If Murdock bought a paper, would anyone be outraged that the editorial page went conservative?

…are you joking?

I can with 100% conviction that the answer to that question is yes, people would be pissed if Murdock whacked a paper’s editorial staff for being too liberal.

Also — as a current San Diegan, I can assure you the Trib under its former owners was a horrible right-wing rag — when it criticized cops, it didn’t do so out of any civil rights angle — it criticized them, just like it criticized teachers, because they actually wanted a living wage with decent benefits. Really, the only direction the Trib can go these days is up.

Calling something “right wing” or “left wing” is only a shorthand to summon defense or attack. Go read Breakfast of Champions again, it will help.

Just because stated the stated reason was that the Editorial staff was belittling the Union employees doesn’t mean that is the truth. They could could have said anything and still asked for the same results. Yes Police, Firemen, and other city workers have a hard job and deserve their pay but to fire the people who criticize them is not going to raise their pay, it’s just going to silence the reporting of some of their bad deeds.

So,,,with firing the parasites for calling you parasites you get that added bonus; liberal use of tazers and batons.

The assertion is correct, and the fact that the arm (police) that breaks the back of many unions in fact has a union is one of the universes great jokes. That the police expect people to respect their union while helping others rent other unions limb from limb is a travesty that displays nothing but the true motivations of police policy in the United States.

They are the policy enforcers of the rich, and powerful. They receive preferential treatment and a free hand on enforcement in exchange for turning on their own. Most laws passed to assist in policing our streets seem to be geared at removing the rights of the many, while making ineffectual gestures at the law breakers. I took the two year course at a community college in Law Enforcement as an “Opposition study course”. It was geared entirely to circumventing laws, and the Constitution to enforce local policy. Period.

As to “bias”, bias must be insupportable to be bias. If a position is based on truth, it isn’t bias.

The onus always lies on the paper to push back. Papers have been owned by self-interested dickheads since day one; and since day one, editors and journalists have had to stand their ground. Not much to see here unless the Trib actually starts cutting back their police criticism, or actually fires any editorial writers.

I support the union movement, hardcore. I was there night and day at the Republic Windows factory occupation. I’ve gotten fired for organising. I serve on a national (volunteer) board for a campaign. I’ve been sanctioned for refusing to take a job that would have crossed a picket line. Solidarity Forever!

That said, my solidarity does not extend to cops. I don’t care if they have a “union”. They have been the enemy of the working class movement from day one and don’t deserve our support. They defend scabs. They assault and kill strikers. They enforce a whole host of laws made by and for the bosses.

it’s just going to silence the reporting of some of their bad deeds.

Newspaper editorials aren’t reporting. They’re editorializing. That’s why they’re in a section all their own. And it’s not about “belittling” the union. The Trib has been calling for pay and benefits cuts. Something quite different than name calling.

And Jonathan Badger has it right: The Trib has long been rightwing fishwrap. This wouldn’t be dissimilar to the SEIU gaining some ownership control of the WSJ and shaking up the fascist fever swamp of its OpEd section. Would as many BBers complain about that? Probably not.

What makes life so inextricably complicated is our need to pass for reality the illusions that we seek to fit our ambitions, prejudice, desires… We chose the news we get accordingly. For example, it is no accident if we are here on BB: we know that it stands to the left, inasmuch as there is something like that in American politic, and that comforts us.

Anyone who believe that anything at all is the press is objective, factual, unbiased is deluding oneself; anyone who believes that anyone is interested in hard facts, in reality even is deluding oneself even more so.

Oh, no, right, they always agreed with him and supported everything he did. No need to fire them. Speaking of wh*res & censorship, Craigslist prosecutor never prosecutes actual ho’s. And there’s a LOT of them in his State’s Yellow Pages!

Guess he’s more of an online john. Oh, wait, the Yellow Pages are online too!

Ah, technology…
.

Platinum Equity bought the paper. Platinum has received “$30M in investment from the police and firefighters pension funds”. Not the union. Platinum also has investments from other pension funds.

If that’s a letter from the union president to Platinum’s ceo, and nobody at Platinum has contacted the paper about this matter, how did we get to hear of this letter? Was it “leaked” by the union because Platinum seems to be doing nothing about it?