Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The Tragedy of the St. Augustine Record


The St. Augustine Record is no longer printing in St. Augustine for the first time in more than 114 years. Outsourced to the Times-Union in Jacksonville.

See the Pollyanna-ish editorial (below), which raises more questions than it answers.

There's not one Newspaper Guild chapter in the entire state of Florida.

We need more free democratic trade unions to represent workers, including printers and journalists.

We need more worker-owned companies.

We need journalists who can investigate, instead of equivocate.

We need to save our democracy from the formidable forces of authoritarianism.

Starting with newspapers that tell the truth without fear or favor (like the New York Times).

So what became of the "behemoth Goss Urbanite" printing press?

Gone but not forgoten.

And what of the printers and mailroom workers?

No union contract. What kind of severance pay? Does Bill Morris even know their names?

The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind: Vote Democratic. Vote against the cartels (and the cartelists) who have stolen our jobs, pensions and futures for the short-term Politics of Greed.

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