What’s Wrong with San Diego’s Media?
By Jen Badgley
The San Diego Union-Tribune is losing readers faster than almost any other newspaper in the country. The newspaper industry’s latest circulation report reveals that the U-T has lost 8.5 percent of its daily print readership and 7.9 percent of its Sunday print readership. The most tragic thing about this turn of events, is that the U-T workers will bear the brunt of the financial down turn. It is the journalists and production workers who will be hit hardest by the inevitable cutbacks, not the executives at Copley Press. This is just par for the course since folks working for the U-T have never really been treated fairly by this anti-labor paper.
Maybe the (anti)Union-Tribune wouldn’t be losing readers so fast if they actually represented the interests of the working people of the San Diego area. Throughout this fight with Gaylord and Mayor Cox over the bayfront development, the U-T has given plenty of space to columnists and guest contributors trashing organized labor and spreading misinformation about our demands. Gerry Braun was the only journalist at the U-T to shine the spotlight on Gaylord’s lies and that was way back in May. Where’s the fairness and balance?
It looks like the working people of San Diego are getting sick of only seeing the pro-business views represented in the U-T and they’re turning elsewhere for their news.
Unfortunately, they won’t find it on the radio, because Clear Channel is turning the only progressive talk station KLSD-AM (1360) into another all-sports station as soon as next week. (Of course, the Union-Tribune says that this is “a good thing.”)
Now I don’t want to single out the U-T as the only anti-union media outlet in town, because just two weeks ago KUSI-TV pulled an ad for LocalJobsFirst.org from its Web site. The station’s explanation? They claimed that “the ad is deceiving and the subject matter is controversial.” Coming from the station that airs the Jerry Springer show, I have to wonder if that’s the real reason or if it might have something to do with KUSI’s die-hard Republican owner Mike McKinnon and the agenda of his developer buddies at the Lincoln Club.
Censorship of pro-labor ads by a local TV station -- now that’s an interesting news scoop. But don’t hold your breath waiting for the Union-Trib to break this story.
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