Today's Top Stories

House budget bill weakens enforcement of labor rights

A U.S. House budget bill to cut federal spending by more than $60 billion would hobble the government’s ability to bring labor law violators to justice and further tie up several pending cases affecting hundreds of Guild members. That's why, although the Guild doesn't often take positions on legislative matters, the New York local is urging its members to wade into battle and "tell your senators that you oppose the cuts in labor law enforcement."

Media companies need more Latino journalists

Americans count on the media to tell us -- as Walter Cronkite used to say -- "the way it is." But how can media companies do that effectively when their staffs look more like the way it used to be? In 2000, Latinos accounted for about 4.5% of print journalists. In radio and television, the numbers were smaller. Today, according to the American Society of News Editors, Latinos make up only about 3.5% of print journalists.

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Gannett's global workforce fell 7% in 2010; U.S. newspapers once more led way in cutting jobs

Gannett's worldwide employment fell again in 2010, but at a slower rate than in the two previous years, according to a new filing the company made today with government regulators. Today's SEC filing shows that under Craig Dubow, who became CEO in 2005, the company has now eliminated 20,000 jobs -- more than one in every three. U.S. Community Publishing -- the company's biggest division -- once more shed the most workers: 2,300, or about 9%.

Union battle goes national

Unions and their allies are planning rallies, vigils and press conferences in at least 27 states this week against what they see as a national attack on government employees. Demonstrations are spreading from Wisconsin and Ohio, where bills from Republican governors to curtail collective-bargaining rights have attracted thousands of protesters. Efforts include lobbying all week against measures in Indiana and a Friday AFL-CIO rally in New Jersey.

HuffPo: 'Vast Majority' of Our Bloggers Understand Value of Free

The Huffington Post is fighting back -- sort of. After the Newspaper Guild criticized the site for exploiting journalists, urging Arianna Huffington to give her unpaid bloggers a cut of the $315 million AOL agreed to pay her for HuffPo, the site's senior vice president of media relations responded with an e-mail to the Guild's president. Its salutation? "Dear Bill," it opened, violating one of the first canons of journalism.

Egypt's media undergo their own revolution

Does the political upheaval in Egypt spell the end of state-controlled media?

Grievances against Egypt's government-appointed paper editors and broadcast network chiefs -- often ageing regime acolytes parachuted in -- have been stewing for years, as has internal disillusion with an entity notorious for corruption scandals, compromises of editorial integrity and an institutional aversion to reform. It is only now though, in the aftermath of the president's departure, that these frustrations are erupting messily into the open.

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