Garvey Has An Idea For The Journal:

And while the two candidates put lots of potatoes on Journal Communications' plate, WTMJ radio, 620 on your dial, will feature 3.5 hours per day, 17 hours per week, 490 hours between now and the November election, of biased radio talk from neocon Charlie Sykes. Charlie will blast Doyle almost every day in what sure looks like a campaign contribution to Mark Green. Imagine what it would cost if Green purchased that time.

Why won't Journal Communications do anything? It will explain that it doesn't listen to Sykes and, more important, that the Fairness Doctrine is dead. The company has no obligation to give reply time to Doyle. Is that so? Suppose Journal Communications is legally correct. Is it morally correct?

Journal Communications could and should do the following if its editorial board really believes in reform.

• Give half of Sykes' time to a progressive talk show host until Election Day.
• Have a weekly one-hour discussion on TV and radio with the candidates for governor, Congress and attorney general.
• Give lots of free air time to all winners of primary races for 30-second spots.
• Assign a Journal Sentinel reporter to the campaigns like it did when the Journal competed with the Sentinel.
• Voluntarily adopt a reply time policy call it a Journal Communications Fairness Code of Conduct. If a candidate is attacked on Journal Communications' radio or TV stations, the candidate will be permitted time to respond.