Julia Fello, Mark Belling, Janet Hundley, and 'Bimbo'

How do the Leftists in the Milwaukee media respond when legitimate criticism is directed at one of them?

They attack the critic, attempting to divert attention from the significant error made by the journalist, twisting the matter entirely.

It's so ridiculous. It's almost funny.

First, let's examine what Dan Bice, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has to say about TMJ4 reporter Julia Fello's COMPLETELY INACCURATE claim regarding right-to-work legislation, "If passed, the bill would make Wisconsin the 25th state to ban employees from joining a union or pay union dues."

Bice writes:

Conservative talk show host Mark Belling was upset with a WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) story that bungled its description of "right to work" legislation.

"If passed, the bill would make Wisconsin the 25th state to ban employees from joining a union or pay union dues," reporter Julia Fello wrote on the station's website.

Actually, the bill would do no such thing. Right-to-work laws bar private businesses and unions from reaching labor deals that require workers to pay union fees.

Belling had a ready explanation for Fello's flub.

"She completely mis-described the bill," Belling bellowed during his Thursday show (starting at 14 minutes). "This is a woman who's reporting on the story."

“Do you wonder why people are so mixed up when the bimbos the TV stations send out don’t even know what the bill does?" Belling continued. "It doesn't ban somebody from joining a union. Is that what she thought?"

OK, "bimbo" is a little dated. Still, should Belling be using that term to deride female TV journalists? What's his term du jour for their incompetent male counterparts?

Oh, good grief.

So instead of focusing on the reporter's major error, her inexcusably sloppy reporting and the publishing of flat-out falsehoods on the official website of a major news outlet in southeastern Wisconsin, something that was clearly misleading the public, we're supposed to focus on Mark Belling's critique.

REALLY?

Fello wrote, "If passed, the bill would make Wisconsin the 25th state to ban employees from joining a union or pay union dues."

That is NOT TRUE. This is black and white, totally wrong, not a mtter of interpretation.

That's the story.

Of course, Bice isn't concerned about this stunning falsehood, what he calls a "flub."

FLUB?

What Fello wrote completely mischaracterized the legislation. That's reality. It's bad for her and bad for TMJ4.

Bice goes further than whining about Belling's use of the term "bimbo." But let's talk a little bit about "bimbo" before going there. Some perspective is in order.

At some point, I may have been called a bimbo. I don't recall. But I know I've been called worse. Cyberbully Mike Dawson of Michigan harassed me for YEARS, sending me thousands of comments and emails, calling me things dramatically more disturbing than "bimbo."

For instance, in emails to me, relentless cyberbully Mike Dawson wrote:

"Face it - you're a racist prick/bitch/pig through and through."

"You are evil."

"[Y]es - you really are a pathetic bitch/witch, prick/pig."

Another example, in comments he submitted to this blog, Mike Dawson wrote:

"You're a spineless evil witch/pig/prick."

"Being the racist punk that you are (which is really a combination of attributes associated with pricks and bitches) there is no way you could avoid the smoldering fragrance. You're evil. One does not have the volume and consistency of negative thought as you do and NOT have a problem with 'smell'. Get professional help."

Oh, wait...

Mike Dawson wrote this in an email to me, January 5, 2013:

"You sound like one of the bimbos from Fox News."

I guess I sort of have been called a bimbo.

I have thousands of these creepy messages from Mike Dawson, literally thousands. Granted, this cyberbully, who fully identified himself using a business email address tied to his "wild bird and nature store" in Grand Blanc, didn't make his comments on a popular radio program.

Of course, what Belling says is heard by a huge audience. Accordingly, his words do have greater weight. Still, Belling's "bimbo" is not that offensive. In terms of deriding a female, which seems to be Bice's point, his comment is nothing like Dawson's brutal and twisted words, nothing like his deranged years of bullying and threats and abuse.

In sum, I honestly don't feel "bimbo" is worthy of the coverage Bice provides. I agree it was not a nice comment, but it's something that Fello and her allies should be able to endure without this overwrought reaction.

Sarah Palin didn't crumble in the face of withering attacks, did she?  The Leftists never backed off their "bimbo" narrative.

Back to Bice's article--

He includes other remarks by Belling, digging up past on-air transgressions.

In 2013, Belling apologized for using the term "bitch" when referring to Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and was suspended nearly a decade earlier for using the ethnic slur "wetback" to refer to illegal Mexican immigrants voting in Wisconsin.

So, it seems Bice is attempting to establish a pattern meant to discredit Belling. It appears he's painting Belling as being disrespectful to women.

Yeah, if that's what Bice is doing, that falls flat.

"Bimbo," while not nice, is not some terrible slur. The attempt to make it so is silly.

