Dear corrections@npr.org:

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Again this morning, Saturday, March 12, 2011, on my NPR station here in Madison, Wisconsin, you said the same line at the end of your brief report: "Walker said he needs the bill to balance the budget in Wisconsin."

This is wrong.

Walker, his Republicans puppets, and their corporate masters are clearly and directly stripping unions of rights. This is not a budget issue. Please report this simple truth rather than the lie, the corporate talking points, you are constantly repeating.

Please consider these things:

1) Even the Republicans have tacitly admitted that the bill Walker signed has been removed from the fiscal realm in order for it to be passed, since only fiscal issues require the quorum they could not obtain with the 14 democrats out-of-state. They did this by removing fiscal portions of the "budget repair bill." This alone reveals your repeated line to be inaccurate. Only the union stripping and other "nonfiscal" provisions of the bill remain. Please confirm this simple fact rather than parrot out-of-date Republican talking points.

2) Why do you have to use (an old and now irrelevant) falsehood from the governor? Is it because he is an authority figure? Is it because it is easy? Your laziness on this repetition hurts what the people of Wisconsin are trying to do. Every time you repeat it, millions of people get the wrong message, one that makes them more complacent. We want America to wake up, rise up and fight corporate tyranny. How can that happen if you are spreading this soporific lie?

3) If you need an authority figure for a quotation (which is a questionable practice in any event) why not quote a democratic state senator here like Miller, Larsen, or Erpenbach? Why not quote a union leader? Any of them will tell you the truth, that what was signed into law was union busting, plain and simple, and that it was done illegally. This should be your ending statement to your hourly brief report. Why isn't it? Has your corporate funding made the truth too inconvenient for you to support?

I am going to start a campaign against you on this issue until you start to report this story correctly. I am going to spread this letter to as many people and Internet sites as I can, urging them to use your email address to correct your false reports.

The fight in Wisconsin is far from over, and your reporting has been disgraceful. It is hindering our just cause. Please report the people's news, not news tailored by corporate talking points.


Carl Mumm
Madison, WI

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