Since the past week featured my being talked about, and then talking, on talk radio, let’s talk about talk radio, but not in Madison.

WTMJ radio in Milwaukee did an interview with Graeme Zielinski, the communications director for the state Democratic Party, last week. At least, that was WTMJ’s intention. What happened was … well, let’s let WTMJ’s Gene Mueller tell the tale:

Personally, I was 55 minutes away from starting my pre-Christmas hiatus when the 7:35 interview rolled around, and suddenly all thought of leaving quietly amid that Advent mid-morning vaporized amid a chat that could best be described as both acrimonious and among the strangest of my professional career.  If you didn’t hear it or see any of the post-interview coverage, go to the link above to get caught up.  In a sentence, Zielinski used his five minutes to blast the radio station in general and mid-day host Charlie Sykes in particular.  The Journal/Sentinel blogged about it, and the story got traction in some of the other state media, too.

The Journal Sentinel described it thusly:

In a nearly five-minute back and forth between Zielinski and hosts Jon Byman and Gene Mueller, Zielinski attacked the station and talk-show host Charlie Sykes for their support of Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

You can listen to the entire segment here.

Zielinski, asked about the announcement on Thursday that Walker opponents had gathered more than 500,000 signatures to recall the governor, accused the station of spending “millions of in-kind hours every day propping up Scott Walker.” …

The WTMJ hosts wanted to ask Zielinski about allegations of fake signatures on recall petitions, but Zielsinski said the issue was a non-story and was being perpetuated editorially by the radio station. He said Wisconsin was leading the nation in jobs lost, and ranked second in the nation in terms of cuts to education.

“People in Wisconsin are taking their state back from jokers like Charlie Sykes and you guys,” Zielinski said. “People are standing up for themselves.”

As Zielinski attacked Sykes and Walker’s record as governor, Mueller pointed out that, “What happens after 8:30 on this station is none of my concern. Let’s keep it to the issues here.”

Which is what Zielinski should have done. Zielinski was a Journal Sentinel reporter before working for the Democratic Party, which means he, like me, was an employee of the multifaceted Journal Communications empire. (Which Sykes is.) Zielinski was being deliberately obtuse if he didn’t understand that Wisconsin’s Morning News is separate from Sykes’ show or Jeff Wagner’s show.

Obviously, Zielinski had an ulterior motive, which revealed itself later, according to Media Trackers:

Following up on an unhinged rant on 620WTMJ last Friday, Graeme Zielinski, the official spokesman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, authored a letter to supporters asking for donations of $6.20 to “fight back” against Wisconsin’s largest radio station. Zielinski singles out morning radio host Charlie Sykes in particular.

He certainly did (boldface his):

Charlie Sykes is a bully with a bullhorn and the other day we called him out on it. You can listen here.

For years, he’s used WTMJ 620 as a platform to dishonestly advance an extreme and divisive agenda – and carry water for Scott Walker. …

Help us fight back against the Republican Party’s free air time on WalkerTMJ 620 by making a donation of $6.20 to the grassroots effort to recall Scott Walker right now.

Of course, the word “extreme” means “an agenda I disagree with,” and “divisive” means “I lost the argument.” In the zero-sum-game world of politics, accusations that the opposing side is “divisive” waste everyone’s time when the word “wrong” is what you really want to say.

Media Trackers’ Collin Roth adds:

In one sense, it is no surprise that Wisconsin Democrats would attempt to raise money off of their collective disdain for talk radio and radio hosts like Charlie Sykes. But perhaps Zielinski’s Friday rant and this letter are a window into what Wisconsin Democrats truly fear. They are terrified that talk radio is providing an alternative source of news that they cannot control.

And the irony is simply beautiful.

Graeme Zielinski, whose rhetoric can gently be described as “over-the-top,” is complaining about Charlie Sykes being a “bully with a bullhorn.” The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is complaining about “balance.” And the same individual that blatantly lied on election night last August about “vote-tampering,” and the same party that is tearing Wisconsin apart through endless recall campaigns, is complaining that a radio station, 620WTMJ, is “dishonestly advancing an extreme and divisive agenda.”

As has been the case throughout this past year. In Wisconsin, you just can’t make stuff like this up.

A neutral observer, Dick Alpert, added on Facebook:

I agree with Gene on this one. A rare chance for The Dems to be on a program on TMJ that is actually down the middle content-wise and they came off as knobs. Very unfortunate.

This is #headdesk or #facepalm stupid on Zielinski’s part, as well as his boss, Democratic Party chair Mike Tate. I know Democrats who work in public relations. I cannot believe public relations professionals would consider this to be a professional way to get your message across to a persuadable audience. The people who listen to WTMJ before 8:30 a.m. want to hear news, weather, traffic and the Packers, not political opinions, and that’s what Wisconsin’s Morning News reports before Sykes’ show.

