FAIR is the national progressive media watchdog group, challenging corporate media bias, spin and misinformation.
One would hope that by now that the press would debunk the fuzzy budget math Gov. Scott Walker (R.-Wisc.) was using to justify his attack on collective bargaining rights of public sector workers. Nope. The New York Times (6/6/12): The political war in Wisconsin began in February 2011 when Governor Walker, only weeks into his […]
In a mostly informative “news analysis” (“Ohio’s Anti-Union Law Is Tougher Than Wisconsin’s,” New York Times, 4/1/11) comparing new anti-union laws that restrict collective bargaining rights in Ohio and Wisconsin, New York Times labor and workplace correspondent Steven Greenhouse seems at one point to adopt the framing and language of anti-labor politicians and pundits: Moreover, […]
The Charlie Rose show–which airs mostly on public television stations–has mostly skipped the protests in Wisconsin, one of the biggest labor stories of the past decade. This is not a total surprise–Rose seems to identify with The Bosses more than with the workers–so it was interesting to see how he finally approached the subject on […]
You had to assume that there would be folks in the media who wouldn’t like the recent CBS/New York Times poll that found strong public support for public workers. Sixty percent of those polled oppose stripping public workers of collective bargaining rights; 56 percent opposed cutting pay or benefits of those workers in the name […]
Today the New York Times reports its new poll (3/1/11): As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, […]
As we noted here, there weren’t many labor voices booked on the Sunday morning chat shows. One, actually–Richard Trumka from the AFL-CIO. ABC’s This Week featured four governors (two Democrats, two Republicans) talking about their fiscal problems. CBS‘s Face the Nation had a soft interview with New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Host Bob Schieffer […]
On his Fox News show Friday, self-described “union guy” Bill O’Reilly was touting the results of a newpoll finding that Wisconsinites are backing Gov. Scott Walker: According to a new poll by WisconsinReporter.com, a nonpartisan group, 71 percent of Wisconsinites believe that Gov. Scott Walker’s union cutbacks are fair.71 percent. And 69 percent of Wisconsin […]
As best I can tell, the labor battle in Wisconsin is a big story–and maybe the biggest labor story in years. But as Amanda Terkel reported at the Huffington Post, that doesn’t mean you’re going to see union advocates on the Sunday chat shows. Terkel noted: A union official told the Huffington Post that when […]
As Josh Marshall noted recently, one of the assumptions in the media discussion about Wisconsin is that Republican politicians are playing on public outrage over the perks given to public workers. That assumption took a hit after a new Gallup Poll, reported on the front page of USA Today, found this: Americans strongly oppose laws […]
I read this in the New York Times a few days ago (2/19/11): The images from Wisconsin–with its protests, shutdown of some public services and missing Democratic senators, who fled the state to block a vote–evoked the Middle East more than the Midwest. There’s a labor movement in this country? And in theMidwest, even!?
On Monday (2/21/11), ABC World News wanted to set the record straight on Wisconsin’s budget problems. As host George Stephanopoulos put it, the debate is over whether pensions and other benefits for public workers are to blame for the crippling budget shortfalls in Wisconsin and other states. Tonight Barbara Pinto has a reality check. What […]
