First time I met Mr. Weinschenk
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor: Somewhere deep in the Record Review archives, there’s a picture I remember being taken by retiring editor Peter Weinschenk. It was of me when I was in elementary school, probably in the late 1980s. I was standing next to a turkey, another student or two, and Mr. Sparr. I believe it was to recognize our school for collecting food for those in need at Thanksgiving.
While this may not have been an earth shattering news item, it was the first time I remember meeting Mr. Weinschenk. Later on, when I went to college in Madison, I started subscribing to the Record-Review to keep updated on my hometown. More than two decades later, despite moving to the East Coast, back to central Wisconsin, back to the East Coast again, and finally to Minneapolis, I’ve never stopped subscribing.
A number of people who have written letters to the editor over the years have accused Peter of being political or partisan. Whatever his personal feelings, when I ran as a Democrat for the State Assembly against then-Rep. (now retiring Sen.) Jerry Petrowski in 2008, Peter interviewed me and was the toughest and most thorough interviewer I came across. Later, Peter captured and printed a poorly worded quote from me during a debate. Jerry hammered me on that quote over and over, and while I wish I’d said it better, Peter’s quote was accurate and it was completely fair to print it (and for Jerry to hammer me on it!).
I also recall that when I was serving on the Marathon School Board from 1996-99, Peter was sometimes (often?) the only person in the audience. My guess is that if you talked to people that live in small towns across the U.S., you’d be hard-pressed to find many who have newspapers covering school board, village board and county board meetings the way Peter and the Record Review do (if at all). Even if you look down Highway 29 to the bigger city of Wausau, the Daily Herald rarely does so unless there’s a big controversy. But when you’re only coming in for the controversy and not covering the meetings regularly, it’s hard to know how a problem developed or understand it as well as Peter did.
Having local media doggedly covering local news is important, but sadly local newspapers have been struggling across our country. Peter has helped the Record-Review buck the trend because he’s always done his research, asked tough questions, and perhaps most importantly, he’s covered just about everything over the years -- as long as it was related to western Marathon County. Not everyone may always agree or like what he’s written -- and I wish he hadn’t captured that poorly worded quote during my campaign -- but I’m glad for his perspective, and he was always willing to print opposing views. Thanks to Peter for keeping me informed and connected over the years. Nathan Myszka Minneapolis, Minn.