Should Belling have dared to utter "bimbo" in relation to Fello and her claim, "If passed, the bill would make Wisconsin the 25th state to ban employees from joining a union or pay union dues"?

It would have been better if he didn't, but let's not turn "bimbo" into something it's not.

Bice concludes his article with this:

On Tuesday, Belling explained that he tried to get an explanation from Fello about her reporting snafu.

"The reporter did not respond to repeated inquiries about why such a story was posted," Belling said. "It is indeed no wonder the public is confused about right to work when TV station airheads don’t understand the bill and mis-report it. I am open to input on what term should be applied to such clueless 'journalists.'"

There you have it. Belling started with "bimbos" and is now opting for "airheads."

But if you have a better term or phrase for "clueless journalists" -- apparently male or female -- Belling is all ears. Send your suggestions to markbelling@clearchannel.com. Make sure you copy me at dbice@jrn.com.

That's a lame stunt. Feuds between media figures are popular I guess. Whatever.

Remember, the real story here should be Fello's report and the fact that the TMJ4 website contained totally misleading, false information.

Now, let's look at an internal email from Janet Hundley, news director at TMJ4, discussing the Fello matter.

Belling obtained the following email, posting it online:

From: Janet Hundley
Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Subject: Right-to-Work Reporting by TODAY'S TMJ4
To: Everyone - WTMJ-TV , Everyone -
WTMJ-AM , Everyone - LAKE FM


A radio personality spewed misinformation and called Julia Fello vile derogatory names on-air and this morning a Journal columnist decided to write about it. They are both flat out wrong. Julia Fello did nothing wrong. We do not respond to radio personalities or columnists, but I did want the staff at TODAY'S TMJ4 to understand what really happened.

Julia was in Madison covering the Right-to-Work protests. She wrote a draft script on her iPad in the field for her 3pm live shot and emailed it to the station. That email was posted to our website before it was vetted by a producer or a manager. That should never have happened. Julia has a thorough understanding of the Right-to-Work bill. In her haste to write the script Julia inadvertently left out three word, "ban 'EMPLOYERS FROM REQUIRING' workers to join a union."

We never made an on-air mistake. As soon as we realized there was a mistake online we corrected the story. Julia's on-air reporting was CORRECT every single time she appeared on-air. Every subsequent story was correct on-air and online.

It is disappointing that some people choose to make a career out of making fun of others. I always find it interesting that they can spew anything as fact, right or wrong, while hiding behind a mic or computer screen and people are so willing to believe them. We all work hard every day to earn our viewers trust and we will continue to do that every waking moment.


--
Janet Hundley
News Director
TODAY'S TMJ4
720 East Capitol Drive
Milwaukee, WI 53212
414-967-5319

I'm afraid Hundley doesn't know what a "vile derogatory name" is if she thinks "bimbo" qualifies.

Hundley claims Fello did nothing wrong.

Clearly, that's wrong. Hundley's statement is laughable.

Fello wrote, "If passed, the bill would make Wisconsin the 25th state to ban employees from joining a union or pay union dues."

It is absolutely undeniable that is wrong.

Fello is a big girl. And she's smart, certainly not a bimbo. She's responsible for her alleged omission of the words that would have made the statement that appeared on the TMJ4 website accurate. According to Hundley, Fello wrote in haste. Writing in haste is Fello's fault.

Because her report sent via email was posted online before its proper vetting by a producer or manager, Fello's report contained major inaccuracies. Hundley states that Fello's bizarre missing three words are, therefore, not her fault.

Well, if you say so, Ms. Hundley. But, the fact remains that TMJ4 had "misinformation" on its website.

I find it odd that Hundley makes such a big a deal about the on-air reporting while dismissing TMJ4's online content.  Is the website to be considered unreliable?

Note to Ms. Hundley: The information on your website counts, too.  It counts a lot.

Good for Fello that her reports were "CORRECT every single time she appeared on-air."

Newspapers and TV news outlets have a long history of issuing retractions and corrections. People make mistakes. It happens. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging that.

Why not just admit something very, very wrong was on the TMJ4 website, something that was extremely misleading to the uninformed about the right-to-work bill?

Why not take responsibility for that mistake?

Why not apologize to consumers and give them reason to consider TMJ4 a trustworthy source for news?

That would be the honorable thing to do.  It would be the smart thing to do in terms of maintaining credibility.

Instead, what we get from Bice and Hundley is an effort to shift the emphasis of the story to Mark Belling's "bimbo" remarks. That reveals a disturbing lack of integrity and misplaced accountability.

The real story is TMJ4 had the following falsehood posted as news on its website:

"If passed, the bill would make Wisconsin the 25th state to ban employees from joining a union or pay union dues."