Saturday, September 13, 2008

Slogans, singers and petition signers

Nothing's better than a Saturday afternoon BBQ. Especially one with a with a hundred or so political, community and union activists willing to sign our petition in support of quality journalism and quality jobs at the Press-Telegram.

We were certainly among friends today at the SoCal Democrats BBQ and Rally for Barack Obama at the Recreation Park Bandshell at 7th and Park, complete with entertainment and mouth-watering food stuffs. In the crowd were representatives from the Obama campaign, LB mayor Bob Foster, California State Party Chair Art Torres, Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal and Huntington Beach mayor Debbie Cook.

It's a great feeling knowing people in the community (many of them subscribers to the P-T) really care about the employer's contract proposal that threatens our jobs – and our beloved paper.

Most we talked to agree that outsourcing local news-gathering is not an acceptable solution to the problems facing MediaNews – at least not for the readers who depend on the work of qualified locally-based journalists.

We lost some pens along the way, but it was a great day.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

bonnie lowenthal is no longer vice mayor.

Anonymous said...

Why were reporters at a political rally? Isn't that considered to be unethical, given the fact that reporters cover politics? You guys just keep digging that hole deeper and deeper ...

Anonymous said...

"Why were reporters at a political rally? Isn't that considered to be unethical, given the fact that reporters cover politics? You guys just keep digging that hole deeper and deeper ..."


Where does it say reporters?

Anonymous said...

let's see ... your union is comprised of reporters. if no P-T reporters were at the rally, then who is the "we" who attended?

Anonymous said...

I don't think you really want to talk about being ethical or unethical with regards to management and politics at the paper. Lets just say I saw our former publisher almost hand in hand walking down Pine Ave. one afternoon. And does anyone know what "Solutions " is at the paper ?

And besides it was a pubic event and if you know of any Republican rallies the we can attend, let us know.

Len Cutler said...

let's see ... your union is comprised of reporters. if no P-T reporters were at the rally, then who is the "we" who attended?


We are most than just reporters. We're also photographers, copy editors, designers, web producers, and circulation reps.

Anonymous said...

What copy editors and designers? They were either laid off or transferred to the Breeze, where they no longer have union representation.

Len Cutler said...

What copy editors and designers? They were either laid off or transferred to the Breeze, where they no longer have union representation.

The validity of that transfer notwithstanding, the Press-Telegram is not the only paper in this unit.