Except for resistant members of the left, the rest of the American adult community realizes there is a substantive difference between covering the news and covering up the news. The latter is a commonly practiced art that the boys downtown at the Los Angeles Titanic have honed to a scarily sharpened point.
One hour before these words were scribbled, the Titanic could not hold its breath any longer.
The clock read 1:55 this afternoon.
After holding off for three days, the boys hoarily exhaled and grudgingly revealed to their corner of the journalistic world that the wrong guy, the conservative, officially had been declared winner of a race for a seat on the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin.
They should have Lincoln’s re-election any day now.
More serious journals reported in their Saturday editions what had transpired with Wisconsin election officials in Madison the day before.
The Titanic’s enlightened approach to fiercely competitive contemporary journalism obviously is a laissez faire perspective, “The news can wait. Must we tell everything we know?””
Scan back to Election Day, April 5, and the boys couldn’t wait to report.
With extraordinary urgency, the Titanic screamed to the universe in its April 6 edition, the day after the election, that their girl, an arch-liberal widely unknown, had stunningly upset the odds-on favorite. Thank heaven, the Wisconsin part of the world has been redeemed.
A Time to Jubilate
Over the next few days, jubilant Titanic reporter Sticky Nicky (Gad, How I Hate Right-Wingers) Riccardi wrote a series of celebratory pieces.
The backstory is well-known.
The swing seat on the Supreme Court was at stake. With an even number of conservatives and liberals on the bench, the winner of this once-obscure race could cast the pivotal vote later this year when a controversial labor union law signed by the new governor is expected to be brought to the court for a ruling.
Mr. Riccardi’s post-election daily updates were pegged to the theme that the aroused left-wing of Wisconsin and surrounding states had devastatingly defeated the mean-spirited agenda of Gov. Scott Walker, who, as the whole planet now knows, intends to curb collective bargaining by public employee unions across the state.
While Mr. Riccardi may have been busy applying to be the next — okay, the first — astute chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, the embarrassed Titanic covertly slipped the following story under the doors of their readers this afternoon:
MADISON, Wis., April 18 (Reuters) – A Wisconsin Supreme
Court judge claimed victory on Monday in a tight local election widely viewed as a referendum on a hotly contested measure curbing the power of unions.
Incumbent Justice David Prosser said the tally from the April 6 election showed him beating challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, by 7,316 votes — a margin of just below 0.5 percent of the almost 1.5 million votes cast.
Prosser, a former Republican legislator, said “powerful forces, not always clearly identified” tried to turn the election into a referendum on Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican who pushed for and signed the anti-union bill.
“Fortunately, Wisconsin voters rejected this effort,” Prosser told reporters. “They ultimately understood that this election was about filling a 10-year term on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin and that candidates for the office should not commit themselves, directly or indirectly, on cases that have not yet come before the court.”
Wisconsin's law that sharply curbs collective bargaining has not yet come before the court.”
Also on Monday, Wisconsin Democrats filed petitions to force a recall election against a third Republican state senator who voted for the union curbs in March.
Wisconsin's law that sharply curbs collective bargaining rights and threatens unions has been challenged in state court, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court could eventually decide its fate. Prosser provides the seven-member court a majority of four conservatives against three liberals.
The polarizing law sparked raucous demonstrations in state capitals in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other Republican-led states enacting similar measures.
The law also has sparked recall efforts against all 16 Wisconsin state Senators who are eligible to be recalled this year, eight of them Democrats who left the state to avoid a vote on the measure and eight Republicans who voted for it.
Democrats filed petitions on Monday to force a recall election against Republican Sen. Luther Olsen of Ripon, who represents the 14th district. They previously filed petitions against Republican Senators Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper.
The deadlines to file petitions against the other 13 senators range from next week to mid- May.
The state Government Accountability Board has 60 days to review petitions, during which the targeted lawmaker may challenge them. Kapanke challenged his petitions on Friday.
In the Supreme Court election, Prosser's aides urged there be no expensive recount of the vote, though the slim margin would allow Kloppenburg to request one paid for by the state.
The day after the election, Kloppenburg was leading in the vote count and claimed victory. But a local official subsequently discovered 14,000 uncounted votes, which overturned the result and provided Prosser's victory margin.
