Bill Lueders: Madison's 'Watchdog'

Bill Lueders is the watchdog whose bite is sharper than his bark. As one of Madison’s leading investigative journalists, he has kept a wary eye on state and local politics since coming to work for the weekly alternative Isthmus in 1986. Maybe his unpretentious scrappiness resulted from growing up in the rust belt of Milwaukee. As co-founder of the Crazy Shepherd, the aggressive little rag that evolved into the Shepherd Express, Lueders honed the unbuttoned style that has served him well in the state capital.

Nearly 75 of Lueders’ articles have been collected between the covers of his latest book, Watchdog: 25 Years of Muckraking and Rabblerousing. Two of the essays originally appeared in the Shepherd Express, but most were written for Isthmus. While the focus is mainly on Madison, the applicability of Lueders’ insights is universal. Among the dwindling band of journalists eager to see through the dizzying spin of both parties, he has largely kept free of ready-to-wear ideas. Holding that the freedom to speak is the most vital gift of our Bill of Rights, he opposed “hate speech” and “hate crimes” legislation. Punishing bad ideas is bad public policy, he insists. Punishing bad deeds is sufficient, regardless of their ostensible motivation.

Lueders continues to play the role that the founders of the United States intended for the pressnot as the mouthpiece for publicists, but as a check against the abuses of power.

Bill Lueders will speak about his book 7 p.m. Nov. 10 atWoodland Pattern Book Center (720 E. Locust St.).