Media Slant Against Labor, UPS Strikers

"There are a lot of small businesses out there that are suffering right now as a result of this, and they see you standing by ... not really doing anything about it," said CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He added: "Some of your critics are saying that's because the labor unions supported you and the Democrats so overwhelmingly."

Blitzer was echoing a familiar media tone. During a major strike, the damage to business is front-page news. But when workers are on the job, year in and year out, the adversity they face is a minor media matter.

We're all familiar with tributes to the dignity of working people. Many politicians and pundits are adept at such lofty rhetoric. But the media follow-through is quite uneven.

More than ever, big investors and top executives are on a pedestal. Typically, Newsweek began this month with a fawning cover story on "The New Rich." And it's not just a matter of news. Many ads glorify shrewd financiers and elite managers, portraying them as majestic creatures who soar above the rest of us.

Writer Thomas Frank has commented that many TV commercials now "star the noble businessman, striding in slow motion across the tarmac at sunset; standing with arms akimbo atop his skyscraper and surveying his domain; relaxing in business class as the thoughtful stewardess gently sees to his needs." The exalted exec is often shown "performing miracles of pie-chart transmission or conference-calling from some improbable place," whether a golf course or an igloo.

In sharp contrast, across the mass-media landscape, average workers hardly qualify as noble.

Daily papers and hourly news broadcasts keep us well informed of stock-market trends and outlooks for investors. But details aren't nearly as profuse when it comes to what directly affects most of the nation's employees: job-security issues, eroding benefits and stressful working conditions.

How often do we hear news updates on the extent of workplace safety? There would be plenty to report. A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that the rate of work- related injuries and illnesses is 13.2 million Americans per year -- along with 6,500 deaths.

Meanwhile, media conglomerates are eager to curtail payrolls and benefits. So, for two years now in Detroit, 1,800 reporters and other newspaper workers have been on strike against the city's pair of dailies, owned by the huge Gannett and Knight- Ridder chains. This summer, a court ruling upheld charges that the management engaged in unfair labor practices.

These days, news accounts are apt to depict the "cost" of the work force as an impediment to wealth creation. But, way back in the 1770s, Adam Smith openly declared that labor creates all wealth: "It was not by gold or by silver, but by labor, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased."

Smith was no champion of workers. One modern scholar calls him "the greatest of all conservative economists." Yet, in 1997, our country's journalistic tilt is so skewed that some of Adam Smith's key precepts would disqualify him from today's media mainstream.

In "The Wealth of Nations," published 221 years ago, Smith wrote with realism about manufacturers and merchants. He described them as "men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."

Talk like that is a real turn-off for the producers who decide which political analysts belong on national television.

Could Adam Smith get a job as a network TV pundit to talk about economic issues today? Would he be allowed to host a weekly PBS program on the economy? I doubt it. Too left-wing.