Boy, what a lift to business in the March 27 Detroit Free Press.
The Chamber of Commerce must have loved the Page One story (“American Axle chief: Jobs can be moved; union warned of outsourcing”). Above the fold in lead position in huge type, 46 inches long, the headline and story blared out the unabashedly one-sided opinion of the parts maker’s CEO, as if he were a ventriloquist projecting his voice through the Free Press.
Funny how the UAW didn’t return the reporter’s phone call. I suppose the journalist felt that excused him from inserting any attempt at balance into the story. But wait! Come on — he managed to mention his failure to talk to the union, didn’t he? Well, yes — 24 inches into the story, well down in the jump. A two-foot leap.
To be fair, the paper did print some semblance of a union position. Hard to find, since it appeared 36 inches into the story. Three feet down, a whole yardstick, and we get part of one paragraph about the union.
I have a little problem with that tip of the hat to balance, though, because that single mention comes from guess who? — why, wouldn’t you know, American Axle CEO Dick Dauch, the sole-source supplier for this article. Dauch says the company only wants to cut hourly wages in half. Hey, who could argue with that? Shoot, most workers should be able to handle that and keep paying on the mortgage, right? And oh yes, American Axle wants to reduce “legacy” costs, meaning reductions in health insurance and pension payments the company previously bargained. What’s wrong with a broken promise here or there? And then those pesky payments to laid-off workers. How quaint that we get the union’s position, expressed so ably by the company CEO. We hear about a New Journalism — could this be it?
Hey, guys — any idea why the UAW didn’t call you back?
The union probably figures they’re better off letting the paper vent on its own. Cut their losses. Anything they say will just be twisted back into American Axle’s mouth.
What the UAW doesn’t know (unless they’re reading joelonetheroad.com) is that there is ample evidence for suspecting a Free Press bias that goes beyond and above this one business column. Bashing one side and lauding the other without making the faintest effort at balance should be embarrassing to the Free Press. They’d be more embarrassed still if they were admitting to their ever-declining readership that the newspaper’s honchos have donated money to a pro-business political cause very much in sync with American Axle. But you didn’t read that in the Free Press.
Think I’m kidding? Check out the Michigan Secretary of State’s website. Free Press publishers and top editors have given money to that conservative, pro-business and anti-labor bastion, the Detroit Regional Chamber Political Action Committee. That’s correct: Publisher David Hunke, Vice President and Editor Paul Anger, Executive Editor Caesar Andrews all have contributed to the regional chamber’s PAC. Before Gannett bought the Free Press in 2005, then Publisher Carole Leigh Hutton contributed to the chamber PAC. I repeat: This is public information, available on the Michigan Secretary of State website. Here, have a look for yourself: http://miboecfr.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/cfr/show_pdf.cgi?direction%3D-1%26last_page%3D100%26doc_seq_no%3D289004%26doc_date_proc%3D07/23/2007%26com_id%3D000717%26doc_stmnt_year%3D2007%26doc_type_code%3DT2%26total_images%3D57%26
Now, in my view, journalists have a perfect right to contribute to whatever political, religious, social or for that matter beer-drinking club they want to without having to suffer interference from their newspaper bosses. We are citizens and that is our right.
And frankly, that goes for the managers, too.
But the big guys don’t agree with me.
Journalists don’t belong on the “playing fields of politics,” according to that cinder block known as the New York Times ethics policy.
At my former paper, the Detroit Free Press, that stance was belatedly adopted last June — while I still worked there — after managers discovered that I’d donated $500 to Michigan Democrats back in 2004. It was not a violation of the Free Press ethics policy in 2004. It would be now. Three and a half years late, having learned of my donation, the bosses suddenly slammed that barn door shut.
Problem is, they did it, too. Yes, they too made political donations. Dave Hunke gave $350 to the chamber’s PAC last year. Caesar Andrews donated $175. In 2005, then publisher Carole Leigh Hutton gave $175.
Free Press bosses changed the policy to make political donations unethical in June 2007. The move came after MSNBC wrote an Internet story reporting that I and dozens of other reporters had contributed to one or the other of the major political parties. MSNBC didn’t think it was important to track managers’ donations, though. They would have missed the most interesting contribution from a Free Press manager — in July, in apparent violation of the brand-new Free Press policy, Vice President and Editor Paul Anger contributed $175 to the chamber’s political arm.
Oh, by the way, these contributions apparently didn’t come from the editors’ own checking accounts. The contributions were payment for tickets that let the editors attend the chamber’s annual Mackinac Island shindig for government and business leaders. A small portion of the money paid for the rubber chicken they were served. The bulk of the donation went into the PAC coffers to support pro-business political causes.
The company contends these weren’t political donations. If you believe that, have another look at the Secretary of State website and tell me if they post contributions to non-political organizations. The company — Gannett — paid for the tickets.
Those tickets, including Hutton’s, add up to $875 — $375 more than my contribution to the Dems. Where’s my checkbook? I’ve got some catching up to do! But of course, my donation came from our family bank account, whereas the bosses could rely on the deep pocket of Gannett.
Wish I’d thought of that. No I don’t. If I’d gotten my employer to pay for a political contribution, we’d both have been violating federal election law, my lawyer friends tell me. Hey, wait a minute — does that mean what I think it means? Could it be that our editors and Gannett – my gosh, no! Not possible. Geoffrey Fieger, are you reading me?
You see, Fieger, the famous multimillionaire attorney and wannabe politico, was indicted and is now being tried for reimbursing employees for their donations to the 2004 campaign of Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards.
Bias. We’re here to talk about bias. I didn’t see any record of Free Press bosses giving money to union PACs or any other PACs on the state website. Does that suggest a slant in favor of the chamber — for business and conservatism, against liberals and unions?
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: We hear all kinds of whining from the newspaper industry about how they are being crucified on the cross of the Web. They need all the good will they can get. You would think that a newspaper that alienated hundreds of thousands of readers in the pro-union town of Detroit by provoking a strike and trying to bust their own unions would make some effort at showing it can be fair in its coverage of the labor beat.
I’m not saying the writer was aware of the bosses’ chamber donations when he wrote his column. How could he have been? Why, I’m breaking the story in joelontheroad.com
On the other hand, I wonder what his bosses would say if he wrote a 46-inch one-source article quoting a UAW honcho unrelentingly browbeating American Axle?
If a Free Press columnist submitted an essay that seemed mean-spirited and one-sided toward a major business, what do you think editors would do?
Why, I’m sure they’d be fair and balanced.
They’d kill the story.
Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
