Wisconsin governor to county officials wanting to prosecute reporters: Don't take on the media

MADISON - Lafayette County leaders who wanted to prosecute reporters would have kept the public in the dark if they hadn't abandoned the effort, Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday.

A county board in southwestern Wisconsin on Tuesday shelved its plans to prosecute journalists and discipline elected officials over how they handle information about the county's water quality. 

Evers said Wednesday the leaders would have brought attitudes from President Donald Trump's administration to Wisconsin local government. 

"I think taking on the media is not a really good idea — they're there for a reason," Evers said after a bill signing ceremony in Wisconsin Dells. "Obviously we see that playing out in Washington, D.C. If we want to have our story told and people understanding what government is doing, we need a media that feels comfortable asking the difficult questions just like all of you do with me."

Evers said putting journalists in a position to defend themselves legally for asking difficult questions "is not where we should be as a country or as a state."

The push to change how information about water quality is released came in response to an August study that showed 32 of 35 private wells that had earlier been found to be contaminated continued to have contamination.

The study and the dustup that ensued highlighted the sensitivity in rural Wisconsin of well contamination and who is responsible for the problem. 

The study of the 35 wells was taken from locations in Lafayette, Grant and Iowa counties. Scientists traced well contamination to both human and livestock sources. 

Some officials were frustrated by how those results were reported and pushed back by initially pursuing the resolution that said journalists would be prosecuted if they did not quote a county news release verbatim when they wrote about the issue in the future.

A committee stepped away from prosecuting journalists with a revised version of its resolution. But the new proposal still raised alarms among free speech proponents because it threatened to punish officials who talked publicly without getting permission from the government.

Under it, county supervisors and other officials could have been subjected to discipline if they spoke about water quality studies without first getting permission from a panel of county officials. 

Ultimately, the board abandoned the entire effort. 

Evers said he's happy they did. 

Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.