Ed Asner, Union Buster
Via Romenesko comes word that Ed "Lou Grant" Asner is stepping back into the fictive newsroom in ads for Minneapolis-St. Paul TV station KSTP. During the ads, the loveably husky and gruff (gruffly loveable and husky? huskily gruff and loveable?) actor tells various newsroom types that they need to focus on hard news.
The subtext, reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press, is much richer than what's onscreen:
what really had KSTP's newsroom staff laughing ? and this is the real staff, not the actors brought in to play reporters ? was the irony of Ed Asner, one of Hollywood's foremost liberals and a champion of union rights, playing a spare-me-the-bull(bleep) news director in the most resolutely anti-union shop in the Twin Cities.
"(Bleep)," said one (real) KSTP employee, "Asner's so liberal he makes Martin Sheen look like something out of Bush's Cabinet. But he's got to know what [station owner] Stanley (Hubbard) thinks of unions." (Asner was not available for an interview on that subject.)
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Know who else is a union buster? Ralph Nader. And who else? ACORN (American Community Organizations for Reform Now). Both have busted I.W.W. organizing efforts in their own bailiwicks.
Scratch an NPR liberal, and you’ll find pure authoritarianism under the “progressive” veneer.
I hate spunk
I think Ben and Jerry’s did some union busting before they sold out to an evil multinational corp.
NPR liberals are hypocrites for sure, but are they authoritarian for firing people because they join unions?
I thought a right pf free association was anti-authoritarian. But Kevin might think that someone has a “right to a job” – correct me if I am wrong – so firing them is authoritarian.
For the record I would fire anyone who worked for me if they joined the the IWW. Why? Right to free association. If that is “authoritarian” then we a new definition.
So called “progressive NPR liberals” are authoritarian in many areas, but not because they practice free association.
They might be hypocrites because they say they suport “workers rights” but they are not authoritarian in that regard.
Poor Ed.
Overshadowed by “Nipplegate.”
Personally I think calling Asner a liberal is an insult to most liberals.
NPR liberals are hypocrites for sure, but are they authoritarian for firing people because they join unions? I thought a right of free association was anti-authoritarian
Well, it’s authoritarian from their (alleged) point of view. After all, anti-union = crypto-fascist.
It’s sort of like if you found out that a “pro-life” activist had had a couple of abortions. Even if you yourself were pro-choice and did not consider abortion to be murder, “So is baby-killing ok after all?” would be a legitimate question to ask her.
If memory serves, Michael Moore wouldn’t allow the people who worked under him to join the Screen Writers Guild.
Working under Michael Moore. Ouch!
According to court paperwork, the primary grievance of the would-be union members was “Help! Get this fat bastard off of us!”.
Working under Michael Moore.
Ouch!