Article's focus unfair
What in the world were you thinking? Did it never occur to your editors that your "underdogs vs. incumbents" story ("Up for the Challenge," 3/19/10) was giving a blatant advantage to the County Board candidates you chose to feature?
To let selected individuals make charges against their opponents without a chance for response in the same forum is certainly not the kind of objective reporting they taught me in journalism school.
Don Steinhauer's charges against Pat Downing especially require correction. [The article noted that Steinhauer felt he could do better and quoted him saying, "I just do not feel we've had effective representation for our district."]
In fact, Downing is probably the most effective supervisor the 30th District has had, certainly in the last decade. Projects like the resurfacing County Highway ID and restoring Stewart Lake, which languished for years when we had a conservative on the board, have finally been completed thanks to Pat's hard work.
In a County Board race, where there are no big ad buys and name recognition means so much, an article like yours could give a decisive advantage to the side you favored. Please make more responsible editorial decisions in the future!
Mark Knickelbine, Mount Horeb
Who needs flacks without reporters?
Can anyone else see a pattern here (Watchdog: "A Bad Time for Broadcast News," 3/12/10)?
From WISC-TV: Joel DeSpain (now a spokesperson for the Madison police department), Toni Morrissey (now a spokesperson at UW Health) and Linda Eggert (now a spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections). Over at WKOW, Kim Sveum is now spokesperson at Dean Health, and at WMTV, Rob Crane, the former news director, now has "a communications job at Alliant."
I suppose we can all look forward to the day when every broadcast news person has left for a job as a corporate/governmental spokesperson. Which raises the question: If a spokesperson speaks but there's no news to broadcast what they say, do they make a sound?
Steve Burns
Disabled parking abuse
Those of us who need disabled parking spaces are impacted personally and daily by their abuse ("Abusers Hike Cost of Disabled Parking," 3/12/10). I am astonished by how many people I see using these spots, with or without tags, who do not need them: people who walk swiftly and steadily to or from their vehicles, delivery drivers, those on a "quick" errand. One acquaintance even used her recently deceased mother's tag as a convenience until it expired.
Parking looks different depending on your situation. Before I needed these spaces, I noticed vacant disabled spots everywhere. Now that I need them, I am amazed by how often none are available.
Anna Syvertsen
Musician was left out
John Barker's article on Madison's early music scene ("Old School," 3/12/10) seriously muddles the facts concerning the trio-sonata group Musica Camerata. The founders were Irmgard Bittar (flauto dolce), Thomas Boehm (traverso), Anton ten Wolde and Jess Anderson (continuo cello and harpsichord, respectively). We were equal partners and played quite a few public concerts in the early '80s. Irmgard certainly should have been mentioned.
Jess Anderson