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Home  At Length Media Blackout and the Unsung Labor Songs
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Media Blackout and the Unsung Labor Songs |
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Thursday, 10 September 2009 |
Just about every time I hear Rush Limbaugh get on the megaphone of his national radio show, ranting about liberals, I feel like shoving an apple in his mouth and roasting him like a pig! Now, far be it from me to stifle anyone’s right to free speech, for as most of you know I’d go to great lengths to protect this most sacred of rights, including even the Bible-thumpers on the corner of 7th Street and Pacific Avenue, and maybe even the rantings of lunatics from a half- way house. But it seems like a far different thing to intentionally mislead the public with idiotic, slanderous vitriol intended for political assassination. This is more like yelling fire in a theater when there is none, which is not protected speech.
Thus, all of Limbaugh’s rantings about Obama’s socialist preaching to schoolchildren were all smoke and no fire—right-wing hyperbole from a verbosely flatulent fat man on conservative talk-radio with nothing of substance. Did anyone who wasn’t in school actually get to hear the President’s speech? Last night’s TV news, and I use the term “news” disparagingly, had more to say about the new Beatles video game and other infotainment drivel than it did about Obama’s “socialist” speech, or the controversy surrounding it. Even the end-of-the-night news show, Nightline, which occasionally has something relevant to say, gave up some three quarters of its show to the life and troubles of super model Tyra Banks and her growing role as “media mogul” and just a snippet of the “tempest in a tea pot” speech from the President.
It’s no wonder that the corporate media is losing readers and viewers. The only place one could actually read the President’s speech or even to hear a defense of what he actually said was on the Internet! And he did say such outrageous things like, “And no matter what you want to do with your life—I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it,” or “What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.” It’s the kind of thing any conscious parent might tell their child about doing well in school. If they want to succeed in their life goals, get an education! At any rate, see pg. 7 for a published excerpt of the speech. We will also post it in its entirety on our website for you shortly, just in case you missed what was actually said.
Laboring under the usual circumstances, the 30th annual Labor Day parade marched down Avalon Boulevard this last weekend with banners flying and armbands worn in solidarity—
“An injury to one is an injury to all.” More than 5,000 loyal union members took to the streets, yet once again but nary a peep from the corporate anti-union press was had even though several showed up. Fox News was there, but when I checked their Labor Day evening coverage, the DWP water main rupture in the Valley garner more coverage than did a bunch of dockworkers and teamsters complaining about healthcare reform. They could have had 50,000 people marching in Wilmington. Unless someone had been killed, there would be a near blackout on anything that comes close to “news coverage” of a labor rally. Do these people even get the idea of why there’s a “Labor Day” in the first place?
On the other hand, both of the PBS channels aired very interesting films for the occasion. KCET showed the Harry Bridges Project-From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks—filmed in part at the Warner Grand Theater featuring Ian Ruskin as Harry; and KOCE showed Jack Baric’s ILWU sponsored docudrama Bloody Thursday. The latter film premiered Sep. 3, again at the Warner Grand Theater. I have yet to read a review in the press of either. But couldn’t they cover these under the subject heading of infotainment? Yes, but don’t give the public too much to really think about. All we really need to do is scare them to death about socialized medicine or sex scandals.
I do have one complaint to lodge against the union organizers of this year’s rally though. For all of their history and tradition of labor songs, there was hardly one song sung paying homage to this tradition. Have the union workers lost their songbooks. Has it become out of style for dockworkers to sing? Or have they all forgotten the power that the human voice inspires when get 5,000 people singing the same words? I challenge Brian Young and his blues band to do the R&B version of some old solidarity songs or the young woman, who sang the National Anthem a cappella, to learn the Ballad of Joe Hill. I fear that whatever remains of the cultural traditions of labor have been co-opted by pop culture and infotainment the same way that journalism has sold out to the pharmaceutical industry.
Next year, I’ll have to show them myself how to do it. Until then, learn to sing one song that doesn’t get played on the radio. Turn off the TV and read the alternative press or a book that’s not on the best sellers list. Do one act of human kindness for which you don’t get paid. Solidarity is more than a slogan used on a picket line.
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