Today's Top Stories

Check Out ROC's 2013 Diners' Guide to Ethical Restaurants

It's here: The (Guild-represented) Restaurant Opportunities Centers United's annual guide to eating out ethically, telling you which restaurants are doing a lousy job with pay and benefits and which ones are worth your support as a diner. The guide looks at 150 of America's most popular...

Solidarity Works! Fired Cablevision Workers Reinstated

All but one of the 22 CWA members at Brooklyn Cablevision who were fired in January are back on the job. Through email, Facebook, petitions and rallies, more than 100,000 people showed their support for the workers, who have been trying for the last year to negotiate a fair contract after an...

Unions Happy With Obama's Choice for Labor Secretary

From CWA to Jobs with Justice, labor organizations are applauding President Obama's choice of Tom Perez to head the U.S. Department of Labor. In a statement Monday, CWA called him an "inspired choice" whose "experience reflects a fervent devotion to working families." Official White House photo...

Petition: Stop California's Fee-for-Records Bill in Its Infancy

California's Administrative Office of the Courts has written a bill that imposes a $10 fee each time someone requests a court file -- a fee that would also apply to journalists, who regularly request dozens of such documents as part of ordinary beat reporting. Public records already are prepared...

Pew State of the News Media 2013: Challenges Intensify

Here's the good news out of Pew's 2013 report on the state of the news media: newspaper circulation is hodling steady, and even growing on Sundays. But the bad news is that, “There are more signs than ever that the reduced reporting power in the news industry is having an effect and may weaken...

Albany: Without Us, New Press Would Print Blank Pages

The Newspaper Guild of Albany is thrilled about the new press that will display our work like never before. We congratulate the Hearst Corp. for making this major investment at a time when many others are abandoning daily delivery. At the same time, the Hearst Corp. has not shown a similar...

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House approves rider to defund FCC net rules

Eliza Krigman — February 18, 2011 — Politico

An amendment that would block funding of the FCCâ€™s new net neutrality order cleared the House on Thursday, on a 244-181 vote that fell mostly along party lines. The measure is now part of the continuing resolution the House will continue debating this week. It further sets the stage for a political showdown over the FCCâ€™s open internet order -- especially if Republicans find a way to add it to their version of the spending plan.

Georgia lawmaker tries to kill NLRB outright

Mark Gruenberg — February 18, 2011 — Press Associates, Inc.

A Georgia Republicanâ€™s attempt to kill the National Labor Relations Board by yanking all of its funding -- not just cutting it 17% -- was one of a slew of anti-union moves passed or pending on both sides of Capitol Hill as Congress worked its way through a money bill and two versions of a transportation bill. And the dominant theme of all the action on Feb. 14-17, with one exception, was that workers and unions were coming out on the short end of the stick.

Returning to Egyptian Journalists Their Basic Freedoms

Justin D. Martin — February 17, 2011 — Columbia Journalism Review

Many Egyptian journalists helped usher in a new era for the worldâ€™s largest Arab country, transparently reporting the brutality and back-alley thievery of a shrivelled tyrant who met his deserved end. Now, as Egypt hopefully moves from a massive, top-down autocracy to a citizen-driven government, Egyptian journalists deserve a number of specific policy changes -- and media professionals inside and outside of Egypt need to see that they get them.

Half of Recent Missouri School of Journalism Grads Canâ€™t Find Jobs

Lindsey Wolf — February 17, 2011 — J.School Buzz

Did you want a job after graduating from the University of Missouri School of Journalism? Yeah, we did too. Sadly, we have some news that doesnâ€™t bode well for us. The journalism school has the lowest post-graduation placement rate of any academic college at the University of Missouri. And you thought the starting salaries for J-Schoolers were bad!

Al Jazeera's news revolution

Regan E. Doherty — February 17, 2011 — Reuters

Over the past few weeks, much has been made of the power of Al Jazeera, the Qatari news channel launched 15 years ago. But despite its stated independence and brave journalism, the network unavoidably plays a political role. Is it, as many in the region charge, sympathetic to Islamist parties such as Hamas and Hezbollah? Does it target some Middle East regimes while treating others more softly? And what role, if any, does its wealthy Qatari backer play in all this?

NewsBeast offers 30 buyouts

Keith J. Kelly — February 17, 2011 — New York Post

The other shoe dropped at Newsweek yesterday when the mag offered voluntary buyouts to about 30 employees covered by the Newspaper Guild contract. Bill O'Meara, president of the Newspaper Guild of New York, which represents about 90 Newsweek staffers, said he expects fewer than 10 people will take the buyout offer. Insiders expect the dot-com side of Newsweek will be particularly hard hit.

Is Wisconsin Our Egypt? 15,000 Protest Off-the-Wall Right-Wing Governor's Policies

Rose Aguilar — February 17, 2011 — AlterNet

The people power in Wisconsin has become too big for the local and national media to ignore. "I've never seen anything like it. It wasn't just teachers and union members from the University of Wisconsin (UW), where I work. There were Steelworkers, Teamsters, Pipefitters, building trades unions and more--unions I've never seen at a rally in 10 years," said an AFSCME shop steward. "The most amazing thing is when the firefighters came in a delegation with signs that said, 'Firefighters for workers' rights.' People were crying."

With Googleâ€™s One Pass, Two More Newspaper Chains Join The Paywall Brigade

Joseph Tartakoff — February 17, 2011 — paidContent.org

Included in the announcement of Googleâ€™s long-expected One Pass paid content system for publishers is news that two more U.S. newspaper chains are planning to put up online paywalls at some of their newspaper sites this year: Media General plans to use One Pass to charge users who access its 180,000-plus circulation Richmond Times Dispatch, while midwest newspaper chain Rust Communications will soon charge some users at three of its newspaper sites.

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