theft – The Progressive Midwesterner

The local news media in the New York City television market, the largest local television market in the entire country, is a textbook example of how the local television newscasts in this country encourage racism in America.

Color of Change, an organization noted for its progressive and civil rights advocacy, published this infographic to their Twitter page. The infographic makes these two main points:

While 51% of the people arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for murder, assault, and/or theft are black, a whopping 75% of the people that local television newscasts in the New York City market broadcast as being responsible for murder, assault, and/or theft are black.
The fact that the local television newscasts in the New York City market broadcast instances of black people being responsible for crimes at a considerably higher percentage than the percentage of black people who are arrested by the NYPD for crimes cause many non-black viewers in the New York City area to develop hatred towards black people and drive a stereotype that all black people are criminals that should be avoided at all costs, which is an absolutely false stereotype.

You can view the full report on how local television newscasts in the New York City media market encourage racism in the New York City area here. The report studied local newscasts on four New York City local TV stations: WCBS-TV, WNBC-TV, WNYW-TV, and WABC-TV.

As a resident of the Champaign-Springfield television market in Illinois, I can attest that the local TV stations around here also broadcast instances of black people being accused of crimes at a far higher rate than the percentage of black people in the area covered by the Champaign-Springfield television market. In fact, the fact that local TV stations across the country tend to report instances of black people being accused of crimes at a far higher rate than the percentage of black people in the local television markets they serve is, more than likely, a nationwide problem that is dividing this country along racial lines.

It’s official: The right-wingers in Wisconsin are now pushing for even more union busting in Wisconsin.

Lorri Pickens, a former political operative for the Koch Brothers front group Americans for Prosperity (AfP), is now leading a front group called Right to Work Wisconsin, whose mission is to convince the Republicans that control the Wisconsin State Legislature to pass a so-called “right-to-work” bill. Other individuals behind this group include Chris Martinson, Kenosha School Board member Bob Nuzzo, and 2014 Wisconsin State Treasurer Republican primary candidate Randy Melchert. This group may have the backing of the Koch Brothers and other big-money Republican/conservative donors.

If enacted in Wisconsin, a “right-to-work” bill would allow public-sector and private-sector workers who are not members of a union to benefit from collective bargaining agreements between management and union workers without joining the union or paying union dues, effectively allowing non-union workers to benefit from the wages, benefits, etc. of union contracts without paying for the benefits. To put that another way, “right-to-work” is actually the moral equivalent of legalizing shoplifting, since allowing non-union workers to not pay for benefits negotiated by unions is just like allowing shoppers at department stores to not pay for clothes, toys, video games, and so on. Additionally, a “right-to-work” bill would drive down wages in Wisconsin, put thousands more Wisconsin families into poverty, decrease the amount of revenue that Wisconsin receives from income taxes, hurt economic growth in Wisconsin, and cost Wisconsin thousands of jobs.

I hope enough Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature come to their senses and oppose a “right-to-work” bill, because Scott Walker would sign it into law in a heartbeat if it were to hit his desk and Wisconsin can’t afford it.