As I heard The Takeaway's reporting on this subject, there were three components to the story. First, tape recordings of Governor Walker, used as a setup, to the rest of the story. Second, Celeste Headlee interviewed a Democrat Wisconsin state senator. And third, she interviewed a unionized Madison-area school teacher.

This is the definition of crafty one-sided reporting. You set up the story with the side that The Takeaway opposes, on tape, with no opportunity to explain, defend, etc. The taped quotes are static and uninteresting.

Then, you follow up with the two stars of the show, the Democrat legislator, and the poor suffering school teacher. Both of them getting rather favorable and sympathetic interview treatment from the instinctively sympathetic Celeste Headlee, who finds her tough interviewing style only when her subject is a Republican.

Compared to the short taped clips, the live inteviews are longer, more stimulating to average listeners and thereby more calculated to propagate the message that The Takeaway's producers wish to promote. And that would be that the message that Wisconsin's newly elected majority government is doing something that is somehow radical and completely inexplicable, at least according to Democrats and card-carrying union members.

This is indeed an important story; make no mistake about that. Important enough that The Takeaway should take more care in reporting it.

In the actual interest of balance and fairness, in opposition to The Takeaway's idological slant, here is the Wall Street Journal's editorial page on this subject:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657704576150111817428004.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Mr Jauch was correct and exceedingly articulate about how the Republican/right wing is using the so-called budget crisis to work on the last real bastion of unionization - the public sector union.

I wrote about it yesterday, the Republican/right wing is bent on destroying unions on the basis of ideology and politics (see Rachel Maddow's political analysis yesterday).

Instead of negotiation - which will work if actually attempted - Gov. Walker and the Republicans of his state are imposing their designs and will on a phony crisis. They are, in fact, just doing what Rahm Emmanuel said: "Don't let a crisis go to waste."

By the way; ya'll didn't report that the politically (and familial) connected Police, State Trooper, and firefighter unions are not included in this bill and will still legally have available the full panoply of collective bargaining rights.

__"The Senate majority leader, Scott Fitzgerald, who is ordering the state police to track down the wayward Democratic senators is the son of the head of the state police, Steve Fitzgerald, who in turn was appointed to the top spot by Walker. Steve Fitzgerald is also the father of the state's speaker of the House, Jeff Fitzgerald."__

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/02/all_in_the_family_2.php