AP, NYT Downplaying and Ignoring Mass. Move to Limit Union Health Bargaining
Gosh, after Republican Governors Scott Walker and John Kasich succeeded in championing legislation curtailing many collective bargaining rights of unionized state and municipal employees in Wisconsin and Ohio, respectively, the establishment press had the meme all set. The GOP, conservatives, and Tea Partiers are enemies of labor and the middle class, while Democrats, liberals, and progressives are their champions.
Then along comes bluer-than-blue Massachusetts. As the Boston Globe reports, the Bay State's House "voted overwhelmingly last night (Tuesday) to strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care, saying the change would save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns." It's not a law yet, but it seems to be heading pretty quickly in that direction.
The Associated Press's beat reporters and editors must be beside themselves.
Despite having nationalized Wisconsin-based collective-bargaining stories since February, three searches ("Massachusetts health," Massachusetts union," and "Massachusetts unions," all not in quotes) indicate that the wire service was still carrying nothing relating to the Bay State's situation at its main national site as of 7:30 this evening.
The AP's Massachusetts local wire carried two stories, one at 11:13 p.m. Tuesday night, plus a six-paragraph unbylined story at 5:05 p.m. today, which read in part:
Mass. Gov.: "Dial down rhetoric" on union fight
Gov. Deval Patrick is urging both sides to "dial down the rhetoric" over a plan to sharply limit the collective bargaining power of public employees over their health insurance.
Patrick said Wednesday it's important to pass a bill to ease the health care burden on communities while guaranteeing labor a seat at the table.
Union officials are furious at House Speaker Robert DeLeo after lawmakers backed the plan late Tuesday.
Does anyone remember AP reporters Scott Bauer or Todd Richmond in Wisconsin relaying advisories to dial down the rhetoric from Scott Walker? I didn't think so. But Obama bud Deval Patrick "somehow" gets a bit of deference from AP. No matter; he's on board with doing much of what Scott Walker just did, and to public safety workers as well, whom Walker exempted from certain of the Wisconsin law's provisions.
Meanwhile, at the New York Times, the same three searches done at 7:45 this evening ("Massachusetts health," "Massachusetts union," "Massachusetts unions,") returned nothing relevant.
The establishment press is probably too busy picking their collective jaws up off the floor, utterly astonished that the past two months of bashing sensible conservatives as heartless enemies may be on the verge of being rendered useless. Trying to bottle the news up is their only recourse.
This is 2011, guys and gals. Thanks to Drudge and others, that's mostly not going to happen.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
Say It Ain't So
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 8:09pm.
Not in liberal union bastion Massachussettes. How can it be?
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The vote wasn't even close:
Submitted by bkeyser on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 8:17pm.
The vote wasn't even close: 111-42. Surely the White House and Hilda Solis will come out strongly against those 111. I mean, they've basically just voted to throw all those union workers out in the snow, right?
The Mass. union leadership is freaking out.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 8:48pm.
And they'll go positively ballistic at the lack of coverage, AKA blackout, over the next few days and weeks.
This could be bigger than Fort Sumter, folks.
You missed one.
Submitted by troglodyt on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 8:49pm.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/massachusetts_house_votes...
It's 3 am, Dieter. Having trouble sleeping tonight?
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 8:58pm.
A glass of warm milk may help.
So noted and updated
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 9:33pm.
The AP's Mass wire I reviewed didn't have that story, which must mean it was considered "updated" by the one I did cite.
Thx for the tip.
The central point that AP is keeping the news from MA quiet while it screamed Wisconsin stories to the nation for weeks on end stands.
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Doesn't Massachusetts have
Submitted by ckc1227 on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 10:44pm.
Doesn't Massachusetts have government run Romneycare? Why does anyone need to sit at the negotiating table over health care?
Union Dues
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 9:09am.
The fight in Wisconsin was, (and still is), not about so called collective bargaining rights. The fight in Wisconsin was about the state facilitating the collection of union dues directly from employee paychecks. Giving the employees the ability to withhold union dues is what concerns the union. I didn't see that anywhere in this article about Mass. The union will put up a false front of indignation, but as long as they get their mandatory dues, they will go along to get along.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
That ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 1:20pm.
... is a fair point.
Tom Blumer:
Submitted by bkeyser on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 9:20am.
Sorry this is off topic but I wanted to draw your attention to this piece by Reuters. As new jobless claims rose to 429,000 last week and the 1st quarter GDP fell from 3.1% to 1.8%, Reuters assures us that this is a temporary blip due largely to poor winter weather and, well, all is well.
Here's a sampling:
"But the pull back in output, which was also the result of harsh winter weather, a widening trade gap as well as weak government spending, will probably be fleeting given a firming labor market."
Fair assessment?
"Firming" ...
Submitted by Tom Blumer on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 1:20pm.
... schmirming.