MORE UNIONS: News Unions Support ‘Revolution’ of Occupy Wall Street

Two separate journalism guilds back radical protest movement, but none question their ethics.

By Dan Gainor
Tuesday, October 11, 2011

As the Occupy Everything crowd marches in dozens of cities nationwide, it’s obvious their goal is nothing less than “global revolution.” It’s the phrase that headlines the live video feed. It’s the sentiment that flows through their entire series of events – from signs to guest speakers. Egyptian speaker Mohammed Ezzeldin encouraged the crowd with comments such as “We have nothing to lose but our chains,” and “Long live revolution.” One-time comedienne Roseanne Barr simply called for bankers to be “beheaded.”

But anarchists, socialists, anti-capitalists and Hollywood idiots chanting “Vive la revolution” isn’t big news. What is news is that the news industry is behind them. This isn’t simply the case of select individuals in journalism supporting the protests. They always do. The Washington Post ran four separate pro-Occupier op-eds in the Sunday Oct. 9, paper. And that’s just on one day. CNN’s Roland Martin called the protesters “American patriots.”

The big news here is that two separate news unions, including the newspaper guild, the recognized union for many print and online journalists, and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are fully behind the radical message of Occupy Wall Street.

The newspaper guild is part of the Communications Workers of America, listed prominently among 16 union supporters of Occupy Wall Street. CWA is an omnibus group made up of several smaller unions such as The Newspaper Guild, which “merged with CWA in 1997, as did the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees.” They joined the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, also part of CWA. CWA, in turn, is also affiliated with the AFL-CIO and the International Federation of Journalists. Look for the union label and you find it on a card in the wallet of many journalists.

The newspaper guild isn’t subtle about its support either. The guild’s website leads with a Paul Krugman pro-protest piece headlined: “Confronting the Malefactors.” That’s just above an AP story on the protests, describing how unions are aiding the movement.

Even more obvious is the lead story for the guild’s publication, “The Guild Reporter.” Editor Andy Zipser combined the Wisconsin union battle with hopes that it would continue and complained that “right-wing governors and legislators in a score of states pushed an asylum’s menu of loony legislation.”

The journalists’ publication went on to criticize “Republicans,” “the Tea Party,” “the Kochs,” Republican Wisconsin “Gov. Scott Walker,” the “radical right,” the “GOP” and “its rabid right wing” at least a dozen times by name in about 700 words.

I love objective journalism.