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The biggest newspaper in town is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. That made the paper into the only real reason that the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh existed. This parasitic relationship ended when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shut down over the demands of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.
The owners of the Post-Gazette had warned that the paper would have to shut down if the union didn’t stop making unreasonable demands. The union however went right on doing its thing and then it found out who John Galt is the hard way.
The Block family, which owns the paper, stated that they’ve lost $350 million over the last 20 years of trying to keep it afloat.
And it’s not as if the union couldn’t have seen it coming. The Pittsburgh Press, the second largest newspaper in the city, was sold to the Block family in 1992 which consolidated its operations into the Post-Gazette.
Despite that the Newspaper Guilt spent 4 years using the Biden administration to pressure the Blocks into giving in to the union. Biden’s out, the National Labor Relations Board no longer functions like a domestic terrorist group, and the Blocks are exiting the newspaper business.
Who’s hurt by this? The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh has destroyed not one, but two papers. Calling in media allies to go after the Block brothers (descendants of the original Block, a Jewish immigrant kid who started out with nothing and became pals with Hearst) and harassing them at their home and accusing them of being Trump supporters, didn’t force them to back down.
It led them to shut down the paper.
Now the Newspaper Guild can focus on destroying the remaining newspapers in the area. Because that’s all media unions seem to be good for anymore.
The Corrupt Labor Unions care more for Power and Control then they do Freedom of t he Press
I wonder if The Pitt paper is still online? The AJC became a blog this week. Many big papers only held on as long as they did because of their Sunday coupons. Unions were needed way back, but have long been just a parasite that kills the host.
Hard to feel sorry for them, after what the AJC did to their only competition, the Gwinnett Daily. When papers were $0.50 those keen watchers of business ethics, sold their paper for 0.35 in Gwinnett only, right up until the GD went out of business and they bought their infrastructure for pennies on the dollar. I used to read 3 or 4 papers a day(NYSlimes, USA Today, AJC, and GD). Haven’t picked one up in decades, and my BP thanks me.
All of journalism– including Front Page Magazine– is condemned to oblivion in a world of non-readers. It’s called post-literacy. Even censorship is a superseded concept among the grunts and growls of a re-tribalized society like “woke” America. We’ll know we’re beyond this “woke” sleepwalking when the Democ-rats (the party of illegal aliens) cease to be a functioning political alternative. Judging by events in the People’s Republic of Minnesota, that day may come sooner than you think. My advice: Read all about it!
Greg:
You’re only telling half the story. The democrats/socialists need an illiterate populace to achieve totalitarian control of the country. Ignorant illiterate people lack the ability to think logically and tend to rely solely on their feelings for decision making and are easily spellbound by charismatic characters with sinister intentions (e.g., Obama was/is one such character.)
An illiterate person is as gullible as a 10 year old child and easily susceptible to believing malicious lies and distortions of the truth. For example: Joe Biden’s entire presidency was a malicious lie and nearly everything he said was a distortion of the truth and that was when he wasn’t flat out lying.
I agree with your analysis. My point stresses the “media studies” critique of social media typified by artificial intelligence– for instance, copycat memes– as a substitute for literacy as heretofore known. In other words, post-literacy (as opposed to “illiteracy”) presumes a sort of willful ignorance beyond “gullibility” because it is contemptuous of the intellectual primacy of words, per se. For post-literate people, pictograms will do. However, in a polity based upon a written constitution, literacy is a prerequisite to freedom.
I had been a salaried employee. Then there was an idea from inside to make my section of the department, represented, hourly. I couldn’t believe it. I never heard of salaried wishing to become hourly, part of a Union.
When I was asked to vote “Yes” for Union, I said “No, I won’t. The company generously gave me this job. I am not going to be organized against it, now. It was Yes for being represented, by a narrow margin (it was many new young people who were swayed).
So, I involuntarily became hourly. Building on the pension abruptly stopped. Contributions to the 401K ceased (had to get the Union’s 401K). We had to obtain different medical benefits. And as salaried we lost other perks, AND respect from already hourlied trades. When all in my department was aware of the official change, NO ONE, INCLUDING THE PROPONENTS of going Union, were happy. NONE. It was amazing.
That Union relinquished control of my department before the 3 1/2 year contract expired. But the damage had been done. Union’s: a good thing (maybe) gone bad.
Remember this is western Pennsylvania and unionism is a secular religion there. A secular religion that destroyed everything it touched. Decades ago Volkswagen opened a factory in Western P.A. that only lasted for ten years as a result of union strikes and demands. We shouldn’t be surprised, nothing has changed.
Unions can force a business to do a lot but they cannot force a business to stay in business.
And if the business shuts down how does that help the union members?
I avoid crud from union run companies like it were the plague. I was in three (all forced) during my career. Once I got out from under the boots on my neck from unions, I was able to show my employer what I could do. Worked hard, lots of hours (on salary that thy kept increasing, along with generous performance based bonuses), and was able to retire in my 50s with no pension…..just on what I had saved. Unions contribute to Democrats. I don’t want to contribute to Democrats. That’s why I avoid crud from union run companies.
On several of the union websites, they publish lists of union crud products to avoid, and I appreciate them for that.