Liberal Blogger Who Is Key Jessica McBride Critic Lost Job Competition to McBride

We have yet to comment on L’Affaire McBride, in which conservative blogger and radio host Jessica McBride has been under attack from liberal bloggers for a parody “interview” with Journal-Sentinel columnist and race-card specialist Eugene Kane.

The interview ridiculed Kane for his ineffectual responses who issues facing Milwaukee’s black community, including the murder of young Jasmine Owens. Liberals and leftists, starting with the Journal-Sentinel’s Tim Cuprisin, howled.

McBride was let go by WTMJ, although apparently the flap only hastened her departure, which was mostly driven by the station’s hope of getting better ratings with Dennis Miller’s nationally syndicated show.

Now the Marquette Warrior has learned that one of the liberal bloggers who led the attack on McBride is a man who lost out to her in a job competition at UWM.

McBride alluded to this in a blog post on the flap. Taking the management of WTMJ to task, she sayd:

. . . it’s important that corporate management defend its hosts, particularly when partisan liberal blogs (including a juvenile/abusive anonymous one and one run by the man who was the other finalist for my job at UWM) are driving the outrage in concert with the liberal media.

Among the liberal and leftist bloggers in southeast Wisconsin, it was not too difficult to identify the person who, having lost out to her in a job competition, now attacks her.

He is James Rowen, a blogger at Uppity Wisconsin and The Political Environment.

Rowen has been incessantly critical of McBride, attacking her here, and here, and here.

And also here and here.

Suspecting that Rowen was the “disappointed job seeker” we e-mailed him as follows:

James,

Jessica McBride, in an entry on her blog . . .

mcbridemediamatters.blogspot.com/2007/05/kenosha.html

. . . mentions that some blogger who has been critical of her lost out in a job competition with her at UWM.

Was that you?

Rowen replied:

Yes. And that is why I commented only on her TMJ work.

No doubt most of the campaign against McBride has been driven by ideology. Liberals simply can’t stand to hear conservative ideas expressed.

But it seems that one of the lead liberal bloggers attacking her has a rather personal motive.

At a minimum, Rowen should have revealed that he lost a job to McBride in the interests of full disclosure.

Further, if UWM should let McBride go, would Rowen not be at the head of the line for the job he failed to get last time?

[Update]

It turns out that Real Debate Wisconsin scooped us on this.

We developed the story independently, and got confirmation from Rowen, but Real Debate got the story online first.

Credit where credit is due.