Philadelphia Inquirer

Political Scientist Michael Parenti catalogued seven generalizations about the way the news media create anti-union messaging--from painting workers as greedy, to omitting the salary of management or depicting public officials (like Mayor Nutter) as neutral. Using this lens to dissect the coverage of the SEPTA strike, it becomes clear that local media like the Inquirer and Daily News have a dangerous anti-union bias, once again making the case that to build our own movement we need our own media.

In the recent edition of The Nation, communications scholar Robert McChesney and journalist John Nichols discuss the future of journalism and call for government intervention to save the vital but dying craft of journalism. In the essay the authors revisit the age old argument that the press is the essential "4th estate" or 4th branch of government, acting as community watchdog for political and corporate entities.

Friday, Jonathan Stein from Community Legal Services and a past member of the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission got a letter to the editor published in the Philadelphia Inquirer calling for an end to Philadelphia's 10-year tax abatements for the "super-rich." The letter is reprinted below.