MEDIA: Did You Know We Are Having the Largest Prison Strike (in US) in History?

Written on September 20th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

… Probably Not, Because Most of the Media Have Ignored It – Published on AlterNet, by Adam Johnson, Sept 18, 2016.

The prison strike didn’t merit a single mention in NYT, Washington Post, NPR, CNN or MSNBC.  

Thousands of prisoners in over 24 states began a labor strike on September 9, the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, to demand better conditions and healthcare, the right to unionize and what one organizing group calls an “end to slavery in America”. But one would hardly know it watching major U.S. media, which has mostly ignored the largest prison labor strike in history. One week on, the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, and NPR have not covered the prison strikes at all.

In the same time period since the strike began, CNN has run stories on Clinton’s “body double,” the New York Times ran a piece on women getting buzzcuts and ABC News had an “exclusive trailer” for its parent corporation Disney’s upcoming film. There was certainly enough airtime and column inches to mention that workers had coordinated a national strike of unprecedented scale, but for these outlets the coverage has been nonexistent … //

… “The IWOC is an abolitionist organization,” Crispino said. “Abolition is pretty much completely ignored. It’s interesting because people ask questions about that and they ask what would you do instead, but no one wants to hear that and they never write about it.” That the media is allergic to ideology, to having deeper discussions about our society’s core axioms and why the U.S. has 25% of the world’s prison population but 5% of the total population, is perhaps too knotty for a 800-word writeup but for those working in the trenches it can be frustrating.

As the strike enters its second week, perhaps major media outlets and cable news will take a cue from activist media and the Wall Street Journal (whose report is worth reading) and shine a light, if only briefly, on the largest prison strike in history. If not, Crispino feels other tactics will eventually become more commonplace.

“I almost want to say, the mainstream media is complicit if there’s violence. The message they are sending to striking workers is, we will only give you coverage if things turn ugly.”

(full text).

Links:

Political foundations of the lender of last resort LOLR, on VoxEU.org, by Charles Calomiris, Marc Flandreau, Luc Laeven, Sept 19, 2016; (VoxEU.org is CEPR’s Political Portal);

Eskalation in Bautzen, was steckt dahinter? 66.50 min, von PolMed2016 am 18. Sept 2016 bei Anne Will;

Don’t Celebrate Just Yet: Median Household Income In a 20-Year Decline, on naked capitalism, by Lambert Strether, Sept 18, 2016;

Trade globalisation in the last two centuries, on VoxEU.org, by Michel Fouquin and Jules Hugot, Sept 17, 2016;

An Interview with Seehofer: We Want a Solution to the Immigration Problem, on Spiegel Online International, Interview Conducted by Markus Feldenkirchen and Ralf Neukirch, Sept 16, 2016: for months, the refugee policy rift between Chancellor Angela Merkel and her nominal political ally Horst Seehofer, the powerful governor of Bavaria, has been widening. In an interview with SPIEGEL, Seehofer says the rift could worsen if Merkel doesn’t agree to a hard ceiling on immigration;

Das große Misstrauen, weiß die Politik noch, was bei den Bürgern los ist? 40.25 min, von PolMed2016 im ARD Presseclub vom 11. Sept 2016 … mein Kommentar: merkt überhaupt jemand, wie dieser sogenannte Schock zu dieser Wahl doch nur kindische Arroganz beweist?

Egypt: Tougher penalties for Female Genital Mutilation FGM, on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Reem Leila, Sept 8, 2016: Parliament approved a bill making female genital mutilation a felony … According to the amended law, anybody who performs FGM will face a penalty of between five and seven years in jail, instead of the three months to two years which was designated in the 2008 law. The amendment also imposes a stricter penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment if the practice leads to death or a permanent deformity. Those who escort victims to the procedure will face jail sentences ranging from one to three years … Abdel-Hamid added that the Doctors Syndicate could also do more to crack down on those who perform FGM. They could suspend doctors who perform such an illegal act. Unfortunately, the majority of FGM procedures are performed by doctors … The 2014 Demographic and Health Survey conducted by the Health Ministry showed that the FGM rate in the reproductive age from 15 to 49 stands at 92 per cent … Agina said, if we stop FGM, we will need strong men and we don’t have men of that sort (in Egypt) …;

Strategies On Counter Terrorism – Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, 14.33 min, uploaded by Insomnia Team2, Sept 4, 2016;

21 SYMPTÔMES DE L’ÉVEIL SPIRITUEL, dans Jean Baptiste Le Cocq, non daté.

… and this:

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