Why the Media Started Caring About the American Worker Again

[Omaha Steve]

POOL New/Reuters

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/why-the-media-started-caring-about-the-american-worker-again/384287/

Labor reporters might be among the first to go as news outlets continue downsizing, but coverage now is a lot more thorough than before the recession.

STEVEN GREENHOUSEJAN 8 2015, 7:35 AM ET

Not long ago, I was alarmed about the sharp decline in media coverage of labor. For a few years, one news organization after another—The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, NPR—was dropping its position of labor reporter.

And then last month, when I took the buyout from The New York Times after covering labor for 19 years, my move spurred a new wave of anxiety—and tweets—about the future of labor reporting.

Some people scolded me, saying I was selling out by taking the buyout. One friend, a professor, pressed me to change my mind, telling me that my departure would hurt the cause of workers. I responded by saying that I’m 63, and after 31 years of working at a fairly frenetic pace, it was time to slow down. Besides, shouldn’t a newspaper reporter, like any other worker, be able to retire? (Although in truth, I’m not retiring: I’m writing a book about America’s workers, and I intend to do some freelancing on labor issues.)

When I arrived at The New York Times in 1983, it had three reporters writing regularly about labor, and the great A.H. Raskin—who had been the nation’s leading labor reporter in the 1950s—still contributed occasionally. I remember seeing a copy of The New York Times from the late 1940s that had eight labor-related stories on the front page. In 1950, there were 424 work stoppages in the U.S. involving 1,000 or more workers; in 2013, there were just 15.

FULL story at link.

[ArcticFox]

1. title and article disconnect

Not much in that piece about media doing great coverage of labor issues or anything.

[closeupready]

2. True, but he was a NYT labor reporter for 30 years and so if

if he is feeling like the media is covering more labor-related news, then I believe him.

[RiverLover]

3. I think it does, if you read the whole article.

For ex~

...But ever since the Great Recession began in late 2007—thank you, Wall Street—the news media have devoted far more attention to workers. More and more reporters and editors concluded it was important to cover what was happening to workers—how they were being thrown out of their jobs, foreclosed upon, forced into part-time work, strong-armed into accepting wage freezes, relegated to long-term unemployment. The media’s interest in issues like these has remained high long after the recession ended, partly because the downturn opened the eyes of many reporters and editors to the plight of the American worker—and their eyes remain open. (Of course, it doesn’t hurt that editors see that these stories often attract a lot of readers.)...