October 17, 2002
A war of words
By Thomas Robinson
Local labor organizations are demanding changes from The Buffalo News, in the way it covers both labor issues and general news.
In a letter sent to Buffalo News publisher Stanford Lipsey and editor Margaret Sullivan, the Labor Unity Coalition of Western New York says it wants a sitdown with the paper’s top two executives. The missive says the paper is perceived in the labor community and the larger community “as a negative force.”
The letter—signed by labor leaders from Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore to Police Benevolent Association President Robert Meegan—is based on a meeting in B.T.F. headquarters of fifteen local and area labor leaders. It. attacks the paper for both what it covers (“Countless personal attacks on individual labor leaders”) and what it doesn’t (“The Buffalo News’ failure to report positive news involving organized labor and its membership”).
Much of the letter attacks what appears on the paper’s editorial page, without ever specifically mentioning Gerald Goldberg, the paper’s editorial page editor. It seems to spend more time attacking Goldberg’s product on the editorial page than on general news coverage, probably an indication of the editorial page’s power.
The labor leaders attacked the paper itself, for its “failure to come to fair and equitable agreements/contracts with several unions inside the newspaper” and for its “failure to reinvest in the Western New York community.”
The letter makes several specific demands of the paper, starting with a meeting between the labor leaders and The News executives. Even without the meeting, the labor leaders want changes at the paper, from re-starting the long dormant labor column to “fairness in its reporting on organized labor and fairness concerning labor on its editorial page.” The letter asks the News to stop what it calls “personal attacks on individual labor and community leaders on its editorial pages and in its news stories.” The letter also asks for a “cessation of the continual mostly negative and detrimental news coverage of Western New York.”
The writers claim that “ businesses considering locating in Western New York would be deterred by the negative reporting on organized labor by The Buffalo News and therefore view labor as a potential negative and ultimately decide not to locate to Buffalo or Western New York.”
Apparently, no meeting has been scheduled.