Working Life

The ghastly industrial killing field in the garment factory in Bangladesh has now claimed over 1,100 lives. Hard to even fathom. But, there is a sliver of hope that out of this massacre of workers will come a little improvement.

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Yesterday, after one week of silence and stonewalling, Lesley Stahl’s name disappeared from the list of Advisors to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. But, this story is not quite over. CBS continues to stonewall over the circumstances of Stahl’s service on the Peterson Foundation Advisors’ board — which was a blatant violation of basic ethical journalistic standards and CBS’ own ethical guidelines. Let us refer to this as Stahlgate — and as usual it’s the cover-up that is the worst part of this saga.

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A week ago, I wrote about Lesley Stahl’s obvious,no-brainer, significant conflict of interest. I wrote to CBS asking for an explanation. Crickets. Are we going to let this nonsense continue

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The toll has risen to more than 800 in Bangladesh. I suppose that must be a threshold of human death and suffering that even Wal-Mart can’t ignore. So, the Beast of Bentonville and some of its sidekicks are getting together to set, uh, labor standards.

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I honestly don’t care if Chris Christie is fat. I don’t care much about him in general. But, it is fascinating that the media discussion over his weight issues fails to make what seems to be a logical point about the danger of handing someone like Christie any power: he shows a pattern of lack of self control.

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Of all the surrenders to corporate power health care has got to rank right up at the top of the list. Obamacare’s failures come down to an unwillingness to consign the insurance industry to the trash heap of history and a deal which guaranteed the drug companies billions of dollars in profits. Which makes the news about slowing health care costs even more infuriating.

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Bodies. More bodies. More horror.

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Earlier today, I wrote about Leslie Stahl’s serious breach of basic journalistic standards due to her service on the advisory board of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. I’ve followed this up with a letter to CBS’ management seeking an explanation.

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Why is Leslie Stahl sitting on the Advisory Board of an organization deeply involved in a contentious political debate? And is her service on that Advisory Board blessed by “60 Minutes”? Or were Stahl’s superiors even aware of her service? In any case, if “60 Minutes” has any inclination to adhere to CBS’ ethical guidelines, Stahl must be forced to resign from the board.

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May Day doesn’t get any respect in the U.S. which prefers to ignore the day. But, rumblings around the world, mostly in opposition to the mindless imposition of austerity, are on the menu — and makes one think that it’s about time the streets heated up in the same way in the U.S., not just in one Occupy Wall Street square but far more broadly.

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