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WAKE UP AMERICA!!! Movie Suggestions"You Have The Power" by Howard Dean
December 6, 2005
Sign the petition demanding the Hartford Courant reverse the staff cuts today.
The Hartford Courant is slashing 54 people from its staff1, despite large corporate profits. This means watered-down coverage of local, state, and national news. Politicians and corporations who should be held accountable by vigilant watchdog journalism will instead be covered by a staff that is stretched too thin.
Equally outrageous, Courant readers are being deceived about why these cuts are happening. Despite reaping huge profits2, the Courant's corporate owners in Chicago simply aren't satisfied—they want more, and they are willing to sacrifice good journalism to get it.3 Instead of admitting this, the Courant's publisher points to things like rising newsprint costs to distract people from the real reason for cuts.4
The Courant's corporate owners think they can get away with this because nobody is paying attention. But we're starting a petition to show the strong public opposition to these cuts. MoveOn Media Action is a campaign empowering regular people to fight back when news outlets abandon their journalistic duty to be a vigilant watchdog for the public.
Please sign the petition to the Courant and its corporate owners demanding they reverse the newspaper staff cuts by clicking here:
http://civic.moveon.org/courantcuts/?id=6479-2189065-fd2J.vJFeh.rcq4brQfRlw&t=3
After you sign the petition, please forward this message to your friends,
neighbors, and co-workers who read the Courant.
The Tribune Company is forcing many of its newspapers around the country to slash their staff. Over 550 staff cuts at eight papers have been announced this year. After the 54 cuts were announced at the Courant, local sports columnist Jeff Jacobs took the rare step of discussing this issue on the sports pages. His column revealed the atmosphere in the Hartford newsroom:
"All week I have been sick to my stomach, wondering why we lost three teammates to the harsh economic blade of 21st-century newspaper accounting. Then David Whitley, the talented columnist from the Orlando Sentinel, wrote a piece about coming to grips with the 21 layoffs at his paper as part of the companywide cutbacks and I felt even sicker...This is knowledge not easily found. This is experience harder to replace...our loss is your loss...
"[T]he pursuit of good journalism and the maximization of profits through public stock ownership will continue an uneasy alliance. Chasing news and chasing the buck is a race not easily won together."5
This issue is increasingly in the news. On CNN, media reporter Howard Kurtz addressed such staff cuts and asked, "Does this mean the papers are losing money? Don't be naive. It means their double-digit profit margins aren't high enough to satisfy Wall Street."3
A former official at the Los Angeles Times, also owned by the Tribune Company, summarized the corporate owners' disregard for the quality of the paper's reporting as follows: "You've no idea how fast these folks are strip-mining the place...They care nothing for journalism."6
We must defend the reporters and editors who produce the paper each day but cannot speak out against their corporate owners and managers. We can fight these news cuts by forcing the Courant's corporate owners in Chicago to pay attention to the readers they are supposed to be serving in Connecticut.
Please sign the petition to reverse the staff cuts at the Courant, and pass it along to others you know:
http://civic.moveon.org/courantcuts/?id=6479-2189065-fd2J.vJFeh.rcq4brQfRlw&t=4
Thank you for all you do.
–Noah T. Winer and Adam Green
MoveOn Media Action
Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
Sources:
1. "Memo on Hartford Courant cuts," Poynter Online, October 6, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1239
"Hartford Courant cuts 25 jobs," Poynter Online, November 17, 2005
http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=10666
2."Investors Misreading Future of Newspapers," Los Angeles Times,
November 24, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1207
3. Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz, CNN, November 27, 2005
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0511/27/rs.01.html
4. "Hartford Courant cuts 25 jobs," Poynter Online, November 17, 2005
http://poynter.org/forum/?id=memos
5. "No Glossing Over It: Paper Cuts Dig Deep," Hartford Courant, December
3, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1234
6. "Chicago Agonistes: The Plight of the L.A. Times," Truthdig, November
28, 2005
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_death_of_newspapers/
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