SHAKEUP AT SHEPHERD?

It appears there has been a parting of the ways between Doug Hissom and Louis Fortis Ph.D., the Publisher and Editor in Chief of the Shepherd Express newspaper.
Hissom, 42, who has been with the paper since its earliest days, has most recently borne the title of "Senior Political / Investigative Reporter" for the weekly. His previous titles, if remembered correctly, include "Metro Editor" and "Editor."
I heard that he had left the paper on Tuesday evening when I received a telephone call while I was following the election returns. I found Hissom downtown, but he did not express a willingness to talk, and I did not press the issue.
Since then I have called practically every name listed on the masthead of the Shepherd Express, and have spoken with a couple of people at the paper.
One source, who says he has spoken to Hissom, says Fortis told Hissom he had a choice to either be fired or to resign.
Hissom's response was that Fortis not try to interfere with Hissom's right to collect unemployment insurance from the paper.
[Fortis, on three occasions, attempted to prevent the writer of this column from collecting unemployment after an unamicable parting from the publication. He has had a history of attempting to deny unemployment benefits to other fired workers. He was not successful in the case of this writer, who collected his full benefits.]
The Shepherd Express has undergone many changes during the Fortis era; the paper is certainly run on a more professional basis, and has a larger income base from advertising than it previously enjoyed. However, the management is distant and dictatorial; Fortis is famous for meddling in the writing of others, including creating stories out of whole cloth, (see his signed article this week about the reasons behind the departure of Scott Walker from the gubernatorial race) or forcing junior writers to do so. A notable incident in which a college intern wrote for the Shepherd Express at Fortis' command an article about an imaginary protest of a presidential visit that had not yet occured caused this writer to narc on Fortis to Milwaukee Magazine. Once the magazine's expose ran, it was the end of "Plenty of Horne."
Fortis did not return calls for comment.
Stay tuned for further information as it becomes available.
--Michael Horne