I really don't want to throw a wet blanket on the protesters fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights in the Badger state, but they are already at a huge disadvantage in shaping and trumpeting their message thanks to our mainstream, corporate controlled media.
Watching the MSM, you would be hard pressed to know exactly why so many people are up in arms over Governor Scott Walker's plans to break up the public sector unions. According to them, it's all about slashing benefits to cover a budget shortfall. Very little attention has been paid to the fact that the state of Wisconsin was on its way to having a budget surplus this year prior to Governor Walker giving away over a hundred million dollars in tax breaks to his wealthy contributors or the influence the Koch brothers and the Chamber of Commerce have on his plans to rape the social safety net while giving away the state's utilities to the Koch brothers as payback for getting him elected to the state house. What makes me pessimistic about this whole matter is that the entire debate of the fate of the unions in Wisconsin is being framed by the corporatists trying to destroy them, and the MSM is completely playing into this narrative.
Of course, our MSM has been asleep on the job for some time, but it has been shockingly evident this year, which began with a Democratic congresswoman who had the right wing literally targeting her removal from office being shot in the head by a lunatic and fighting for her life while one of her aides, a federal judge and several bystanders including a nine year old girl lost their lives to this same person. While this would have been an excellent time to talk about our political discourse in this country and gun safety, they instead let the most virulent right wing offenders play the victim card.
They didn't help themselves any further when a wave of revolution spread across the Arab world, catching most of them flat footed and searching for a narrative to explain all of the unrest going on in the Middle East and north Africa. We heard everything from despotic dictators, Islamic fringe groups, and social media being trotted out as explanations for all of the civil unrest in the region, completely ignoring the fact that most of them were protesting in the streets because the people were unemployed, underemployed, facing huge costs just to feed and shelter themselves, while seeing their leaders living in opulent palaces paid for by the money they looted from the public, often with the help of American corporations. The most astonishing aspect of the whole episode was seeing our media suddenly backtracking on the benefits of spreading democracy to the masses when the people rose up on their own against their despotic leaders while trumpeting the spread of democracy at the barrel of a gun or tank turret in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But those are small potatoes compared with the uprisings happening in our own backyard. While the regulars on this site knew a long time ago that the corporatists and their GOP lackeys were hell bent on destroying essential social services in this country since President Obama took office, a lot of people who don't follow politics on a daily basis probably were unaware how swiftly they intended to follow through on their plans to bust the unions, strip Medicaid and food stamps from the poor, and give huge tax breaks to their wealthy donors. Fortunately, the people of Wisconsin were not asleep at the wheel and decided to fight for their right to have a decent living. These protests spread to several states, including Ohio and Indiana, even resulting in the GOP pulling their union-busting bill off the table.
But you wouldn't know that watching our news media. Sure, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz have been putting up the good fight on behalf of the working people, but the rest of the news coverage has been a joke. As expected, Fox News has been calling the protesters a bunch of thugs and hooligans, but what excuses do NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and the rest of MSNBC have for their slanted coverage? This is one of the biggest labor issues in a number of years, yet nearly all of the coverage has focused on the Wisconsin governor, the GOP-controlled legislature, the 14 Democratic state senators who fled the state to prevent a quorum, and a bunch of think tank "experts" talking about whether unions are really necessary in this date and time. No one in the MSM has bothered to get any input from the union members themselves on this vital issue. If you have tens of thousands of people cramped up in the state capitol fighting to protect their rights and livelihoods, wouldn't it make sense to ask them why they are doing so? Or are Charlie Sheen's latest antics that damn important to what's happening in this country?
Like I said, I fully support the unions and their efforts to save their collective bargaining rights from the GOP bastards trying to break them down. But I don't know how this will sort itself out if the rest of the country can't get to hear their side of the story.