News employees from at least three Milwaukee stations signed petitions to recall Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s controversial Republican governor.

WISN and WITI confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that some of their employees signed the recall petitions.

WISN and WITI came forward after WTMJ reported during its Tuesday evening newscasts that several of its employees, including one on-air figure, signed the petitions.

“Station management wants you to know they consider this a serious issue,” WTMJ anchor Mike Jacobs told viewers on Tuesday.  “The station is in the process of dealing with it internally.” Read more

With 42 delegates on the line in today’s Republican presidential primary in Wisconsin, Milwaukee ABC-affiliate WISN is set to air an election special at 9:00 p.m., placing it in a rare head-to-head local news match-up with Fox station WITI during the time slot.

WISN’s one-hour special makes good on Hearst’s pledge to have an elevated commitment to political coverage at its stations leading up to the presidential election later this year.

Kathy Mykleby, who anchors WISN’s 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, will be at the anchor desk for the “Commitment 2012″ special along with correspondent Joyce Garbaciak and Mike Gousha, the host of WISN’s Sunday morning news show “UPFRONT.”  Craig McKee, Mykleby’s regular 10 p.m. co-anchor, will be reporting from the field. Read more

WITI has tapped John LaPorte to lead its newsroom.  The Milwaukee Fox-affiliate announced today that LaPorte, the station’s news content manager, has been named vice president of news.

He replaces Jim Lemon, who left the station in December after six years as its news director.

Before joining WITI in 2010, LaPorte served as news director at WEAU in Eau Claire, WI.  He also spent several years at Milwaukee NBC-affiliate WTMJ, working as an executive producer and eventually serving for a year as the station’s news director.

“John has many years invested in the news business and the Milwaukee market,” WITI president and general manager Chuck Steinmetz said, in announcing LaPorte’s promotion, “and over the past several weeks I had the opportunity to see just how competitive and compassionate he is about this newsroom and his craft.”

Charges were dropped this week against WITI photojournalist Clint Fillinger, who was arrested back in September while filming at the scene of a house fire.

Fillinger, 68, was clearly outside of the yellow police tape, standing next to a group of onlookers, when a Milwaukee police officer began hassling him about filming at the scene.

After being backed down for several yards, Fillinger briefly touched the officer in a defensive motion–a move that sparked the cop to knock Fillinger to the ground and arrest him (video here).  He was charged with resisting and obstructing a police officer. WITI management, along with the NPPA, protested the charges.

WITI reported on the dropped charges during its evening newscasts on Wednesday.

Rob Haswell, a meteorologist at Milwaukee Fox-affiliate WITI, is profiled by OnMilwaukee.com, and the forecaster expands on why local news — specifically, local weather — is still necessary, despite the increasing access viewers have to local weather reports:

Every morning, I ask my iPhone what the weather will be like today, and it tells me. Why should I watch you on TV?

Rob Haswell: Actually, that’s pretty easy. Siri is probably getting “her” data from an out-of-state source, like AccuWeather out of Pennsylvania or The Weather Channel out of Atlanta. Her ability to forecast on a local level like we do and to know the local terrain like we do is pretty limited. On a day like today, when it’s sunny and 38, she’s probably 100 percent right. But when we start getting into severe weather season, particularly blizzards, you’re not going to turn to a phone to know what’s going on. Read more

Jim Lemon is bidding farewell to WITI.

Lemon, who has been WITI’s news director since 2005, confirmed to TVSpy this week that he is leaving the Milwaukee Fox-affiliate. His final day will be December 16th.

Before arriving in Milwaukee, Lemon held ND positions in Sacramento and Honolulu. He told Rick Gevers & Associates that he’s leaving because he wants to avoid another Wisconsin winter.

No word yet on who will replace Lemon as WITI’s news director.

Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn has issued a response to requests that charges against WITI photojournalist Clint Fillinger be dropped.

“If the cameraman had simply complied with the instructions to back off of a working fire, none of this hullabaloo would be taking place,” Flynn told WITI on Wednesday (watch above).

Fillinger was arrested Sunday night in Milwaukee following a scuffle with a police officer on the scene of a house fire.

The RTDNA has sent a letter to the Milwaukee Police Department to express “profound dismay at the treatment and arrest of Clinton Fillinger, a veteran photojournalist working for Milwaukee television station Fox6Now, by two of your sergeants on September 19.”

Fillinger, a photojournalist at WITI, was arrested Sunday night at the scene of a house fire in Milwaukee. He was shooting video behind police tape when an officer requested he turn off the camera; Fillinger refused, resulting in a confrontation between the two (watch it here).

“Mr. Fillinger was doing nothing more than his job, on a public street, behind police and fire lines, within his rights and within reason,” RTDNA region 4&5 director Peggy Phillip wrote. “We respectfully request that all charges against Mr. Fillinger immediately be dropped, and that you conduct an investigation of the incident and bring disciplinary action against the officers involved if necessary.” Read more

WITI photojournalist Clint Fillinger was arrested on Sunday night following a confrontation with a Milwaukee police officer who was trying to restrict Fillinger’s access to the scene of a house fire.

Fillinger was shooting video behind the yellow police tape, where a small group of people had gathered to watch.  He says that a Milwaukee police sergeant singled him out and ordered him to move back.

Video inside… Read more