Safeway workers vote to authorize strike. Will the press report the news or help make and shape it like they did over 20 years ago.
I remember one of the previous large grocery store strikes more than 20 years ago. What I stands out most is the memory of a “made for TV moment” I witnessed at the Longmont Safeway. Back in those days, when the diagonal/Ken Pratt Blvd was a 2 lane road, we would walk from work up to the Armadillo restaurant to eat. Returning from lunch I witnessed a manufactured news event. What I saw were a number of cars coming into the parking lot followed by a television van from one of the local news vans.
In a matter of minutes everything had changed. There were TV camaras, noise, commotion. It was all staged, a pure made for TV moment. I lost a lot of respect for news reporting that day. Very similar to watching a 60 minutes segment where I actually had knowledge of the general area they were reporting on. After that, I stopped watching 60 minutes.
Luckily, in the age of blogging, if the news stations, in cahoots with the United Food and Commercial Works pulled a stunt like that again, it would more than likely be reported in one fashion or another as what it really was. A manufactured news event. Isn’t it the job of the press to “report news” not help “make and shape” it? I’m sure the journalistic ethics are much improved over 20 years later?
