By James “Hollywood” Macecari

Insane Throttle has been covering the grossly obvious case of Police Profiling up in Dodge County Wisconsin. This profiling has been carried out against the Outlaws Motorcycle Club by Dodge County Sheriff Dale “Mr Wizard” Schmidt and the Lomira Police Department. The profiling was so obvious to the general public. When both departments posted statements of the activity on their social media accounts, the responses coming in were overwhelmingly in support of the Outlaws M/C.

Insane Throttle picked up on the story for apparent reasons. After all, We all know how the media is so honest when it comes to covering biker clubs, don’t we? As I was researching this whole mess I came across an article in the Daily Citizen. The article was written by Aaron Holbrook. Justifiably, let’s just use “Mr. Potato Head”. It accommodates him better I think. Here is his reporter profile from Muck Rack. So after reading this article, I noticed that it was reading more like a police statement put out by Mr.Wizard than it was actual journalism. Mr. Potato Head didn’t get any comments from the Outlaws M/C or any citizen reactions from the people of Lomira. The whole article was about Mr. Wizards point of view.

The article was a blatant propaganda piece on behalf of law enforcement agencies. Well, true to form Insane Throttle will call that out. We sourced the material correctly to the Daily Citizen in our article and put them on front street.

Before going on I would like to thank Melissa Dane. She is a follower on Insane Throttle and she complained to the writer of the article about not giving the citizens of Lomira both sides of the story. Melissa has emailed me her conversations with this journalist. In one email thread, he openly admits running the story (Because he was up against a deadline) without any contacts with the Outlaws M/C. He stresses to Melissa he thought it was important to get out what the police were doing that night. So, instead of doing a completely factual story on the events from both sides, Mr. Potato Head puts out what is basically a police statement. Nowhere in that article is an editorial or commentary from the reporter writing the piece. Just copy and paste of statements basically from the police department. That’s news? That’s Journalism? No, more like propaganda for the police department.

Insane Throttle writes a counter article titled “Dodge County steps up patrols after Outlaws Motorcycle Club open clubhouse in Lomira. Police Department start propaganda drive with media help. Citizens fight back.“Well, guess ol Mr. Potato Head didn’t like seeing what was in there. He has Todd Krysiak / Lee Enterprises News Executive Capital Newspapers-North Regional Editor write the following email to Insane Throttle.

In his email, he is claiming copyright of the material and wants it taken down by Insane Throttle. Guess they didn’t like seeing Mr. Potato Head being called out for being the propaganda machine for the local police department.

Being in this business like I am, I‘m very in tune with what Copyright Law is all about (Guess they thought they were dealing with just some blogger who does this for a hobby.) and my reply was swift. “Not Happening.” See when a journalist writes about an event, that material cannot be copyrighted because the facts of the case belong to the ones involved in the actual event. Now if Mr. Potato Head would’ve done an editorial or commentary of the events.Instead of putting out quotes and statements from the police, then yea, it’s an original piece of work. I do want to mention that Insane Throttle even sourced and gave credit to the Daily Citizen for the article. (Something I wouldn’t be proud to claim, but hey whatever right?)

Basically, what happened here was a newspaper wanted to censor a story. They knew they looked like fools and didn’t want Mr. Potato Head to lose credibility. The newspaper recognized the citizens were not buying into what the police were selling. So the Newspaper didn’t want to be attached to them by pushing out a bad article supporting their position. That’s what all this comes down to. Oh, by the way, if you’re reading this Mr. Potato Head. If one of your newspapers mentions Insane Throttle in one of its articles, you can bet we will respond. That’s what I love about the first amendment. Every American Citizen has the right to free speech. Something you denied the citizens and Outlaws M/C of when you printed your article without their side of the story. Think about that while you‘re out in your canoe or skiing.

This country has an epidemic of “Fake News” going around. Reporters or so-called journalist want to project their own personal feelings into the news. No longer do reporters actually get up and do the legwork needed for an informative story. Instead, they choose to go with anonymous sources that cannot be verified by the public.Or they just interject their own views and expect us to buy the goods. What could’ve Mr. Potato Head done differently with this story? Get all sides of the story, take time to see the whole picture then report on it. If you didn’t have the material to complete the story by the deadline. Least put in an annotation stating that you’re still working on the piece, and this is only the law enforcement side. Failing to do these simple things made the Daily Citizens article apart of the original story. Don’t come to Insane Throttle crying about something you don’t like because you didn’t do your jobs in the first place.

Here’s a story you can redeem yourself with Daily Citizen. How about you go out there, talk to the citizens of Lomira, get their viewpoints. When you do that, go out and get an Interview with the Outlaws M/C. Finally, do actual research on the violations of civil rights Law Enforcement perpetrated against the Outlaws M/C. Use those three bullet points and do an informative article based on facts, not personal opinions or propaganda from law enforcement, but facts. You actually put in the legwork and incorporate those bullet points into an article, Insane Throttle and the citizens of Lomira and Dodge County will sing your praise. If you can’t. Your news organization is no better than CNN or MSNBC who could not report straight news if it was staring them right in the face.

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