Just in case objective journalism wasn’t dead enough, the Newspaper Guild is making sure of it. The Guild’s San Francisco-area chapter’s latest intern program [1] aims to teach college students “social justice” in journalism.
“We hoped that the students, as they became exposed to the Guild, its issues, and to labor reporting in general, might become inspired to pick up the baton,” wrote former labor and employment lawyer and freelance Guild member Kat Anderson on the Guild’s site. “And, it seems that we achieved our goal.” Hooray for journalism!
A separate article from student Peter Hernandez outlined how the program shaped and changed his views on journalism. The editor of the program encouraged interns to “question the old models of journalism” and students were “instilled a righteousness to our entitlement for pay for our journalistic work” the included “collective bargaining-turned-socialist division of stipends.” Ah yes, labor unions at their finest. Too bad it couldn’t instill a serviceable writing style in the bargain.
Hernandez ended his article with what he took away from the summer program. The program ignited two passions for him – “the changing LGBT community … and urban planning.” Hernandez now writes for the Bay Area Reporter, the longest running weekly gay newspaper in America. His passion for all things LGBT will make him an excellent candidate to join the Newspaper Guild.
The Newspaper Guild is no stranger to blatantly pushing a less than objective agenda. In May 2012, the Communications Workers of America, which the Guild stems from, praised President Obama’s change in view on gay marriage [2]. A few days later, the CWA called progressives to “unite in a years-long campaign to restore and reclaim both workers rights and U.S. democracy [3].”
The Guild also advocated for the Occupy Wall Street Movement [4] in Nov. 2011 when police began breaking up encampments due to rodent infestation and crime. Their website proudly displayed a large entry titled “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come” and pushed for Nov. 17 2011, to be a “day of mass action.” In April 2011, the Guild published an appalling anti-Republican cartoon on their site [5], whose cartoon character ironically resembled Wisconsin Congressman and current vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The cartoon parodied the 1973 horror film “Soylent Green,” where people in the future are fed a mysterious substance that turned out to be human remains. Classy.