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Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

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21–30 of 74 posts

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#21

There is no way unionized writers/editors are going to be impartial in their political media coverage, given all of their leverage hinges on laws restricting the contracting rights of their employer.

As opposed to the billionaire owners of large media empires, who are of course impartial.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#22
post #20

There is no way unionized writers/editors are going to be impartial in their political media coverage, given all of their leverage hinges on laws restricting the contracting rights of their employer.

Funny how this isn’t seen to be an issue when big money cable news reporters cover tax breaks that affect them personally.

It's not an issue when the benefit that biases them doesn't hinge on a law limiting someone's elses rights, the way their leverage as unionized workers does.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True and within articles those experiences can serve to inform, which isn't a bad thing. It's actually sort of the point; interpreting the facts and outputting them through your lens of experience

And generally journalists are aware of their biases and good ones actively work against their impulse to favor one side. The idea that journalists can be biased is not something the profession was somehow unaware of previously. In the same way that scientists understand that they probably can make up data plausibly, they realize that they make their name with their credibility. But of course society is presently at t…

> In the same way that scientists understand that they probably can make up data plausibly, they realize that they make their name with their credibility

Unless what they are saying (journalists and scientists) conform to the dominate politics of the day. Plenty of major media outlets run stories with anonymous, non-corroborated sources but since those stories fit the desired narrative of their consumers, they get away with it, credibility intact.

A conservative outlet can have corroborated evidence, multiple sources and be chastised strictly on the basis of their conservative angle, while an outlet like The NY Times can publish anonymous op-eds without any corroboration and it doesn’t make a dent in their credibility among the majority of their readers. How many anti-Trump stories feature “anonymous” sources without a single shred of on-the-record corroboration? Yet, since the story confirms the bias of the readership, again, credibility remains intact. The Supermicro story is another example: completely uncorroborated, yet I bet not a single person cancelled their terminal subscription because of it.

Credibility only matters if the writer is going against the biases of their readers.

As far as global warming, plenty of scandals, such as Climategate, but the credibility of the climate-alarmists hasn’t been affected one bit among those that are predisposed to believe that the sky is, in fact, falling. Climategate was a serious scandal that calls into question the entire premise upon which the climate industry is based, yet that probably changed not a single person’s mind. It’s would be like telling Christians that Jesus never existed. It wouldn’t convince anyone who is already a believer. Global Warming is the modern world’s version of “going to hell if you don’t repent.”

Credibility doesn’t matter as long as you affirm fashionable biases.

To be completely fair, this isn’t a leftist phenomenon: plenty of anti-Obama news outlets could play loose with the facts and still have “credibility” with those predisposed to have opposed Obama’s policies. Same for the anti-vax crowd, the anti-GMO crowd and every other crowd where any challenge of their reality is tantamount to sacrilege.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#25
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of their leverage hinges on laws. Laws are a caching layer for rights, which are inalienable. Their leverage hinges on a capacity to organize one another and express their interests.

> rights, which are inalienable Says who?

John Locke.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#26

Good grief. Do these people think the ability to write the kind of garbage published by Slate is in any way rare?

Irrational economic behavior is something one would expect to become concentrated in dying industries purely as a result of rational decision makers having already left.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also no way they'll be impartial about heath care, or the environment, seeing as they require health care, and live in an environment.

Their interests in efficient delivery of healthcare and effective protection of the environment align with the general population's. Not so their interest in laws restricting the contracting rights of employers.

Given that laborers vastly outnumber employers, their interest in securing collective bargaining rights aligns with the general population's as well.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#29

Good grief. Do these people think the ability to write the kind of garbage published by Slate is in any way rare?

Irrational economic behavior is something one would expect to become concentrated in dying industries purely as a result of rational decision makers having already left.

Why are you certain it’s irrational? If your employer is going to go bust anyways, better to be paid $100,000 for one year than $40,000 for three years. You get an extra two years to earn money somewhere else.

Re: Slate's Newly Unionized Writers and Editors Give OK to Strike

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What industrial unions like Trump? Some random blue collar workers might like him but he's been terrible for them once you get away from the rhetoric.

So rhetoric aside, what has Trump’s admin done to them?

Hurt their economic interests by taxing them via tariffs and hurt their manufacturing companies by making raw materials and steel etc more expensive. That why Harley moved production OUT of the us to where it wouldn't be affected by retaliatory tariffs against Trump's tariffs.
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