Since I’m an optimist, I’ll offer a hopeful observation that this labor conflict at the Times ought to make the paper’s coverage of the #OWS Movement more respectful and less dismissive, as so much of their reporting has been over the past few months, like this snarky article by Ginia Bellafante from last September. I’ll be watching for any change of tone, even as I realize my optimism is probably unwarranted. // more. . .
I love how rapidly Verizon caved on their plan to charge subscribers a $2 fee for processing certain kinds of monthly payments. As reported in the New York Times, reactions from customers, communications industry watchdogs, and FCC officials ranged from outrage to threats of investigations. The recent campaign that made Bank of America drop its proposed $5 debit card fee took a few weeks to reach its goal, while this explosion of anger at Verizon was over in a scant 24 hours. This says something about the anti-corporate mood prevalent in the U.S. right now, thanks to the #OWS movement. Only at their peril do companies blithely try putting anti-consumerist policies into place. GoDaddy’s loss of subscribers over their support for SOPA, which I posted about last night, is another example of the same impulse in the consumer zeitgeist.
Mitt Romney has just handed the Obama team a doozy of an issue to club him with. Romney said today that he won’t release his tax returns if he’s the Republican nominee, even though all major party candidates going back decades have done so. This is probably because most of his vast income comes from capital gains and is thus taxed at 15%, rather than the higher rate on which most taxpayers are assessed. The DEMs have already put up a clever website What Mitt Pays that caculates what ordinary folks pay, compared to what Mitt’s probably paying. //more