It has long been sort of Otherwise, we can complain amazing to me that the really all we want about the big box fascinating news can be most companies swallowing up the often found in the Business mom and pop companies. If we Pages of a newspaper. This don't actually make a point section contains the news of shopping there, isn't it that most often affects our us that is putting them out daily lives. While frothy Wal- of business?" Mart PR news can often find "Hertz Chief: More job cuts its way onto page one or the on the way" - March 14. In an middle of a news broadcast - ever increasing effort to the stuff that really gets increase profits, Hertz will our juices flowing is in a lay off employees, in part of the paper that most addition to the 1,550 workers folks seem to put aside, as it has already announced it it “doesn’t affect me.” How will let go. wrong they are! This piece "Music sales plunge as buyers was written a few years ago, tune out CDs" - March 25. but I think the quotes and "Ex-Reagan aide faces fraud articles cited still make charge" - March 27. David excellent points. Stockman, former budget When this piece ran it director for Ronald Reagan , included a set of three has been charged with photographs featuring Gene "overseeing" fraud at a Austin of West Fork, sitting company he ran before the in a chair reading the company filed for bankruptcy. newspaper. In the first photo Justice delayed is still he looks calm, in the second sweet. he looks shocked, and the "Ad accuses Wal-Mart of last photo shows him with his stifling port security" - face buried in his hands. I March 23. A union-funded always like to think that group (WakeupWalmart.com) those three simple pictures sponsored a TV commercial, illustrate why we ignore which charged that the Bully business news at our peril. of Bentonville is blocking Hiding in Plain Sight efforts to make U.S. ports Working Class should pay more secure. Is Wally World attention to Business Pages one of the forces behind This may seem a stereotypical blocking the use of scanning scene, but it may remind you equipment at our ports? of your own workplace. In Wal-Mart says no. many of the places I have Joe Alexander, a Fayetteville toiled over the years, political activist, has this whenever a daily paper was to say about keeping up with brought in, the sports pages Business news, "The reason were usually grabbed first, why working class people followed by great debate over should pay attention to the the sporting events of the Business section of the paper- previous day or night. as well as other sources of Then, the straight news news about what's going on in coverage was taken up, the ‘big picture' of local, followed usually by the national and world events- is comics. Rarely, if ever, did that nobody who cares about anyone pick up the Business their own future or the pages. We were hourly workers, future of their children can after all; what was there to afford any more to be interest any of us? ignoring the news and just We weren't bankers, or going on about their own stockbrokers; Business pages personal life as if they have may as well have been written no responsibility to know in Sanskrit, for all the about or do anything about attention we paid to them. anything beyond their own Though I have long had an immediate personal life." interest in politics Alexander feels that the (particularly regarding labor governments of the world have issues), I was also late in been supplanted by a small realizing that the Business elite whose agenda may be pages held anything of anything but humanistic. relevance for me. While pointing out that This changed in the late reading the Business pages is 1980s, when I worked for one way to keep track of what Mexican Original, a tortilla is happening, Alexander warns plant in Northwest Arkansas that, " . . . to some small owned by Tyson Foods. Before degree though it tends to be Tyson had taken over our all the propaganda of the operation, our Christmas super-rich elite; there are bonuses had always been now many websites and talk fairly generous. After Tyson radio shows, especially took over in the mid-1980s, those of the Genesis and they were still fairly Republic networks that generous. provide very good But in this one particular ‘alternative' news that year, our portion was less responsible people would do than spectacular. well to pay attention to." Christmas bonuses are a sort Sundays and Mondays tend to of moral contract between be "fluff" days when it comes workers and management. to Business reporting. My Hourly employees work as hard experience is that it is as they can throughout the mainly business trends and year, even when sick (few technological advances. I companies are enlightened used to read the bankruptcy enough to give hourly workers filings every week with some paid sick days), and in fascination - till I filed return, the company shares for bankruptcy myself. some of its profits at year's After that, it was a while end. before I even looked at that But this year, our "moral page again. contract" was honored by the "Labor costs increase as gift of two (count ‘em, folks! factory orders fall" - March ) Cornish hens. Let's see, 7. that came to about three or While we are on the subject four sandwiches, if I recall of "labor costs," does anyone correctly. else get a little riled when It wouldn't have been so bad, people talk about "worker but one evening in the break productivity" rising or room, one employee discovered falling? People work hard, that company CEO Don Tyson and if "productivity" is received a record bonus that falling, it probably ain't year. That's a whole lot of the workers' fault. Cornish hens. Why not refer to it as The news article in question "Management productivity wasn't in the regular news falling"? I could go for that, pages, as I recall, but in and I suspect that a few the Business pages. It wasn't million hourly workers would, quite an epiphany, but rather as well. like a small bit of daylight "Aliens' impact focus of coming through the cracks of study: They contribute more a mine. than they take, researchers I didn't suddenly start find" - April 5. Best not let grabbing the Business pages the Minutemen hear about this and devouring them. Probably one. months went by before I "Sirius to provide TV signal looked at them again. But to Chrysler" - March 30. Ah, gradually, they became a part satellite signals beamed of my daily reading routine. directly to your vehicle. A lot of older readers may Nickelodeon, Disney Channel recall that in the past, many and Cartoon Networks can soon newspapers regularly