Moreover, if I were a wealthy Democratic donor, I would wonder where my party donations were going if my donations were funding this sort of representation of the cause to which I was donating. Zielinski is highly unlikely to have persuaded any listener that the state Democratic Party was responsible enough to deserve their vote or their money.

The timing of this is interesting given the release of “Liberty or Lies,” a website created by Brian Farley, who describes himself as “a victim of the Conservative talk radio revolution.” I wouldn’t call Farley’s website unbiased or impartial about talk radio, but he raises valid points, beginning with:

“The reason I’m a U.S. Senator,” explained Ron Johnson in a Wall Street Journal editorial, “is because Charlie Sykes did that.” What did Charlie do?

He simply read on the air a speech Johnson had given at a Lincoln Day dinner in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. …

But Milwaukee Conservative talk radio is much larger than Charlie Sykes. Wisconsin politicians and office seekers can and do communicate directly with voters through a number of local Conservative talk shows including those of Jay Weber, Vicki McKenna, Jeff Wagner and, of course, regular Rush Limbaugh fill-in host, Mark Belling. In fact, Milwaukee boasts one of the most robust local line-ups of Conservative talk radio hosts in the United States.

Is it a coincidence then that Wisconsin’s Tea Party is one of the most active and organized and in the country? Or that Wisconsin Conservatives helped bring about the largest turnover of power of any state in the Union in the Conservative Revolution of November 2010? Or that Johnson, Walker, Priebus, Ryan and Sensenbrenner all hail from within the Milwaukee Conservative talk radio listening area?

We think not.

Farley’s later point drives liberals nuts:

Corporate greed, says the Left, has driven media conglomerates to squeeze the quality and profitability out of their own products. The resulting cutbacks and layoffs comprise a “Crisis in Journalism” that, according to some, necessitates immediate government intervention in the form of stimulus dollars for failing American news outlets.

The Right says not greed but corporate complacency has rendered mainstream media owners oblivious to the repellent effects of Leftwing bias pervading their products and clueless in the ongoing information revolution. Expansion and diversification of the news and information market — the democratization of the media — is, for Conservatives, the logical and appropriate solution.

In this emerging content-focused, people-driven, opinion-based portable media environment, Conservative talk radio is right at home; adopting new technologies to expand its reach, enhance its interactivity with its audience, and increase its ability to outperform traditional media where it cannot or will not apply itself.

What will become of the American mainstream news and information industry? Will it follow market trends and adopt transparency as its guiding principle, openly admitting bias one way or the other and allowing increasingly media-savvy consumers to decide for themselves? Or will it attempt to maintain its pretense of “objectivity,” a brand attribute in which fewer and fewer Americans believe.

So does this:

… demographic information identifies the Conservative talk radio audience as mostly white, middle-aged, suburban and male (and we all know how they are.) A slightly closer look at that information reveals that they are also highly educated, well-compensated homeowners who seek and consume more news and information than the average citizen; donate their time, money and blood far more generously than self-described Liberals; are far more civically literate and engaged than most and are pretty much a sure bet to vote. By some standards, model citizens.

All told, it seems unlikely this demographic is sufficiently gullible to accept the wanton fabrications of bigoted shock jocks. Nor does it seem plausible they would have the inclination to invest their time listening to “hateful, racist misinformation.”

I would argue that such a person is unlikely to be persuaded by having his beliefs termed “extreme” and “divisive” as well.

There is a bigger, nonpartisan point to be made: Conservative talk radio succeeds because it makes money for the radio stations that carry it. The media is a business. Media outlets make program choices based on whether those choices will produce ratings and advertising revenue. (Not necessarily across-the-board high ratings, but high ratings in the demographic the media outlet seeks.)

If Sykes didn’t make money for WTMJ, he wouldn’t be on the air. If Belling didn’t make money for WISN, he wouldn’t be on the air. If Sly didn’t make money for WTDY in Madison, he wouldn’t be on the air. (That’s assuming no career-killing behavior such as Don Imus’ poor description of the Rutgers women’s basketball team, which ended his MSNBC job.) If Limbaugh didn’t make money for the stations that carry him, they wouldn’t carry him.

You would think someone would have more brains than to pick a fight with someone whose employer purchases electric power in 50,000-watt increments. In case the lack of wisdom of trying to recall a governor the same year you’re trying to fund races for president, the U.S. Senate, Congress, half of the state Senate and all of the state Assembly wasn’t a clue, this also demonstrates the brainpower of the leadership of the state Democratic Party.