WTMJ Radio Talk Show Host Politicizes Woman's Murder

Right talker Jeff Wagner hit a new low today, laying the tragic murder of a woman over the weekend in Riverwest's Kilbourn Park at the feet of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, whom Wagner says has been out of town campaigning for President Obama.

Wagner said the park was in the same area as what he described as a "wilding" and the scene of "mass assault" and "hate crimes" after the July 3rd, 2011 fireworks, and said Barrett should be paying more attention to neighborhoods he said have "a long, long, long" way to go."

The murder in the park was solved within minutes with the help of witnesses, the police say, and could have been a random act unrelated to a specific area, or an incident of domestic violence that while serious and certainly of concern has nothing to do with the quality of the neighborhood, city or national politics.

Right-wing talk radio is a big part of the problem in the Milwaukee area because it plays to people's fears and prejudices.

Wagner, a lawyer, former prosecutor and sporadic moderate, knows better.