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 October 11, 2006
THE DISAPPEARING LABOR BEAT....The labor beat at daily newspapers has been on the verge of extinction for years. My local paper, the LA Times, used to have some of the best labor coverage in the country, thanks to its great labor beat reporter, Harry Bernstein, but that heritage declined and then finally died last year when labor writer Nancy Cleeland left the beat. As Michael Massing reported:
At the New Republic, John Judis observes that BusinessWeek has increasingly transformed itself from a serious chronicler of business into a Smart Money clone ("Revealed! Secrets of the Male Shopper") and suggests that its prize-winning labor coverage was one casualty of the change:
As labor unions decline in power and advertisers insist ever more vigorously on appealing to specific demographics (young, white collar, lots of disposable income), coverage of blue collar and working class issues simply fades away. It's like this stuff doesn't even exist anymore. And let's face it: if all you read is BusinessWeek or your local daily, it doesn't. —Kevin Drum 1:07 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (101)Comments
It always amazes me how anti-union newspaper writers are. If it wasn't for strong unions in their industry they'd be making next to nothing. Posted by: Rob on October 11, 2006 at 1:13 PM | PERMALINKThe "best and brightest" don't care about labor or about workers. They want services performed for them and they are willing and able to pay. The rest--workers' lives, health, wages, housing...--that's not as interesting as the useful or titillating stuff in the Style Section. The "Culture of Narcissism" has been upon us for a quarter of a century. We're not a nation anymore. We're a collection of targeted markets. Posted by: donescobar on October 11, 2006 at 1:20 PM | PERMALINKOn his radio show this morning, Bob Dylan mentioned that he was a proud union member, so that's nice. This guy Steven Adler used to be the drummer in Guns 'n Roses. It's no wonder he's driving BusinessWeek down the tubes. Posted by: Boots Day on October 11, 2006 at 1:22 PM | PERMALINK"...."They don't consider themselves hostile to working-class concerns, but they're all making too much money to relate to the problems that working-class people are facing," Once again, the myth of the liberal media is exposed. A truly liberal media would have strong reporting on labor issues. Instead, we get all the "strong economy" bulletins out of Washington. Posted by: tomeck on October 11, 2006 at 1:25 PM | PERMALINKI remember one of the exercises we did in journalism school in college involved a rewrite of a strike story. There was a lot of background about labor law. LET'S ALL GET TOGETHER ON SUNDAY TO STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY!!! LET'S SHOW THOSE ELEPHANTS OUR UNITY AND STRENGTH!!! HTTP://WWW.STANDAGAINSTPOVERTY.ORG
Working class families are in for a nasty shock when they suddenly go from being courted by the Republicans as essential political allies (via culture-war issues) to being seen as little better than the homeless -- and equally ignorable. Smart Republican political operatives will try to delay that day as long as they can, since that will be the final death of their odd-couple coalition, but their well-heeled political followers are already well down that track. I think it was Gary Hart who observed that, when -- but not until -- the economic facts of life under Republicanism finally become too ugly to ignore, the South will return to the Democrats. Posted by: bleh on October 11, 2006 at 1:35 PM | PERMALINKI'm still playing my one-note tune: The disappearance of "working class" from the American vocabulay forty years ago, and the substiution of "middle class" to placate the Cold War gods, bears its tasteless fruit. As an autoworker I was amused at this effort to blunt class consciousness. I am no longer amused. It begins with perception. I remember my eleven-year-old daughter coming home from school: "We're middle class, aren't we, Daddy?" They got to the kids first, equating the working class with street sweepers and welfare mothers. Everybody else was middle class in the best of all possible worlds. It's a lie, of course. If you live off a paycheck you're working class — no matter how much you may hate it. How can there be labor reporters if there's no such thing as a laboring class? They disappeared us. Posted by: buddy66 on October 11, 2006 at 1:36 PM | PERMALINK The labor beat at daily newspapers has been on the verge of extinction for years. For good reason. America is turning into the Ownership Society where almost a majority of American families own stocks in companies. Therefore, there is no need to talk about labor any more because most of us are business owners. The interest of business is the interest of America. "Another striking difference between today's economy and yesterday's is that we are turning into a nation of investors. Specifically, nearly half of all U.S. households own equities either directly or indirectly through a mutual fund, according to a study by Investment Company Institute and the Securities Industry Association. for the first time stock ownership is spreading rapidly throughout the age and income spectrum." Posted by: Al on October 11, 2006 at 1:37 PM | PERMALINK The only times in my life I've ever read Business Week were on cross-country flights when I ran through the paper I brought on board and the other passengers had looted all the free Economists and Golf Digests. We can ship all our jobs to Mexico and India, and run our government with Chinese money. And the RNC will support Al and me. So what is the problem? Posted by: Al's Mommy on October 11, 2006 at 1:50 PM | PERMALINKhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBg9p0cS48U for al Posted by: Neo on October 11, 2006 at 1:55 PM | PERMALINKThe business of America is business, got it? We don't have a labor beat because we no longer have a viable labor movement. We are just a nation of haves -- the upper 10% -- and have-nots -- the rest of us. For a brief period in time, say the 1950's, capital was more evenly distributed in this country. But that was merely due to a convergence of events, not by any means the norm. We all know what has happened since then, with the seeming the gap between rich and poor turning into a wide, unbridgable chasm. The middle class -- if it ever really existed -- has become just another myth in the unfolding history of global capitalism. This is the real crime -- not the war, not the sex scandals, not the topical trash which the media trys to pass off as "news."
