|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
Where was the local media at David Johnson event? |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sehvilla Mann
Email: anlyzstrlz (nospam) advancenet.net (unverified!) |
18 Jan 2001
|
|
Though the AFL-CIO trial of David Johnson drew national attention, no local mainstream media reported on the event. |
At the trial of David Johnson no local mainstream media was present, only the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC). A St. Louis television station was present but not the News-Gazette or any TV or radio station from Urbana.
Over 50 people turned out in support of Mr. Johnson on the evening of his trial. It involved the national AFL-CIO and involved fundamental free speech issues. The results of the trial are of concern to the AFL-CIO members both of Illinois and nationally.
Where was the press during this event, which obviously concerned people in East Central Illinois? And when the trial drew national attention (on Wednesday there was a letter to the editor of the News-Gazette from Trenton, New Jersey, regarding the article), even international attention, why didn't the News-Gazette or a local TV station come out to cover the event? |
|
not a St Louis _station_ |
by Zach Miller
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Jan 2001
|
That wasn't a St. Louis television station it was independent reporters from teh St. Louis program Green Time which appears on a St. Louis public access cable station not regular broadcast station. The Green Time reporters were both very cool people with a very interesting program and I hope they work with the UCIMC more often.
Klein made it very clear to me that he thought that corporate media was present even though it wasn't. He even used the presence of corporate media as a scape goat reason for closing the trial to observers. Shows that he is either incredibly clever or incredibly dense.
I hope that we can do some outreach so that the union rank and file realizes that the UCIMC can be an ally rather than an enemy. I would hate for the perception to persist that every time we show up to a labor even we are there for the purpose of "dividing the house of labor".
Bloomer from the News-Gazette told me that he could not attend the trial because he was covering the trial. He could not be a character in his own story and if he was present he would be called as a witness. And for some reason apparently no one else at the News-Gazette could cover the story. |
