This Just In ...
Kevin Fischer is a veteran broadcaster, the recipient of over 150 major journalism awards from the Milwaukee Press Club, the Wisconsin Associated Press, the Northwest Broadcast News Association, the Wisconsin Bar Association, and others. He has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for over three decades. A longtime aide to state Senate Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature, Kevin can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, "InterCHANGE," on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10, and heard filling in on Newstalk 1130 WISN. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their lovely baby daughter, Kyla Audrey, in Franklin.
You want to debate the issues, fine, but...
Greg Kowalski blogs today e-mails that I received from two Franklin aldermen and then criticizes me for what he thinks is some broken promise to my blog readers because I didn't blog the same e-mails fast enough for his satisfaction.
He took the unusual and unnecessary step of filing an open records request with the City Clerk’s Office to get the e-mails. He’s probably been losing sleep, paranoid about what correspondence there’s been thus far between yours truly and City Hall on a legitimate tax question I asked about Fountains of Franklin.
He writes that I asked “harmful and damaging” questions of City Hall leaders. This is the same guy who wrote in a recent blog about his frustration with the way Target was handled:
“Our leaders betrayed us, the people of Franklin, and went on their merry way to destroy everything we had going for us. We will always be paying the consequences of their actions.”
Destroyed everything?
What does that mean?
What exactly has been destroyed in Franklin? How about some examples rather than misleading, inflammatory statements.
I haven’t seen Franklin destroyed.
He accuses city officials of purposely working to achieve this so-called destruction, but as usual offers no substantiation. And I’m the one who’s harmful and damaging.
I have a few notes for Kowalski.
1) All he had to do was e-mail me, or ask me on my blog or his if he so desperately wanted to know if I had received reaction to my questions of City Hall leaders. He’s criticized me for making an unreasonable request from an over-worked, understaffed workforce at City Hall, yet he makes a request of those same workers for these e-mails.
2) I never said WHEN I would blog my responses. Truth is, I’ve been waiting for other responses and information.
3) Kowalski doesn’t dictate how I plan or write my blog.
By the way, he also blogged an e-mail TODAY he received from Senator Lazich one week ago today. Gee, Greg……why did you wait a week to blog the e-mail? If we’re being consistent here, shouldn’t you have blogged it right away?
Kowalski’s blogging of the e-mails is no big deal, but in doing so, he displayed how irresponsible he truly is.
The e-mails he received from the City Clerk’s Office should have redacted my private home e-mail address, but did not.
Even so, when Kowalski received the e-mails and made the decision to post them, he is then personally responsible for the content he puts on his blog.
He chose to post the e-mails verbatim and not block out my private home e-mail address.
This was irresponsible and reckless, going beyond Kowalski’s youthful naiveté.
Given my profession, my conservative views, and my appearances on radio and TV, you can imagine that not everyone agrees with me or likes me, and that’s putting it mildly.
I don’t believe people truly grasp the amount of hatred that’s out there. People are downright vicious and cruel, as I have received numerous hateful, harassing correspondences, even personal threats that have had to be investigated by authorities.
What was Kowalski thinking when he posted my private home e-mail? Certainly he values privacy for himself and his family. Does he not have the same respect for others?
Kowalski apparently isn’t smart or responsible enough to take that into consideration before he blogs a private e-mail address, or simply lacks common human courtesy and decency, or both.
I know he doesn’t agree with me, but go after me on the issues. He has cried from day one about being mistreated, yet he has engaged in the same kind of behavior, if not more so that he blames others for. Kowalski did block out my e-mail address on his blog, but only after he was instructed to do so by the City Clerk’s Office. Again, he had to be prodded to do the right thing, just like last year when he hemmed and hawed for several weeks before he removed lies about me by people commenting on his blog.
I’ve refrained from writing reactive blogs about Kowalski for a long time. This one needed a response.
I keep hoping that someday Kowalski will learn his lesson. Unfortunately, he keeps proving me wrong.
This site uses Facebook comments to make it easier for you to contribute. If you see a comment you would like to flag for spam or abuse, click the "x" in the upper right of it. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use.