It is a normal occurrence for journalists to take the lead from other media organizations. After all, budgets are tight, and good stories are oftentimes moved forward by building upon what the last person reported. This is particularly the case among blogs, including this one, where posts are regularly inspired and/or informed by content elsewhere. Moreover, informal info sources online are becoming sources for established media, such as message boards or group blogs like School Information System.

One significant source of story cues in Madison, including for Dane101, is The Daily Page Forum (TDPF), a well-trafficked message board hosted by the weekly Isthmus. The board includes the participation of a broad swath of the city's music scene, not to mention a number of public figures posting under their own names.

It appears that TDPF is also a reliable story source in the "personalities column" at the State Journal, which is written by Melanie Conklin. Conklin was a reporter at Isthmus for nearly a decade before her move to the daily, in between which she spent a short interregnum as communications director for Mayor Cieslewicz. In fact, Isthmus itself looks to be a useful source of ideas for Page Two. There's nothing wrong with this, but it's something that State Journalistas are unlikely to admit.

For example, in her column on Saturday, June 4, Conklin reported on the launching of Music Made in Madison, an internet radio station featuring past and present local music, mostly of the rock and pop genres.

Though the website launched in mid-March alongside the second annual MAMA's, it received almost no attention, until an announcement about the local online radio was posted on TDPF on Wednesday, June 1. The timing of the post, alongside significant TDPF traffic and the former obscurity of Music Made in Madison, speaks circumstantially to the conceptual source of the column.

Page Two cues don't look to be coming only from Forons, however. The weekly newspaper itself appears to be a useful source of ideas.

The cover story for the June 3 edition of Isthmus by Tom Laskin focused on local radio reporting in Madison. The feature article examined the decimation of local radio reporters in the last two decades, also touching on the increasing prominence of entertainment as a component among those remaining.

In a section subtitled "Entertaining by Design," Laskin reported about the news coverage from WTDY 1670-AM, quoting the station's news director, Robin Colbert, about the its news gathering strategy.

Laskin wrote;

Five days after that edition of Isthmus was distributed, Conklin wrote about WTDY's Morrissey and his penchant for ad hominems. (This was the same June 8 column in which she wrote about attendees at the first photo-op for the Madison Common Sense Coalition.)

Though this is simply more circumstantial timing, it certainly is suggestive.

Introducing "Tim Mo and J Lo," Conklin provided a short "decoding cheat sheet" for some of the radio reporter-cum-talker's pet names. According to Conklin, Tim Morrissey "has earned the right to some commentary and color in his broadcasts, and uses it freely to bestow nicknames on local players."

The nicknames are fairly shallow, playing largely off of the names or age of Morrissey's targets, while others attempt to lampoon their political personas.

These names include "Double J Lo" for Madison school board member Juan Jose Lopez, and "Grandma" for fellow school board member Carol Carstensen. Meanwhile, state senator Fred Risser is termed "Grandpa," while the second state representative from Sun Prairie, John Gard, is "The Pissant." Back in Madison, "Boss Bruer" is the moniker for Ald. Tim Bruer, while Ald. Brenda Konkel gets called "Pumpkin Head."

Incidentally, the appellation given by Morrissey to Konkel conjures up a better-known gourd, at least online. The Pumpkin Head moniker is liberally applied (at least in the liberal regions of the blogosphere) as a nick for NBC's Tim Russert. Of course, there can certainly be more than one person given that particular nickname, but in the ether Morrissey's efforts are overshadowed.

Moving past that digression, it becomes noticeable that Madison's self-appointed giver of names has none himself, a situation rectified quickly and easily.

Considering that Tim Morrissey's nicks are typically based upon superficial characteristics of his target, it's best that this precedent be maintained. And what better than his own name to use as a springboard. Here Mr. Morrissey is overshadowed himself by the resurgent Mancunian/Angelino musician long ago crowned the Pope of Mope.

If Moz wears the mitre, though, Madison's own Morrissey bears a simple tonsure. With this, in the spirit of WTDY's "reverence for hard news," Tim Morrissey is truly Madison's own Monk of Bunk.

It seems that Bigmouth Strikes Again.