For the past few years, MSNBC hosts have run “Lean Forward” ads wherein they push different liberal advocacy issues from universal health care to considering children to be the collective "property" of the "community." MSNBC’s latest “Lean Forward” ad features host Alex Wagner focusing on yet another liberal pet project: raising the federal minimum wage.
In an ad which aired on July 25, Wagner whined that, “I don’t understand why there isn’t a more robust conversation about the minimum wage.” Wagner, a former cultural correspondent for the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress, has been featured in numerous “Lean Forward” ads, including one where she mocks Republican efforts to strengthen border security. [See video after jump. MP3 audio here.]
“We’re talking about people being able to afford the basic necessities” and the issue “shouldn’t be politicized. It shouldn’t be demagogued," Wagner thundered. "This is the basic metric for survival,” she added. Hmm, makes you wonder how MSNBC interns have survived in extremely-expensive New York City going without pay. According to the Atlantic Wire blog -- hardly a conservative news outlet mind you -- two former NBC Universal interns are suing the peacock network, alleging that they:
Worked about 25 and 29 hours per week respectively doing the usual intern tasks of filing, running errands, answering phones, and assisting production. They're seeking minimum wage back pay for the work.
Jason Swartz, the attorney for the plaintiffs argues that:
Our clients and other unpaid interns seem to have been as integral to NBC Universal’s business as other employees, but are different in a crucial way -- NBC Universal didn’t pay them.
Before MSNBC whines about raising the minimum rage, it should first pay its interns who work for free rather than promoting an economically disastrous policy that fits their “Lean Forward” liberal agenda rather than benefits low-income workers.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC Live
July 25, 2013
11:27 a.m. Eastern
ALEX WAGNER: I don’t understand why there isn’t a more robust conversation about the minimum wage. It’s mentioned and then there’s this whole economic argument about whether that’s going to improve the economy. We’re talking about people being able to afford the basic necessities. If you adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage in the 1960s was nearly 10 dollars an hour now it’s somewhere around 7 dollars an hour. What we are talking about is just what is right. It shouldn’t be politicized. It shouldn’t be demagogued. This is the basic metric for survival.