carried be watched in your family labor news. Truth be told, room on wheels. That's just inquisitive readers, many sort of heart-warming. newspapers had writers who Couch Potato, meet Car Potato. actually covered labor issues Dan Vega, a Fayetteville on a regular basis. To say writer and co-host of One that this is a thing of the Whirled View, shown on past is an understatement, to Fayetteville's Community put it mildly. Access Television, often uses Still, if you look hard information he has gleaned enough, and you know where to from the Business pages on find it, there is still the show. plenty of news that affects "I read the business pages in what is sometimes amusingly order to understand what referred to as the "working seems to be the dominant class." force now ruling planet Earth Now, it's true that for most and humanity. The business of what is sneeringly model of constant unlimited referred to as the mainstream growth does not exist in the media, working class issues natural world. Nothing lives get short shrift. Check out and grows forever. Cancer your local television station tries to." come Labor Day: what you are Vega warns that one must keep most likely to find are items a close eye on what is on how people are spending happening, claiming that in a their day off. quest for "immortality," Just imagine if they gave Business often adopts extreme Labor Day the same attention measures to keep itself in they give Christmas or power. Memorial Day. Or, conversely, "This is when exploitation of imagine if the only coverage the planet's resources, they gave Memorial Day was a including humans, becomes report on how people were necessary. Wars for resources, spending their day off. Just free-trade pacts (which imagine the outraged calls to aren't about free-trade) and the television stations. the domination of governments A look at the Business pages by corporations are all in the recent past may give symptoms of business trying one pause; maybe it's time to to perpetuate itself forever." at least give the Business Vega also says, "Fascism is pages a quick glance over partly defined as the bonding breakfast, or during coffee of government with business. break at work. Except where The current atmosphere in mentioned, most of these news American government where items come from the Arkansas business controls so many Democrat-Gazette. policy decisions based on the "Trucking fatalities put infusion of huge amounts of state atop list" - March 13., money should serve as a 2007. Yes, Wyoming and warning to us all as to where Arkansas have retained their we are headed." rankings as the deadliest "Car-Mart posts $50,000 loss" states in the U.S. for - March 8. Repos and poor commercial truck accidents. accounts have dealt a severe And not just accidents - blow to the vehicle retailer. accidents with fatalities. The firm, which specializes Safety groups say that the in selling cars to government should limit the individuals with very poor or number of hours truckers nonexistent credit histories, spend behind the wheel each says that it wants to attract day. a "better customer." Yeah, that will happen. Take that, poor people! "Cochran Firm sues Tyson over "Mortgage woes could spread: workers' back pay" - April Wal-Mart, Home Depot among 17. The law firm founded by retailers likely to feel Johnny Cochran has filed five effects" - April 1, Morning suits in federal court in News. recent months. The cases deal Some folks have stopped with unpaid back pay for the paying utility bills just to time it takes to take off and be able to pay their put on protective clothing, mortgages. Some are eating and passing through security less. This will have a ripple on breaks. effect on far more than just As someone who spent several the housing and building years working in poultry supply industry. plants, this case is If there truly are patterns especially interesting. The to life, a lot of them can be average person probably has seen in the Business pages. no concept of the fact that a The few labor articles one is fifteen minute break is likely to read about will be probably nowhere near that, there, written for the most in reality. part by reporters who have "EPA wants gassy farms to little or no understanding of escape law" - March 28. Our labor issues. good friends at the EPA would But on any given day, there like to exempt livestock and may be more environmental poultry farmers from those news, more health care news, pesky laws which require or just plain interesting public disclosure of gaseous news than can be found in the emissions from animal manure. straight news section of the It's that damned Superfund paper. Often, reading the law which is causing all this Business pages can put the trouble. "straight" news into a better Not to worry, though. Our context. very own pseudo-Democrats So go ahead, try it. Look from Arkansas, Blanche over the Business section Lambert Lincoln and Mark tomorrow, or the next day. Pryor, have both supported a You may not find something bill that would effectively every day to pique your change the status of animal interest, but most days I manure, thus making it exempt suspect you will. from the Superfund law. And if you are a member of In fact, it was our very own the "working class" - Blanche "How many liberals whatever that means anymore - can I fool today?" Lambert you owe it to yourself to Lincoln who introduced the keep on top of the Business measure in Congress in March. news. To hurl a cliche in Some have different reasons your direction, knowledge for reading the Business truly is power. And pages. Catherine Donnelly, a information is power. So grab writer based in Northwest that Business section every Arkansas, has this to say so often, arm yourself with about the subject. "If I am information about what is in the market for a new job, happening around you, and to I like to peruse the business you. section to see what new Otherwise, my friend, businesses are cropping up. ultimately you're just more "Also, just from a human mulch for the Machine. interest standpoint, I like Richard S. Drake is the to try out new businesses. author of a novel, "Freedom Since our family hates the Run," and a recent history of Wal-Martian shopping Fayetteville, "Ozark Mosaic: mentality, we try to Adventures in Arkansas patronize new businesses and Alternative Journalism, 1990- spread the word. It's 2002." important for start-ups that Arkansas Free Press - May, we notice them early and keep 2007 supporting them so that they rsdrake@cox.net can stay in business.
Tags: Attention, business, Class, Pages, should, working
