Boston Globe Workers Deserve Sympathy and Support Not Derision from Local Media

There are many issues I could editorialize about today, but a funny thing happened as I was writing up our news piece on the Boston Globe union rally for Open Media Boston this evening ... during breaks, while peeking at all the media streams I constantly have running on my computer and on the old Panasonic tube TV behind me, I began to realize that other members of the Boston press corps were basically mocking the efforts of hundreds of Globe employees to save their jobs in a very bad economy. As a longtime progressive activist, I found the whole spectacle supremely ironic. And as a local media worker, I found it supremely uncool.

 

First, I noticed the daily Boston Business Journal update I get, and was stunned to read their headline ""Globe rally: Lots of talk, few solutions." Glancing at the piece I saw that the BBJ seemed to think that it was the responsibility of the Globe workers to solve the problems of New York Times Company in addition to fighting to save their jobs. A tall order given the state of the news industry. An even taller order given the charges of corporate malfeasance against the Times by various commentators.

 

Unmentioned in all such discussions is that turning the largely family-owned American print news industry into modern - and mostly publicly-held - media corporations from the 1970s onward, led to the expectation of annual profits in excess of 20% by increasingly demanding boards of directors and stockholders.

 

While most print operations had previously turned a profit, none of them could sustain such a crazy profit margin without cuts to core staff. As the industry turned to contingent contractor and freelance staffing arrangements and away from its previous paternalistic model of lifetime employment, its product began to suffer. This is likely at least one of the reasons why the news industry was relatively slow to adapt to technological changes that swiftly moved information distribution onto the internet. And therefore could be seen as one of the reasons most publications essentially threw their content onto the web for free without first building a stable new online business model. Forcing the few that did try to charge for content to switch over to providing free content after a very few years. With an increasingly destabilized core staff, it can be difficult to respond effectively to change.

 

Yet in such an environment, the BBJ thinks beleaguered unions at a publication under the gun from its corporate parent are going to come up with some simple solution to replacing money already squandered by management and trumpet it in a soundbite at a rally? Wishful thinking to say the least.

 

New England Cable News' Business Day show was next up at bat against the Globe workers - focusing on how the rally was somehow too small, and was made up primarily of the workers themselves and their families. Their reporter also committed the standard error of sloppy corporate journalism in providing the appearance of "balance" by speaking briefly to some random passer-by with an opposing position - in this case, an ill-informed recent Emerson College graduate who was only too happy to jump on the workers for being somehow old fashioned and out of touch for trying to save their publication.

 

This instead of speaking to Globe or Times management - the actual "other side" of this story - which even a relatively small publication like Open Media Boston managed to do within a couple of hours after the rally.

 

And let's not forget that the Globe's rival publication, the Boston Herald, seems to be operating on standing orders to vilify and deride the Globe and its workers at every turn. This morning's missives included a <a href"http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1167718&srvc=hom...">"top 10 ways to save the Globe" list</a> that certainly did not live up to its title except in a darkly comic fashion.

 

Returning to the sense of irony I felt this evening as a longtime progressive activist for numerous community and labor organizations in Boston and beyond, my read of the Globe workers' rally was very different than my colleagues in the Boston press corps.

 

Because what I thought after covering the event was "wow, these people are really amateurs at running public rallies." Which is entirely understandable. These people are experts at running a major metropolitan daily. Not street protests.

 

And here's the ironic part. Some of these Globe workers were the very writers and editors that for years have resolutely refused to cover some of the most important political rallies and events that this city has seen in recent times. Oh, sure, we might get a picture and a caption for an anti-war rally with thousands of people. Or not even that for a rally of hundreds of welfare moms with seemingly incongruous support from labor leaders. But those of us who, like myself, ran public relations for many of these events - and, more to the point, ran these events - got told time and time again by Globe staff "we don't cover rallies." 

 

"Rallies aren't news." Especially rallies that happen more than once - as they must do for any significant political campaign of the have-nots against the haves.

 

And when I'd say "oh, you cover political rallies run on a regular basis by the Democrats and Republicans (but rarely third parties). And you do lavish human interest portraits of the participants and candidates, and you work hard to get the back story on everyone involved. And you explain the bad things that people are working to change or the context of the political issues involved.

 

"But when any of the hundreds of progressive organizations in town do significant protest events - individually or in coalition - against the rich and powerful that you claim provide your raison d'etre for keeping an eye on and defending the defenseless against, you, Globe staff turn your nose up at us. And say these rallies and marches and lobby days and sit-ins and what-have-you are not significant. Are not news. Represent no important constituency."

 

Yet now, many of these same people find their only recourse against just the same kind of greedy rapacious amoral multinational corporation that many Boston progressive organizations and unions have gone toe-to-toe with for decades is to use the very tactics that my friends and I have used.

 

And they, the self-same Globe staff, are getting mocked by the rest of the Boston media? Just as me and mine have been mocked?

 

Well that's just too rich for words.

 

But you know what? It's o.k. I didn't see anyone I was mad at as a working person or a journalist at today's Globe rally.

 

I saw a bunch of mostly working class local people like myself who are being royally screwed by a major corporation.

 

And I saw that they were feeling their way through a fight against a powerful enemy that has all the powers of the American establishment at its disposal.

 

And I saw that union leaders were trying first to buck up the spirits of their own members by doing a public action. So that they did not feel alone. Or dispirited. Or that the whole fight was pointless.

 

And I saw them reaching out to allies in the labor movement. And I saw them trying to figure out how to ask their loyal reading public for support.

 

And I saw a generational gap, sure. I saw that many of the workers - be they clerks, or pressmen, or reporters or editors - were over 40. And I saw that some of their attitudes towards newer media technology were a bit dated.

 

But my reaction, rather than derision, was sympathy.

 

Here were hundreds of longtime employees of a large company about to have their jobs and pensions ripped out from under them. Many of them with skill sets that are out-of-date or in professions that are vanishing too fast for them to easily get another job.

 

And these people are performing a public service as the largest news operation in the region.

 

So what they need, right now, is public support. Even if you don't like the Globe - and as I've said before, I often don't - it is vital in these tough times that working people show solidarity to each other against corporate management that is all too willing to destroy our economy and possibly our democracy as long as they continue making profits.

 

And to the my aforementioned colleagues in the Boston press corps, remember this next time you want to mock the Globe workers - unless you stand with them in their moment of need, unless you help them fight off the threat posed to them by their management ... you're all next.

 

Your jobs will all go on the chopping block soon enough unless you all get a serious attitude adjustment.

 

And then you'll all come crying to new media people with some labor consciousness like me and say "please help us."

 

And people like me will help you. Even though you've been jerks to us for a long time.

 

That said, media people may ask what kind of help can we in the media offer the Globe workers? 

 

Well how about some advice? At least on the side, if not in the stories we file.

 

Looking at the rally today - just as a media person - I'd say "c'mon Globe workers, do what you always demand that organizations you cover do. Make sure you have a press liaison on site at rallies and other events. Make sure you have a press packet of key documents and contacts. Stay on message. Don't have 14 speakers like today. Don't drag things on. These kinds of events should be like press conferences. 20-30 minutes. Maybe 4-5 speakers max. Bang. Bang. Bang. And we're outta there to file our stories."

 

See? Now was that so hard?

 

I didn't think so. Now let's everyone, readers and press alike, get out there and help the Globe workers win some kind of just resolution to their plight. Because if we ignore them, it is ultimately at our own peril as workers and as a democratic society.

 

Check out the Globe workers' "Save the Boston Globe" website at http://www.savethebostonglobe.com, and sign their petition at http://www.bgol.org/savetheglobe.html ...

 

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston.