Ohio Journalists And Campaign Contributions: Money Flows To Democrats

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- There's a strongly worded sentence at the very end of this column in a certain large Ohio newspaper today that says journalists cannot contribute to political campaigns. But they do. The money flows indirectly through their union, the Newspaper Guild, which is an affiliate of the 750,000-member Communications Workers of America.

Almost all of the CWA's money goes to Democrats. The national Guild's recommended model contract -- which is not adopted or in force at every unionized newsroom -- actually contains language that calls for journalists to set aside a portion of their paychecks to support politicians.

"There shall be provision for payroll deduction of political contributions for employees who voluntarily authorize such deductions in writing."

Contrast that statement to the very last sentence in the column that appeared today in Cleveland: "You can't contribute to a political candidate and then write about his or her campaign, either as a paid employee or as a paid free-lancer for . . . on paper or online. Period."

Does that seem to suggest Guild members ought not be writing about U.S. Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Zack Space and Betty Sutton, three Ohioans who have gotten CWA money this election cycle? Does that imply there is a conflict of interest when journalists belong to a union that uses a percentage of its financial resources to fund campaigns?

Clearly there are opposing views about political activity and journalism, and management appears to be taking a harder line than labor, which favors allowing payroll deduction plans for political donations by reporters and editors. (Note: I don't know of any newspapers in Ohio that have such a payroll deduction plan.)

Not every newspaper in Ohio is covered by a Guild contract. Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown are the big dailies where journalists belong to the Newspaper Guild, along with the afternoon Cincinnati Post, which is scheduled to shut down at the end of next month. The Columbus Dispatch and Cincinnati Enquirer are non-union.

Newspaper Union Leader: Should News-Writing Mix With Ad-Writing?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Bernie Lunzer is the secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild, the union that represents thousands of the nation's reporters, editors and photographers, and he says news writers may soon be required to produce advertising copy in order to hang onto their jobs. Lunzer wonders if such a shift will destroy the credibility of an industry that has long tried to maintain a wall between news and commercial operations. He said the change could wreck the trust people place in newspapers "as the very essence of our craft is drained of all meaning."

The Guild represents newspaper workers at The Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal and the Toledo Blade.

Lunzer said some corporations that publish newspapers -- he cited USA Today's parent Gannett Co. Inc. -- have already taken steps to use news writers as content providers for special advertising sections that tie stories directly to ads. He considers it a coming trend that carries risk.

"Destroying the credibility of current news content won't move the ball forward. The credibility of print media is second to none, earned through decades of diligent hard work, and we the workers can't simply sit back and watch it destroyed in a thoughtless embrace of new technologies and an unseemly scramble to preserve unsustainable profit margins. We know that blogs, citizen journalism, and opinion-oriented news media like Fox News are radically shifting the landscape, as are all the Web 2.0 ideas that continue shaping interactive digital information.

"We're not above writing advertising copy, which is a craft unto itself, and we understand the need to be open to new ideas. But we cannot be passive bystanders as the very essence of our craft is drained off all meaning."

He said the Guild has commissioned a study with the University of Maryland to survey newspaper union members about the future of their profession. Lunzer's commentary is HERE, and it's a warning that what seems printed as news could really be gussied up commercial content intended to plug some product or service.

Newspaper Union's Editor: Wussies Fill Newsrooms

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Andy Zipser is the editor of The Guild Reporter, the newspaper for the nation's union that represents newspaper employees, and he's out with a lengthy critique that says too many reporters are writing bland stories to avoid miring themselves in controversy. "Reporters are supposed to be hard-eyed, skeptical, even cynical, but those qualities turn out to be armor against facts, theories or ideas that step outside conventional wisdom,'' he says.

And, Zipser says, the journalism business as a whole may not believe in a freewheeling, free press. He's trying to shake up the status quo. He wonders if newspaper owners and top editors really believe in free speech -- noting that a wire service writer was canned for calling conservative columnist (if that's the right word for what she does) Ann Coulter a liar. "There is, in this business, a great deal of lip service given to the role of a free press and of the central importance of democratic discourse. But what's really happening is that too many embattled journalists have turned away from such discourse while rationalizing their self-protective reflex as a higher form of professionalism." His entire column is called "Looking Away When the Truth Overwhelms Us" and can be read by CLICKING HERE.

I love what he says, though he is a good bit more to the left than I, a former Newspaper Guild member from Akron and Cleveland. I think he's saying that newspaper journalism needs to get back to its strident, argumentative, combative roots, and scrap the notion that it is an objective voice on all topics and issues. In other words, journalists ought to be voices out there raising cane from definite points of view. He favors a progressive view. But I also think he's saying that if a zoning deal stinks do something to communicate that it stinks -- find out what is central and report it.

"No amount of blue-ribbon panels or foundation-funded research proposals or codes of ethics can resurrect journalism that's grounded in so vapid a concept of 'objectivity' and 'truth.' And no press corps dominated by such facile reasoning and shallow appreciation of human complexity is ever going to understand the truly large issues of the day. No surprise then than today's journalism increasingly lacks humane values or a fearless willingness to grapple with truly scary ideas and developments, taking solace instead in an increasingly rarefied concept of journalistic purity."