7.30.2013

books (sorta): NPR gives Amazon a tongue bath

Worthless "reporting" like this is the reason I will never donate a single penny to NPR.
Listen at your own peril- it actually made me spitting mad this morning, having previously heard (and laughed) at the news Obama would be giving a big 'middle class jobs' speech in front of an Amazon sweatshop in Tennessee.

Because conditions like this are what the American middle class dream is ALL ABOUT, amirite?

Not that genteel, supercilious NPR will breath a word about something so jejune as 'working conditions' - Heaven forbid such rough talk befoul the downy soft ears of their aging, white, well off audience.  Comforting corporate spin goes down so much easier, and has the advantage of already having been written up for their time-pressed 'reporter'.

Their sole acknowledgement of the concerns of human beings are a lone sound bite from a guy so desperate for health care he's dog-piling one of Amazon's "job fairs" in the hopes of becoming a warehouse drone.

Crushing down on his sad human footnote are solid bricks of propaganda from industry mouthpieces & Amazon friendly politicians buttressed by the 'reporters' unctuous delivery of what appear to be bullet points from an Amazon press release.

Fer instance, did you know that Amazon's shitty warehouse jobs pay THIRTY PERCENT MORE than a job in retail? Which, given that we're dealing with Tennessee here, is the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
So that's what, about $9.50?

And these are the high paying, entree to the middle class jobs that Obama wants to spotlight with his big speech.










1 comment:

Simon said...

NPR has some of the most tepid, un-insightful reporting sometimes.I think their mission statement must read "never above a low volume mumble."