• Green Bay Press Gazette , Monday, October 16, 2006 12 PM

Wisconsin broadcasters are upset with a study that spotlighted election coverage by Midwest TV stations, and suggested they are not meeting their duty to serve the public interest. The study, conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's NewsLab, in conjunction with the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, found that television stations in nine media markets averaged just 36 seconds per broadcast in the amount of airtime devoted to election coverage.

According to Joyce Foundation Vice President Lawrence Hansen, broadcasters are failing "by any standard of measurement" to deliver what voters need to make informed decisions. "The failure of local television news to foster and encourage informed citizen participation in the political process is near scandalous," he says.

But Journal Broadcast Group, which owns several stations in the Dairy State, faults the study. "This study is so disappointingly narrow in its focus that it fails to deliver any complete or accurate picture ...," says Doug Kiel, vice chairman and CEO of Journal Broadcast Group and president of Journal Communications.

And Pat Krohlow, marketing director for WLUK, the Fox affiliate in Green Bay, said his station strives to present fair election coverage, but also faces business concerns. It has to displace regular advertisers to accommodate political ads.

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