Wisconsin
“Do we live in a local news desert?” with La Crosse LeaderEthics director Lee Rasch
WIZM’s Ken Cooper sits down to talk with LeaderEthics executive director Lee Rasch about local news shrinking staff sizes and concerns with a growing lack of trust in journalism.
La Crosse Talk airs weekdays at 6-8 a.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.
LeaderEthics, a La Crosse nonprofit/nonpartisan organization founded in March of 2018, is committed to promoting ethical leadership among elected officials. It believes ethical leaders are: truthful, transparent with public information, unifiers, and committed to represent their entire constituency.
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Greg Evans
January 16, 2025 at 7:31 am
I am the publisher of the Monroe County Herald, Cashton Record and the Hillsboro Sentry Enterprise. Running three different publications is a very big challenge. I would like to be part of this group. I have a lot of great ideas.
walden
January 20, 2025 at 9:33 pm
Two clueless people talking to one another.
In short yes, we live in a local news desert as defined in this broadcast. The La Crosse Tribune committed journalistic suicide over its biased coverage of Gov Walker, Act 10, Covid, BLM etc. WIZM takes the matter of journalistic integrity so seriously it actually uses audio clips of listeners complaining about WIZM’s lack of integrity, to promote its broadcasts, like a huckster promoting a circus event. Maybe a review of the message that sends to the community would be a good point of beginning for your discussion of ethics and overall business practices.
Of course, media people lecturing us always say “but, but, I am not a journalist” to shirk responsibility for poor and biased programming. One could then conclude these people should be replaced by actual journalists, if any can be found.
Lastly, the surviving local media don’t need a handout; they need a buyout. Responsible media ownership could avoid having the discussion of ethics and integrity by behaving with ethics and integrity. More bias is not the answer. More bias will not build your market.