I’m Glad Dave Weigel Resigned: Now Washington Post Can Hire a Labor Reporter

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6160/im_glad_dave_weigel_resigned_now_washington_post_can_hire_a_labor_repo/

Tuesday June 29 3:21 pm By Mike Elk

I, for one, am glad that conservative beat reporter Dave Weigel resigned from the Washington Post on Friday for wishing (on a listserv, a member of which then leaked his e-mails) that Matt Drudge would "set himself on fire" and wishing Rush Limbaugh had died shortly after he was hospitalized with chest pain.

With Weigel gone, it means the Post might finally have the money to hire a labor journalist. Despite the labor movement's 16 million dues-paying members, the newspaper has no full time labor reporter, unlike the New York Times, with Steven Greenhouse, or the Wall Street Journal, Kris Maher. The Post's National Politics Reporter Alec MacGillis writes 1-2 a month at maximum on the labor movement. Harold Meyerson writes occasional op-ed columns on organized labor, but does not do any investigative reporting on labor.


Dave Weigel (left) resigned from his position blogging about the conservative movement at the Washington Post on Friday. (Photo courtesy Wonkette.com)


Regardless of what you may think of Wiegel's firing, or the Tea Party, he covered the day-to-day activities of the contemporary conservative movement in a fairly comprehensive fashion. Why then does the Post not grant similar full-time coverage to the labor movement?

In order to properly understand the American political landscape, including the Tea Party, you have to understand the labor movement. You can't explain The Tea Party, essentially a populist identify movement, without explaining how it rose out of the failures of labor movement to achieve its populist aims. It’s no coincidence that Christian Coalition membership skyrocketed in the 1980s as union membership plummeted because of severe unionbusting and off-shoring (see my recent Working ITT piece for nore on this.)

As the labor movement faces extinction—private-sector union membership has dwindled to 7 percent—it’s important that we examine how the labor movement intends to stay alive and what losing the labor movement will do to the political landscape.

FULL story at link.

[msongs]

1. the white racist republican teabaggers are disillusioned labor movement populists? incredible ! nt

[provis99]

2. why would news corporations cover labor, their arch-enemies?

[Omaha Steve]

3. Kick