Support Long Beach Journalists Holding the Line for Quality Journalism and Jobs

Target: MediaNews Group
Sponsored by: Southern California Media Guild/CWA Local 9400

As negotiations for a successor contract drag on into a second year, the company continues to push for the absolute right to outsource or offshore any and all newsroom work despite the union's attempt to negotiate reasonable alternatives.

The company is abandoning its watchdog duty and responsibilities to the community it serves. After years of staff reductions, just 11 news reporters and 5 photographers remain to cover the 5th largest city in California and one of the busiest ports in the world. The citizens of Long Beach and the 23 surrounding communities the paper covers need a staff of locally-based committed and experienced journalists to provide the community with the quality local journalism that will keep its citizenry informed. Democracy depends on it.

Click here to support Long Beach journalists for quality news and a fair deal or copy and paste this URL into your browser http://www.lang9400.com/phpPETITION/petition.php

Tim Russert

Tim Russert has died of a heart attack. He was 58. I must say i enjoyed Meet The Press the show he hosted. While I did not agree with many of the interpretations he had of the subjects he covered; he ran an Iconic entertaining show. His brand of Journalism will be missed. Click here for the story.

Of Smears & Red Hysteria

Isn’t it amazing how dangerously influential the CPUSA has suddenly become again? As a regular peruser of the insane ramblings of Right-Wing bloggers, I am seeing a huge increase of histrionic entries by the wing-nut 101^st Keyboard Brigade about Barack Obama’s secret commie background. Most entries are just cut and past jobs emanating from the (in)Accuracy In The Media howlings of Cliff Kincaid. Kincaid believes he has become the new Woodward & Bernstein by “uncovering” Obama’s childhood connection to Frank Marshall Davis, the African-American poet and journalist. Davis was a family friend during the period Obama lived in Hawaii. The whole thing is way too tiresome to get into. Google Davis and I’m sure a hard drive could be filled with the links to calls from these wanna be Paul Reveres to defend Americuh from the Red Menace posted all over the Internet.

Suddenly, the CPUSA, once again has “front organizations” and secret “moles” being used to subvert this shining republic. Obama is not being upfront about his commie connections, they write. Another hit piece titled “Barack Obama's communist connections” written by Wes Vernon from a pseudo-patriot web site called Renew America goes into more detail about the dangers of Obama’s past. My point is that these stories are being reposted over and over again. Add these to the pervasive misinformation being planted such as Obama’s a Muslim, he isn’t patriotic or that he downright hates America and it becomes too obvious that Right-Wing America is terrified of Obama. Let’s be truthful, America. The real issue is that Obama is—drum roll please—BLACK! These loons on the Right know that they can’t take the racist low road so they have found something akin to a pair of dirty under shorts to rally around. Instead of a burning cross, these drones have dredged up the old “Red under every bed” chestnut.

I have no idea whether Obama ever had Communist or Socialist leanings. Maybe he was what I like to call a “college Socialist.” I’ve seen it over and over again. College students get involved in socialist and communist parties while in school but as soon as they graduate and land a great paying job, all thoughts of Marx are forgotten. Let us hope that Obama has maintained some of the advice from Frank Marshall Davis.

I am reminded of the “When I give bread to a poor man they call me a saint. When I ask why he is poor they call me a communist” quote. Displaying social responsibility and fighting for social justice has become the new communism for the Right. How could it not? We live in a country where greed and decadence is rewarded and viewed as a sign of success. If you are poor, you are garbage not worth the time to market to. I’m an up from the dirt Prole and proud of it. Capitalism DID make me one of its grave-diggers in waiting.

My father was a janitor and my mother cleaned houses and motels. I grew up living with class prejudice. I lived in a ramshackle house with no hot water, a coal furnace, an outhouse and a party line telephone. My clothes never failed to get me ridiculed at school. What has this to do with my original rant? I think we should be screaming from rooftops that we are Communists and proud of it. We must illustrate why we are Communists. Why do we believe what we do? We have forgotten that communist work is not just an intellectual concept promoted by those who sit in offices or college classrooms. We must remember that the real work is down at the street level. We must become community activists. This is where the people learn what we are. The wing-nuts use words to label us. We should use action to define ourselves.

How about a numerical estimate of the casualties of Capitalism? The Right loves to toss around the “100 million victims of Communism” claim.

We should be blogging to counter the Right. We need to better explain to the masses what our program consists of. We need to dispel the idea that our Party wishes to turn Amerika into a Stalinist gulag. How much longer shall we allow the mistakes of the past to be used against us with an uneducated public? We need to organize more aggressively as was done in the early years. I suggest a serious summer seminar on how to talk to people about our ideas and how to counter our critics.

I hope this wasn't too long and boring. I have a tendency to ramble.

Help the PWW at the Media Reform Conference

The Media Reform Conference is just around the corner. It's at the Minneapolis Convention Center, June 6-8. The PWW has been to every conference since the first one in Madison, Wisc. Will you help us at this one? If so shoot me an e-mail at pww AT pww DOT org.

The regular registration price is $195—but a special $95 rate is available for MoveOn members. To sign up, click here.

Obama Blues Over?

Now that Obama leads in superdelegates, and Hillary has started to take a slightly less divisive tone, is his oxymoronic first-place runner up status finally over? Don't count on it. And don't underestimate the manipulative powers of the corporate media and the Democratic Party machine.