No, we need to take it back from those who deny reality in order to serve their corporate masters. They could be Republicans (OK, they are Republicans), or Conservadems (hello, Ben Nelson) or even the so-called Democrats who enable them. You know the ones, the wholly owned two-legged subsidiaries of Big Oil, Big Banks, etc. The ones who make villains out of the victims.

Unions are to blame, they say. Unions must face the new reality, they say — meaning accept lower wages, benefits and security as the new normal as they line their pockets at our expense. But at the Boston Globe, the Guild accepted cuts of $20 million — and then watched ever penny of that money handed to the top two executives of the New York Times Co.

People without jobs are to blame, they say. If we give them unemployment benefits, they’ll be happy to sit on the couch chugging PBR and won’t have incentive to look for a job.

“Entitlements” are to blame. Simply raising the payroll cap on the Social Security tax fixes the system. But if the conservatives and corporate enablers take over Congress in the fall, Job No. 1 will be impeaching Obama. Job No. 2 will be killing Social Security and Medicare and funneling that wealth to Wall Street.

Homeowners are to blame for taking mortgages they “knew” they couldn’t afford — after generations of being told that home ownership is the key to the American Dream. (By the way, The New York Times reported July 8 that one in seven rich folks are mortgage delinquents, compared with one in 12 of the rest of us. Wonder how many of them will lose their homes.)

From the birthers to the Bush tax cut crowd (the tax cuts did not rob the Treasury of revenue!!) to the climate change deniers — the assault on reality is relentless. We need to fight back, as a union and as individuals. We will never solve our problems if we don’t.

The Supreme Court’s decision that struck down federal law limiting campaign contributions by corporations is lamentable. Especially because the activist judges on the court took the opportunity to greatly expand the rights and powers of corporations — as if Bank of America or Exxon or AT&T needed protection from ordinary citizens like us.

If President Obama isn’t able to appoint sensible judges quickly enough to overturn this corporate friendly court, we may have to expend the lengthy and time-consuming effort of passing a constitutional amendment.

But in the meantime, lets face up to the fact that corporations and special interests could not buy elections if we didn’t let them. Nearly all the money spent on election campaigns goes for advertising, media blitzes, mail campaigns, billboards, etc. We should rename the ruling the “Broadcast Advertising Revenue Rehabilitation” decision.

Corporate campaign chests don’t buy VOTES. At least not directly. It’s all spent in the quest to persuade you and me to cast our votes their way. While surveys and polls can be commissioned that can skew opinions and make them seem to be more one-sided than they are, the only poll that matters is the ballot box.

These massive war chests are overwhelmingly spent on legal activities (not counting election fraud). Or in the case of Rupert Murdoch, the money is spent on buying his own network.

No one holds a gun to anyone’s head and forces them to vote against their own interests. If we are fooled by these flashy, expensive campaigns, we have only ourselves to blame.

So this next election, when you are bombarded by commercials, ads, phone calls and so on, take time to read a trusted publication the Post-Dispatch or the Labor Trib or Truthout.com or other respected news organizations. Study the issues and the candidates. Take the campaign hype with a ton of salt and vote intelligently.

They can’t steal our vote with a media buy, no matter how much they spend. They need our cooperation. If we let them persuade us with corporate-bought advertising, then we just committed the citizenship version of responding to a midnight infomercial for cellulite cream.

I hope U.S. voters are smarter than that.

Virginia Gilbert is a retired member of the St. Louis Newspaper Guild, a former unit chair at the Post-Dispatch and a volunteer in urban ministry.

Journalists and our brothers and sisters in advertising see this as a time to strengthen our newspaper and improve our value to readers; Lee Enterprises and its corporate cousins see this convergence of technology and economy as a perfect storm, a convenient opportunity to cut staff far beyond what is required and to assault the foundations upon which our union is built.

These corporate suits and dollar-strangling publishers also are beginning to breach what for generations has been a solid wall between advertising and editorial. They see the newsroom as a potential arm of advertising, with tailor-made “niche” publications (”Style,” “Summer Fun”) and stories made to order.  Merging advertising and features, for example, would destroy our readers trust: Which stories are honest? Which were written in return for ads? Which were bought and paid for?

It is time to think about an ethics policy for the Post-Dispatch, one generated by the journalists and advertising professionals who work here. Let’s start a discussion right here. To kick things off, here are links to two ethics documents:

Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

Newspaper Guild-CWA principles of Professionalism and Honesty in the News Media

Speak up! This is our union; this is our profession. It’s up to us to protect them.

I was called in to HR on 2/27/09 to be told that I was amongst several being laid off that day at the Journals.  I was not allowed to return to my desk to gather my personal belongings….it was done FOR me and placed in a box and I was escorted out of the building.  I was told during my “exit” interview that it was me this time around…based on my numbers…sales.

It is easier for Lee Enterprises to lay off the Journals employees because they are NOT Union – I wish we had been.  The Union had approached the Journals at West County only to be told to vacate the premises….WE were told that if we valued our jobs we would NOT talk to the Union at all!  There is a person who is leaving my old department now – has taken a position at the Post-Dispatch and do you believe this?  There is a help wanted ad to replace her in my old department?!  Is this even legal if there was a layoff?  Aren’t companies supposed to CALL BACK employees that have been laid off?

