The Minority Media Association (MMA) hosted a heated discussion at the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee concerning the recent media coverage of Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee, who was arrested in July 2007.

The MMA began the forum with a PowerPoint presentation that featured quotes and pictures from different media institutions in Milwaukee that painted McGee in various lights ranging from “thug,” to “progressive community activist,” and used the presentation as a backdrop in hopes to spur questions and discussion from the audience and featured speakers, a goal at which they were widely successful.

The MMA event featured Greg Stanford, a former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial page board member and columnist, and Troy Shaw, host of the Sunday television program “Focus on Diversity with Troy Shaw” and president of TDS Inc., a marketing and advertising agency focused on ethnic and cultural diversity.

While Shaw made it clear that he was not at the forum to be a sympathizer over what McGee has been accused of, he feels “McGee has been virtually convicted in the public eye.”

Shaw said he disagrees not only with the media coverage McGee has received, but also with the system’s handling of his arrest and subsequent processing, including an unfair bail amount and the issue of McGee not being allowed to make phone calls while in custody.

“What’s happened to McGee goes deeper than you might think,” Shaw said. “It sends the message to African-Americans that if you step out of line in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, you will be held to a different standard than your white counterparts.”

When Stanford was asked about the recent media coverage of McGee in the Journal Sentinel, Stanford said it put him in an awkward position because he had recently signed an agreement when he left, stating that he wouldn’t make “derogatory remarks” about the paper.

Stanford did say he doesn’t think there is enough objective reporting in mainstream media in general and that certain issues have not been explored.

“I’ve tried to serve as a voice for those who don’t have spokespersons,” Stanford said.

Also in attendance was Mary Glass, Chair and CEO of Campaign Neighborhood – CFNBA. The campaign is a private organization in Milwaukee that works to empower people of color and the working poor, according to a Brownfield Developers and Contractors Protege Roundtable website.

Glass said the Journal Sentinel has failed to provide objective reporting and that she would like to see more stories based on facts rather than hype.

“The Journal Sentinel has not done their job,” Glass said.

One of the more controversial topics of discussion was over images of McGee used in local mainstream media, verses other alternative newspapers.

The MMA presentation displayed an image of McGee in shackles and in orange jail attire being led by three white guards, used in mainstream media. In photos from alternative newspapers, McGee is shown wearing suits attending community meetings, smiling along with other attendants.

Glass said people of color see images of McGee in shackles and think of oppression, and the mainstream media never casts McGee as a family man.

Shaw was slightly wary but outspoken about why he believes such disparities of coverage exist between the two forms of media.

“This is the image that mainstream media wants you to think of when you think of a black man,” Shaw said.

McGee is still in custody because federal prosecutors successfully argued he attempted to intimidate and sway witnesses and is not scheduled for trial until 2008 at the earliest.

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