2016 article in Broadway World declares, “Timothy Mellon Releases Autobiography.”
If these donations make Johnson racist, then many, many national politicians must be racist too because Mellon was a very prolific donor (including to Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tulsi Gabbard).
Zieve has given money to many, many politicians over the years also, including the late John McCain and Democrat Maria Cantwell. Are they all racist too? Of course not.
The Journal Sentinel has now set a standard. Will they hold Blomme’s supporters accountable for Blomme in the same way? Will they scour Blomme’s donations and donations to him as well? Barrett appointed him to a major city board. Moore endorsed him, helping foist this now alleged predator of toddlers on the public – and the children whose safety he was entrusted with on the Children’s Court bench.
We did the work for the Journal Sentinel. Here you go, JS. Here are the donations that Brett Blomme made to various politicians. We will be awaiting the breathless stories slamming those politicians for the donations, and we will expect you to query them about whether they have returned the cash. He gave money to Andy Gronik, a Democratic candidate for Governor and to former state Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), who is now a judge appointed by Gov. Tony Evers, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Will they return the money?
The newspaper’s headline on Johnson: “Liberal group targets Ron Johnson for taking donations from business owners who refused to hire Muslims.”
Justifying the big story by saying the liberal group was doing the targeting, not the newspaper, doesn’t obliterate the fact that the newspaper decided to make this big news and hasn’t done the same with all of those linked to Brett Blomme. We’ve noticed that some in the media highlight liberal criticism of conservative targets as if it’s legitimate, but they bend over backwards to discredit conservative groups’ criticism of liberals. Where are those war-size headlines adopting the conservative groups’ spin?
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