Opening their newscasts with the New York City transit strike, the
December 20 morning news programs focused on the inconvenience to
commuters and the expected cost to the city, but only CNN, CBS, and
Fox News Channel (FNC) portrayed the strike as illegal, while ABCs
Good Morning America and NBCs Today presented the strikes
illegality only as an argument posed by city officials.
The [Metropolitan] Transportation Authority
immediately declared the strike illegal and headed to court,
reported NBCs Lester Holt from the Brooklyn Bridge while ABCs
David Muir, also reporting from the 122-year-old bridge noted, New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is calling the strike illegal and
reprehensible and says it could cost the city as much as $400
million a day.
But the illegal nature of the Transit Workers Union (TWU)
strike is not merely the citys side of the story it is explicitly
defined in the law. Since 1967, state law in
New York has forbidden walkouts by public employees within the
Empire State. Section 210 of the
Taylor Law reads: No public employee or employee organization
shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee
organization shall cause, instigate, encourage, or condone a
strike.
The Taylor Law established a detailed, four-step
process for resolving labor disputes without resorting to a strike,
starting with non-binding mediation and ending in legislative
hearing. The city of New York and the TWU had not entered the third
step, binding arbitration, before the walkout began.
While CNNs American Morning, FNCs Fox and
Friends, and CBSs Early Show reported the strike as illegal,
none of the morning shows, including Good Morning America and
Today, noted how well-paid the unionized New York transit workers
are.
The Business & Media Institute previously documented how CNNs
In the Money hosts reported the 33,000-employee transit union
would hold the 8.5 million residents of the Big Apple hostage.
Co-host Susan Lisovicz noted in the December 17 broadcast that
transit workers can cash in a full pension at age 55, while
The New York Times reported the unionized employees have an
average base salary of $47,000 and average earnings of $55,000,
including overtime. Lisovicz added that rookies in the
New York Police Department earn about half what entry-level
employees in the transit authority earn.
ABC, NBC Gloss over Transit Strikes Illegality
December 20th, 2005 2:00 PM
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