Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Walkergate 2: Charlie Doe

Readers of Cog Dis already know that there is a second John Doe investigation going on.  They also know that this Son of Doe is looking into the dark money of groups like the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation and their front groups such as Wisconsin Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.

The gentle reader also knows how these dark money groups would use their front groups to help hide the donors to such groups through complex money laundering schemes.  They would then use said money to help advance their agendas through the use of bogus studies and reports, the propagandizing of said studies and reports and through more direct actions in supporting bought and paid for candidates.

But in all the reporting so far, what has not been touched are the 800 pound squawking gorillas in the room - Journal Communications, Charlie Sykes and White Right Wisconsin.

White Wisconsin is the result of the unchecked collaboration and collusion between the dark money groups, the corporate media and WISGOP.  It is a website that is hosted by Journal Broadcast Group and sponsored by the Wisconsin Club for Growth and "powered" by Charlie Sykes.  It offers a free platform for politicians, political operatives and propagandists to spew their vitriol in an effort to sway low information voters into voting against their own best interest.

To add to it, Journal Broadcast Group also allows Sykes to use the airwaves of WTMJ-AM to continue to spew their propaganda, continue the lies and most significantly, give politicians like Scott Walker free air time to do their campaigning.

Let me re-emphasize this.

White Wisconsin is an aggregate website paid for by Wisconsin Club for Growth, a Koch Brothers front group.  The website is hosted by Journal Broadcast Group, which includes WTMJ-AM, the home of Charlie Sykes, who is the "power" behind the website.  The goal of the website is to promote the Teapublican agenda.  And the most ironic part is that the sheeple that actually believe their noise has to pay for it.  Presumably, the bulk of this money is going right back to the Koch group to continue their illegal collaborations with political campaigns.

But as will all things Doe, there's more.  There's always more.

Besides the unusual business relationship between what is supposed to be a neutral, respected news source and a political action group, it turns out that the players involved are no strangers to seamier side of things.

Sykes often gives free air time to Scott Walker and other Republicans.  So much so that their license was legally challenged with the FCC.  In fact, Sykes was such the go to guy for the Teapublicans that he was mention in the criminal charges against Darlene Wink stemming from the original Walkergate investigations.

As Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express pointed out, Sykes is also very heavily involved with the Bradley Foundation-funded Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI).  WPRI is one of those right wing front groups that spews out bogus studies that just so happen to support the agenda of the Bradley Foundation and its other benefactors.  To further his ties to the Bradley Foundation, Sykes' current wife, his third one, is Janet Reardon, aka Liz Woodhouse, who is the Director of Communications at the Bradley Foundation.

It's understandable why Sykes is so nervous about the Son of Doe investigation.  Even if he is not implicated himself, it would still have a great impact on the level of financial comfort and lifestyle he is accustomed to.  IF he wasn't incarcerated, he'd might have to still go out and do manual work for the first time in his life.

Sykes' right hand man at White Wisconsin is Brian Fraley.  Fraley comes to White Wisconsin via the MacIver Institute, where he was the Director of Communication.  And yes, the MacIver Institute is also funded by the Bradley Foundation.  But as with Sykes, the ties go deeper for Fraley.

Before going to the MacIver Institute, Fraley worked directly for ALEC.  And just like Sykes, Fraley also got a mention in the original Walkergate proceedings.  However, instead of being named in Wink's complaint, Fraley got his dubious honor in the charges against Kelly Rindfleisch.  In this instance, we learn that Fraley was part of the original caucus scandal from a decade ago:


One would have thought that after getting tied up in the caucus scandals, Fraley would have wanted to avoid even the perception of impropriety.  One would apparently have been wrong.

The third person, Collin Roth, came to White Wisconsin by way of Media Trackers, which receives the bulk of its funding from American Majority, yet another right wing money laundering machine.  Roth's role is a glorified gopher and research assistant.  How good of a researcher he is is questionable, since he willingly signed on with people like Sykes and Fraley.

Due to the secret nature of John Doe investigations, we cannot know if Sykes, Fraley or White Wisconsin would be part of the investigation going on or if it is part of a different investigation.  Regardless of which investigation they are under, or if they aren't under investigation yet, it is worthwhile to remember that they are nothing more than the sockpuppets for the right wing front groups and anything they say or write should be taken for nothing more than propaganda.

7 comments:

  1. Even sock puppets get holes in them. Let us only hope that the investigation puts the pressure on them so the slime bosses come sliding out the holes in them!

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  2. Good rundown on the incestuous relationship between RW oligarch organizations and Chuckles the Clown. With that in mind, does Chuckles talking about John Doe Deux make him liable to face charges for trying to taint an investigation? After all, we know Char-LIE's real employers at the Bradley Foundation are a major part of this money-laundering scheme.

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  3. And there is that other troubling relationship. Speaker Vos's Christian concubine is a regular Right Wisconsin panelist. Luckily the opinions she expresses are completely independent from the Speaker's agenda and the money she gets paid is not in any way due to her political connection. Nothing to see here.

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    1. I don't think that she is just Vos's squeeze. Have you seen Sykes and MJ playing footsie and googly eyes with each other on sunday Insight? What an hoot from these 2 "family values" hypocrites.

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    2. True. Add to that the fact that Robin Vos sits on the Editorial Board of the Racine Journal Times and has definitely directed the slant of the paper's "opinion" columns...

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  4. So Sykes is looking for a fourth wife? And Vos is frantically looking for a third wife? But Litjens is looking for "more time to spend at home raising her two teenage children." ??? I gotta go into politics!!

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  5. Vos just needs to come out of the closet. He's a little light in the loafers and just needs to acknowledge that side of himself.

    GET A BOYFRIEND VOS!

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