Reporter Melinda Henneberger writes about the touching realism of the Broadway play, "Lucky Guy," about the late tabloid columnist Mike McAlary, and what it says about the value of print journalism. "There is no substitute for knocking on doors. There is no substitute for taking tips seriously....
Hyatt housekeepers are leading a fight against President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary, Penn Pritzker. The longtime member of the Hyatt board and heir to the Hyatt fortune, she has "exhibited a broad pattern of labor abuses, including aggressive outsourcing, low wages and the...
The Guild has added its name to supporters of a bipartisan federal shield law bill introduced last week in the U.S. House and promoted during a news conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Addressing the secret seizure of AP reporters' phone records, Guild President Bernie Lunzer said, "We are...
The AFL-CIO-Union Plus Dreams of Jobs and Freedom Scholarship is funded by the AFL-CIO and its member unions to help graduating high school seniors realize their dreams of a college education. The scholarships honor the 50th anniversary (Aug. 28) of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,...
Sue Ogrocki, an Associated Press photographer in Oklahoma and a Guild member, was at Plaza Towers Elementary School on Monday as children were rescued."Parents and neighborhood volunteers stood in a line and passed the rescued children from one set of arms to another, carrying them out of harm's...
After nearly five months of negotiations, the Guild bargaining team has reached a tentative contract with the Seattle Times that includes a 1.5 percent wage increase next year and a lump-sum bonus in 2015. A vote is expected within two weeks; the bargaining team is unanimously recommending...
Gentlemen, your cell phone could be your closest enemy. According to an Italian report published in the Journal of Andrology, researchers in the United States and around the world have found that the radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones may decrease sperm count and damage sperm quality. Though still inconclusive, the research focuses on several studies on both human and animal sperm.
Tricia Sartor —
August 19, 2011— Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism
In the days after his runner-up finish to Michele Bachmann in Iowa’s August 13 GOP straw poll, Texas Congressman Ron Paul complained about a lack of media coverage, accusing the press of being “frightened by me challenging the status quo and the establishment." Turns out he's got a right to complain: an analysis of campaign coverage this year indicates he is the 10th leading election newsmaker -- trailing far behind non-candidates Donald Trump and Sarah Palin.
The Wisconsin uprising was the awakening that labor movement activists had long hoped for, but the recall elections turned out to be an education opportunity lost. The only ads that discussed union rights came from the other side. The millions of dollars in commercials in support of the Democrats did not talk about unions, the history of the labor movement, what we have done to create our modern society, or why it is important for our collective future that unions thrive.
Now that the volley of recall elections in Wisconsin is over, what does it all mean? Just this: for all the talk of Republican “wins” this year, the reality is that the Democrats have the far better record of winning competitive races. That’s a significant shift from 2010, when the Republicans had the advantage. And it has Democrats in Wisconsin and across the country celebrating.
Eric Kleefeld —
August 18, 2011— Talking Points Memo
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) on Wednesday offered a deal to the state's public employee unions: Let's compromise on my law stripping away your collective bargaining rights -- and withdraw the referendum where you could get it repealed. But with a poll showing an approximately 20-point margin in favor of repealing the bill, We Are Ohio, the lead organization behind the repeal referendum, said Kasich should simply deep-six the law if he wants to avoid the referendum.
Newspapers appear to be growing in popularity once again in the United States -- but not because of their editorial content. People are buying them, and even stealing them, because they contain bundles of money-off retailing coupons. It's part of the so-called "extreme couponing" craze now sweeping across America as publishers insert ever-increasing numbers of discount coupons inside their publications, especially in Sunday issues.
Though it has shaped American politics for the last 40 years, the religious right still baffles reporters. Every four years, just as a presidential campaign kicks up, legions of media types who make their living outside the right-wing echo chamber emerge as a militia of Margaret Meads, descending on flyover country, trying to make sense of that exotic phenomenon, the religious right. In the end, those who actually get it are few.
James Desborough, an award-winning reporter at the former News of the World newspaper, has been arrested by officers investigating the phone-hacking scandal. The allegations are believed to relate to events prior to Desborough being promoted to be the newspaper's Los Angeles-based US editor in April 2009 -- raising the question of whether he practiced those techniques in the U.S., and if so, whether he was the first and only News of the World journalist in the U.S. to do so.
