Media, Labor and Politics, Oh No!
L.A. Times snatches $10 million from small businesses
Congress, in its latest stimulus bill, could not be bothered to give workers a $15 minimum wage, but it happily handed over ten million dollars to a billionaire.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) awarded Southern California’s largest newspaper, owned by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, the money that would have otherwise gone to small businesses, and/or a minimum wage increase. The handout was reported on page 11 of the March 24 edition of the Times.
The PPP, a brainchild of Sen. Marco Rubio (the smart Republican), was to be administered by the Small Business Administration. Its original guidelines stated:
Regarding the Times as a small business is stretching it more than a bit. In 2018, pharma billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Times for $300 million and the San Diego Union-Tribune for another 200 million.
Never underestimate the billionaire class when it comes to scooping up someone else’s money. In December, Congress changed the PPP rules to allow large corporations, like the Times, to get in on the pork.
In 2018, the Times had annual revenue of $930 million. That figure has obviously dropped significantly due to loss of ad revenue during the pandemic. Still, the Times is doing better than any small business you ever heard of.
The big issue is why should the federal government bail out any billionaire? This year, Soon-Shiong may not make the profit he dreamed of, but lots of people, millions in fact, have taken a larger relative hit to their meager finances. Soon-Shiong is still riding the gravy train, and expecting another large payday when the San Diego Union-Tribune submits its plea for a few million dollars.
The LA Times provides a needed service to Southern California. It’s not as bad as the Washington Post and the NY Times have become, but it could be a whole lot better if Soon-Shiong would invest some small part of his $7.9 billion, (as of March 25, 2021) nest egg, and make the Times a great and truthful newspaper. If he doesn’t want to part with a single penny of his hoard, then he could help the employees of the Times set up a non-profit that would elect its leaders and run the paper.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported, March 19, that Soon-Shiong is shopping the paper around, which he vigorously denies. Rick Edmonds at the the Poynter Institute believes Soon-Shiong will unload the papers to a newspaper chain, possibly the Alden group, a hedge fund, which recently bought the Chicago Tribune’s newspaper empire, with Soon-Shiong’s support.
A dark horse buyer could be the Hearst Corporation, which owns the San Francisco Chronicle. That would be ironic since Hearst (LA Herald Express and the Examiner) and the Chandler family (LA Times and the Mirror) spent decades fighting each other for media supremacy.
Biden’s Foreign Policy Faux Pas
Let’s see. Biden has already called the President of Russia, a killer. And proving that he wants to be a killer, too, he lobbed a missile into Syria. He sent his Secretary of State, Blinken, to Alaska to insult the Chinese. Biden has not yet restored US membership in the Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump abruptly pulled out.
Now he is threatening sanctions against Germany if they buy gas from Russia. Sanctions have been called another form of warfare. Do we really need a war, of any kind, against Germany? And when will we ever have a peaceful world if the Democratic President acts like this?
Labor Leader John Sweeney Dies
What role in labor history did John J. Sweeney play? Some might say he oversaw the further deterioration of the movement at a time when capitalism was running roughshod over workers.
Others would credit the AFL-CIO president from 1995 to 2009 for trying to broaden the membership to include people of color, immigrants, women, and low-wage workers. He died Feb. 1, 2021, at 86.
The New York Times, on Feb. 2, called him a “Crusading Labor Leader,” noting that he came along at a moment when history saw fit to undo past gains for workers. His agenda for improving the movement was undermined in the rush for unfettered corporate control.
He worked to more closely associate the AFL-CIO with the Democratic party, at a time when the DP was moving to the right. That did little to stop the dismantling of unions, as workers’ wages continued to stagnate or decline. During Sweeney’s tenure, the union share of the workforce dropped from 15 percent to 12.
Sweeney’s tenure also saw the first major split among unions since the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) left the AFL (American Federation of Labor) in 1935. In 2005, several of the major unions, calling themselves “Change to Win,” walked out in an acrimonious moment at a labor convention, after their demand for Sweeney’s resignation was ignored.
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How will it be?
How will it be
in the far future?
when everyone is a poet
when everyone is a lover
when everyone is a musician
when everyone is a philosopher
when everyone is a silver-tongued orator
and no one is
sad,
poor,
violent,
hungry,
depressed,
How will it be?
Pretty damn good!
(Jim Smith from If The Dead Had Email)