I was so distraught that day over the complete shock of losing my job that I signed an agreement with the HR Director.  It was a termination agreement with a severance offer.  Mind you – our “severance” packages are equal to two weeks pay per year.  I was let go on 2/27 and my two years would have been on 3/1/09.  Therefore I only got 1 year severance – in which was taxed at a higher bonus rate to boot!  Over $400 in taxes was taken out of my check!   I am not sure if LEE got one over on me or not in my “lay off”….however….I really need to know from someone if they can re-hire in my department without calling back employees first?!  Or is Lee actually going to get away with it because the Journals are NOT Union.  That is the way LEE likes it…NO UNIONS!

Someone please advise me on this one because I am not only confused but livid at this point and want to make my point CLEAR when I call tomorrow!

Would have been nice to know this before the furlough vote last week.

AdAge says, under the hedline

It’s Not Newspapers in Peril; It’s Their Owners

For all the apocalyptic news about newspapers, there’s a distinction worth making: Newspaper owners are far more endangered than the medium itself.

Even as they take blow after blow from recession and digital media, newspapers themselves still earn decent profits. They do even better outside big cities, which tend to get all the attention.

Read the rest of the story here.

Although the problems that the newspaper industry faces are well known, no one has offered a satisfactory solution. But there is an option that might not only save newspapers but also make them stronger: Turn them into nonprofit, endowed institutions — like colleges and universities. Endowments would enhance newspapers’ autonomy while shielding them from the economic forces that are now tearing them down.

Here are some tips to ride out unemployment while keeping your health insurance:

• First, check to see if you can get on your spouse’s employer plan. Learn how much, if any, the employee share of the premium would increase if you join the plan.

• If you have either lost or left your job and are offered COBRA continuation coverage (the same plan you had with your employer, but now you pay both the employer and employee contributions), learn exactly how much your COBRA premiums will cost each month, and exactly what the benefits are. COBRA often provides very comprehensive benefits to satisfy a broad audience, so think about which benefits you really need. Note that COBRA can provide important protection for people who have pre-existing medical conditions that may prevent them from getting approved for a new health insurance plan on their own.

• If you are in relatively good health and don’t have any pre-existing conditions, you may be able to find less expensive options to COBRA. In fact, the average COBRA premium costs 60% more than for customers who found comparable individual coverage on-line. (The average COBRA premium = $400/month individual, $1078/month family. The average individual plan through eHealthInsurance = $158/month individual, $366 month/family.)¹

• Before you decide to apply for a plan online, check with your doctor. Individual plans are subject to underwriting for pre-existing conditions. You should carefully consider COBRA coverage if you or a member of your family are currently pregnant, have a pre-existing health condition, are taking prescription medications, or have been declined for private health insurance.

• If you think losing your job is a possibility in the next year, start reviewing your employer health care plans now. During open enrollment, you may be able to choose a plan that would cost less if you were later required to pay all of the premium through COBRA.

• Go online and compare plans from at least 2-3 different health insurance companies.  Look at options between 6-8 plans side by side, benefit for benefit.  At a reputable site like eHealthInsurance.com, it’s as easy as typing in your birth date and zip code.

• Look for an individual plan online that has the same benefits (if you need all those benefits) and especially the same doctors that you love.

• Buy only what you need and save on the monthly premium.  Choosing a high deductible plan is smart for some individuals and families because it typically reduces monthly premiums, but you must be prepared to pay the amount of the deductible in the coming year as health care needs arise.

• Short-term health insurance, which typically lasts for six months, can be a great way to prevent a health insurance gap when you are between jobs or your COBRA benefits are timing out. Applying online for short-term health insurance is quick and easy. Typically you are asked to answer a few basic questions, and you get a quick response.

• Now might be a good time to look into a Health Savings Account (HSA) paired with a high deductible health plan.  This type of health insurance allows you to pay directly into a bank account that you own and use to pay for qualified health care expenses at your discretion.  The best news?  Your HSA travels with you regardless of your employment status.

• Check into all your options – sometimes it is less expensive for certain family members to be on a separate plan, for example, if someone has a pre-existing condition.  Do the math on separate policies if there are special needs.  It’s easy to price individual and family plans online.

Source: eHealthInsurance.com

¹ Sources:

¹ The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Employer Health Benefits 2008 Annual Survey, September 24, 2008, http://ehbs.kff.org/

The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible information, research and analysis on health issues.

² http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html, U.S. Department of Labor, FAQs About COBRA Continuation Health Coverage, April 25, 2008

³ average premiums listed are from August, 2007 based on plans purchased through eHealthInsurance active as of that date.

All these years, we’ve been writing in “journalist.”

But in this week’s layoffs, our top editors made clear that they exempted reporters, photographers and designers from the guillotine because they didn’t want to adversely affect “journalism” and lose more “journalists.”

Copy editors and online content folks, among others, were fired. Now we know why. By your definition, they are not “journalists.”

It’s good to know.

And it’s good to know – as if we didn’t know before – that we retain your professional respect.

Let us assure you that you also have ours.

The trouble with this conception of journalism [so-called balanced and objective] is that it inherently tilts the playing field in favor of liars, who are expert at gaming this system. It muzzles reporters, forbidding them from crying foul, and requiring them to treat deception with the same respect they give to truth. It equates fairness with evenhandedness, as though journalism were incompatible with judgment. “Straight news” isn’t neutral. It’s neutered – devoid of assessment, divorced from accountability, floating in a netherworld of pseudo-scientific objectivity that serves no one except the rascals it legitimizes.

Check out Kaplan’s bio: professor, writer, former journalist, former White House speechwriter, former movie and TV producer, etc.

Read the complete column here.

“I wanted to protest,” Sinclair said. “I don’t want to pay them money to send jobs to India and make it impossible for the people in this town to buy an automobile.”

Read the story here.