Intermediaries between us and news reporting is necessary on some issues, important on all issues. Take the economy and jobs.
It is a fact that the Biden Administration is on pace to make 10 Million new jobs and lower the unemployment rate to 3%. That has never, ever happened before. As Eric Boehlert wrote in his last post before his tragic death: "Context: In four years in office, Trump lost three million jobs, the worst record since Herbert Hoover." Eric Boehlert, Why is the Press Rooting Against Biden? / Burying Great News, posted Monday, April 4, 2022.
Further, there have been 11 straight strong job reports documenting the addition of over 400,000 jobs to the economy for 11 straight months.
The corporate media's reaction is strange. They find sad news in the face of all this good news. Sad news fits with what they know how to write, which is the trope that the economy is bad, and so are Joe Biden's poll standings. Politico reportedly wrote about the latest jobs report, for example: "The reality is that one strong jobs report does not snap the administration out of its current circumstances." That may be as may be, but there have been 11 strong jobs reports in a row, not just 1 strong jobs report.
There are probably many reasons for the media's slant, just as there are probably many reasons for almost everything. One reason for the media's approach to reporting news on labor issues is that there used to be a place reserved at most journalistic outlets for labor reporters, but no more. There is a better chance at turning iron into gold, than finding a labor reporter in 2022.
It is time for the media to return to the days of being an intermediary between us and many news issues. Labor is just one, but it is an important one. As Margaret Sullivan has written in The Washington Post recently:
At many news organizations, the traditional labor beat was dismantled years ago. It should be brought back in reinvented form with attention paid to the gig economy, working from home, the burgeoning unionization movement and more.
It’s a deep, fascinating, close-to-home topic with great story potential — including the potential to give citizens a far better understanding of what’s really going on.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2022 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
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