Udall, the EFCA, Liberal media and Coloradan's Who Like Blue Skies

The other day I was puzzled by a TV ad railing against Udall for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which was portrayed in a campaign ad as denying employees the right to a privacy in votes regarding unionizing. It seemed like a bad thing to deny employee’s privacy in voting. I mean, it is generally accepted that employee rights are shrinking compared to the growing power and influence of corporations. So this ad is seeking to protect employees, so the EFCA must be a bad thing, and Udall must be a pretty bad guy to support it... Right? WRONG.

It turns out the ad is quite misleading, even though it was from a group called “The Coloradans for Employee Freedom”. It turns out this group is a front for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and other anti-labor groups.

In a cleverly Orwellian twist, “The Coloradans for Employee Freedom” present their argument as protecting the rights of employees from coercion without the protection of private elections. In truth, the EFCA would deny employers a secret ballot election when there is no evidence of illegal coercion and a majority of employees sign union cards. The EFCA is a bill that favors employee rights, and is being hotly contested by anti-union groups like “The Coloradans for Employee Freedom” and companies like Walmart, which will close entire stores if their union-busting intimidation and coercion don’t work. The aptly labeled “Boulder Liberal” Mark Udall J supports the EFCA, as does Sen. Obama, which is one reason Walmart is “educating” their employees about the possible risks to their jobs should Obama be elected President. The Denver newspapers parrot this message as if Walmart is just being socially responsible.

The “_____ for Employee Freedom” front group runs identical ads against many pro-labor candidates. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has similar ads, including one making the same claim against Sen. Obama.

Here is a good summary and background info on the EFCA and a link to the actual bill text.

Changing the subject slightly… Obama has been slipping in the polls. I believe this is due to McCain’s negative advertising, which is effective particularly when media consumers do not evaluate the content critically, as in the case of these anti-Udall ads. On the presidential scene, a great source of truth in advertising is Fact Check, which evaluates the claims made in campaign ads.

The mislabeled “liberal” mainstream media doesn’t help with critical evaluation, and has largely revived McCain’s campaign acting as an echo chamber for misinformation and playing up innuendo that makes for entertaining sound bites, such as the theme that Obama is elitist. Along those lines, here is a great article. Also, a good site illuminating media bias and lazing reporting is Media Matters. Rather depressingly, because of the sheer volume of misinformation being dished up by the media in Colorado, we have our very own Colorado Media Matters site.

My point in all this is: don’t trust the mainstream media to serve up the facts or the full story. They are protecting their own interests, which are ratings and profitability (selling ads). And always evaluate who is pushing a given perspective and know their agenda. The PAC’s doing the advertising have become masters of naming their organizations things like “Coloradan’s Who Like Blue Skies” which would invariably turn out to be a group advocating cloud seeding to produce rain.