I pointed out a few days ago that there was zero — and I mean ZERO — mention after the explosion in West, Texas that the plant was not unionized. And it points to a deeper problem: when it comes to workers’ deaths, the media just doesn’t really care.

The problem of safety and health at workplaces in the US — and around the world — is nothing new. I’ve been writing about this for many years, including here in the context of the 2008 presidential elections. So, when something spectacularly awful happens, there will be a momentary wake up of the brain dead transcribers of press releases formerly known as “journalists”. Like here:

The Texas plant that was the scene of a deadly explosion this week was last inspected by the Occupation Safety and Health Administration in 1985. The risk plan it filed with regulators listed no flammable chemicals. And it was cleared to hold many times the ammonium nitrate that was used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

For worker- and chemical-safety advocates who have been pushing the U.S. government to crack down on facilities that make or store large quantities of hazardous chemicals, the blast in West, Texas, was a grim reminder of the risks these plants pose. And they say regulators haven’t done enough to tackle the problem.

But, that will be it for a long time — until the next disaster.

Let’s be clear. The Boston bombing was horrific. But, the number of people killed and injured in the country every year because of corporate terrorism dwarfs the number of victims killed in the despicable assault in Boston. Not that the media cares much.