On Media and Labor, and how media manipulates the views of labor.

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You and I work everyday. We all have struggles and fights. Yet, think about it, when was the last time you read a friendly newspaper article in your papers? 

Ask, when was the last time you read about the struggles to organize a union? How about the economic challenge of going on strike? This is why strike votes are not taken lightly. 

If you do not remember this, you are not alone. There is a perfect storm that has conspired to prevent good coverage on media issues. 

First, major media is owned by large corporations. Editors and writers might be union members, but they are treated well, and paid fairly well. Hence, they tend to identify more with management. Of course, this is quickly changing and major papers are busting their unions, so soon those same editors might identify with the working class, like they once did. Their platform though, will not be there. 

Union membership is declining. That story will be screamed by large media. The corollary is not, labor is having increasing difficulties in organizing. Yes, there are laws on the books, but over the years the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR) has been defanged. If laws are weak, or poorly enforced, it makes it difficult to organize. 

Thirdly, media has decided to tell labor stories the way they tell all. How does this affect the consumer? Hence strikes are bad, as consumers are negatively affected. This consumer frame is not limited to labor, and the consumer frame allows media not to look deeper into the issues. 

Look at this in this way, if you are inconvenienced from going into Ralph's, you will be angry. We do not need to talk of the cuts in healthcare by the Corporation. Hence, media avoids the real reason for a strike, and we all can get angry at the union. 

Now pearl clutching time, when was the last time you read in a major paper that organized labor is a democracy? You haven't, neither have I, outside of independent presses or labor papers. 

So, how does this relate to current politics? Watch your media and how they tell you Prop. 32 will get big business and big labor out of the system. Tell me, when was the last time a corporation had a payroll deduction for an independent political action fund? They don't, but that is how Prop. 32 will be sold, and is being sold. 

Further reading

http://www.dickmeister.com/

click here,_the_%22Paycheck_Protection%22_Initiative_(2012)

Authors Bio:
Writer, blogger, journalist, based in San Diego. Started doing this with Occupy and has grown from there.

As a trained historian I was struck by Occupy, which will be considered an important moment in US History, at leaset in my opinion.