Preserving the Middle Class Too Controversial for MSNBC and Jon Stewart
Cable networks MSNBC and Comedy Central have refused to air a Change to Win ad that contrasts the vanishing middle class with runaway CEO pay.
Despite coverage of rising income inequality in mainstream publications such as the New York Times and USA Today over the last two weeks, cable network parents Viacom and General Electric refused to run Change to Win's ad, which launches its nationwide Make Work Pay! campaign.
"American democracy is threatened when pointing out that income inequality is rising and the middle class is in jeopardy is somehow controversial?" asked Greg Tarpinian, Executive Director of Change to Win, a labor federation of seven unions and 6 million members.
"One has to wonder if the real reason this ad isn't being run is because MSNBC and Viacom are worried that it will offend Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone, who made $24 million dollars last year, and GE CEO Jeff Immelt who made $15 million," Tarpinian said. "The people who should be offended are the millions of hard working men and women who can't even afford cable, let alone healthcare. We call on Viacom and General Electric to show this ad nationally on their networks, and acknowledge what the American people already know -- the middle class is shrinking and it's time we did something about it."
Change to Win is airing the ad in major markets across the country to call attention to the fact that for many hard-working Americans, a 40-hour work week no longer ensures the basics of the American Dream. We are uniting the 50 million workers in the hospitality, construction, retail, food, health care, transportation and other critical industries whose jobs are vital to our economy and cannot be outsourced. Make Work Pay! seeks to deliver all working people a paycheck that supports a family, affordable health care, retirement security and the freedom to join a union in their workplace.
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