All you need to know about how Business Week has collapsed as a real, broad sprectrum, business weekly is that they recently gave Jack Welch and his most current doxie a full page to spew their pap on the last page in the magazine. The rest of the reporting in the magazine has seen a similar decline in incisive reporting. Most of the reports about economic, industrial, and structural changes reflect the happy face reporting favored by right-wing rags. I've been a long-term subscriber to Business Week, but I'm within a gnat's eyelash of terminating my subscription because the magazine's coverage has deteriorated so badly. I would not encourage anyone to buy a copy off the newstand much less subscribe these days. Posted by: PrahaPartizan on October 11, 2006 at 2:04 PM | PERMALINKIt's like this stuff doesn't even exist anymore. And let's face it: if all you read is BusinessWeek or your local daily, it doesn't. So, where do you recommend getting this type of information? Who are the best labor reporters? Posted by: joe on October 11, 2006 at 2:07 PM | PERMALINKIs there really that much to right? People with low value labor are still gaming the system to get paid more than they're worth. It's gone down in the past few decades, but it's an ongoing problem. Other than that, there's not much to say. Posted by: American Hawk on October 11, 2006 at 2:09 PM | PERMALINK*write, not right, obviously. Preview is my friend. Or should be... Posted by: American Hawk on October 11, 2006 at 2:13 PM | PERMALINKI agree with the comment on Gary Hart. I am originally from GA but now in VA. The conservative DEMS went REP, but many are considering a return to the fold. I say we WELCOME THEM BACK! Labor and Economics are this year's election issues, and we will soon see which side cares about anyone...... Posted by: MsRex on October 11, 2006 at 2:23 PM | PERMALINKI alway thought Forbes was the People of business magazines. Posted by: Dan on October 11, 2006 at 2:31 PM | PERMALINKIt's a lie, of course. If you live off a paycheck you're working class — no matter how much you may hate it. How can there be labor reporters if there's no such thing as a laboring class? They disappeared us. Posted by: buddy66 on October 11, 2006 at 1:36 PM | PERMALINK Working class and proud. Preview is my only friend. Or should be... There, fixed that for you. Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 11, 2006 at 2:39 PM | PERMALINKI agree with the comment on Gary Hart. I am originally from GA but now in VA. The conservative DEMS went REP, but many are considering a return to the fold. I say we WELCOME THEM BACK! Labor and Economics are this year's election issues, and we will soon see which side cares about anyone...... The way this Foley thing is working out, it sounds like the choice the Republicans are facing now is: If they lose the Redneck base - maybe the Redneck base will turn to Buchanan's Reform party (which is a very different animal from Ross Perot's Reform Party - ideologically OPPOSITE, in fact). Finally, the religious wingnut crowd is seeing the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. The only one's left in the Republican Party after this, will be the crypto-Libertarians, However, if the party ejects Hastert, and does a purge of the Log Cabin wing, (in order to retain the Evangelical/redneck vote) where will the Social-Liberal/Economic-conservatives go? And what will the Republicans do without the support of the Plutocracy? Posted by: Osama_Been_Forgotten on October 11, 2006 at 2:48 PM | PERMALINKxqj_1 | |