john maddente | midwestern clarity

Published: Feb. 8, 2007 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Trying to predict what current event will capture our collective interest is a fool's errand. I gave up years ago. For example, I never could understand the avalanche of news coverage on, or public reaction to, the Elian Gonzalez story several years back. The circumstances, while sad, involved one child. Yet politicians and media were consumed with the ordeal for more than a year. Now consider the recent information security blunders by state government and the relatively small amount of attention they garnered. One case involved Social Security numbers printed on the outside of tax booklets for about 171,000 Wisconsin taxpayers. Some were recovered, but most were mailed. It made me wonder: Were we really more concerned about Brett Favre's return to the Packers than actions that could have potentially compromised the identities of thousands of taxpayers? I hope that is not the case, but the amount of public and media i...