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Fox's Straight News Division Disappears Allegation That Boeing Retaliated Against Its Workers

September 16, 2011 12:07 am ET by Hardeep Dhillon

Tonight, one of Fox News' supposedly "straight news" correspondents, Doug McKelway, promoted Republican efforts to derail a case brought by the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) general counsel against Boeing.

On Special Report with Bret Baier, McKelway aired lots of footage of Republican members of Congress attacking the NLRB but gave short shrift to the complaint against Boeing. Regarding the specific allegations against Boeing, McKelway reported only that "the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Boeing for moving the production from Washington state, calling the move quote 'discriminatory' against Boeing's unionized workers."

However, the NLRB has charged Boeing with much more than "discriminatory" behavior towards unionized workers. The complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board states that Boeing illegally retaliated against unionized workers for engaging in lawful strikes.

The complaint also alleges that Boeing made "coercive statements to its employees that it would remove or had removed work from the Unit because employees had struck" and that Boeing "threatened or impliedly threatened that the Unit would lose additional work in the event of future strikes."

Moreover, as Media Matters has documented labor law experts agree that if the allegations filed by the NLRB against Boeing are true, the Boeing case would be "a classic violation" of labor laws.

This is a paradigmatic example of how Fox's "straight news" operation works: It's hyping the latest GOP effort to tilt the playing field against workers while almost completely ignoring the allegations that a company is violating its workers' rights.

Tags: Fox News Channel, Special Report with Bret Baier, Doug McKelway

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    • Author by ThomasJH268 (September 16, 2011 12:34 am ET)
      8  
      FOXPAC also disappeared the charges against Blackwater in the Haditha mass murder.

      They'll either make stuff up or totally ignore things depending on whether or not it fits into their corporite fascist plutocratic worldview
      Report Abuse
    • Author by jonimacaroni1 (September 16, 2011 12:36 am ET)
      6 1
      Yup, as I said two weeks ago (and many other times too)

      It's not about a company moving. It's about a company moving in retaliation towards the union, and if that allegation is found to be true, it's against labor laws. It wasn't that they wanted to build a plant in South Carolina. If they'd just done it, instead of doing it in retaliation, it wouldn't be an issue today with the National Labor Relations Board.

      And so leaving off that reason is dishonest. It's not an issue because they want to build a plant in SC. It's the reason they want to move an assembly line away from Washington state that it's an issue. Jobs are being shifted from Washington state to South Carolina in retribution against the labor union. That's illegal.

      We should enforce labor laws to protect workers from unfair businesses. I care about businesses breaking the law.

      And rightwing Fox News doesn't care about the workers.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by DennisKQV (September 16, 2011 7:43 pm ET)
           
        As I've tried to respond to you every time (but can't seem to get past the moderators)

        "if that allegation is found to be true, it's against labor laws"

        If you read the actual complaint and the quotes attributed to Boeing in the complaint - that's a very big IF. It's not as straightforward as you would might think.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by Egbert Souse (September 16, 2011 8:45 am ET)
      2  
      Fox News disappears allegations that the Pope is Catholic, rocks are hard, and liars lie.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Imbecile (September 16, 2011 9:33 am ET)
      5  
      This is a paradigmatic example of how Fox's "straight news" operation works: It's hyping the latest GOP effort to tilt the playing field against workers while almost completely ignoring the allegations that a company is violating its workers' rights.

      Fox News is operating under the premise that workers should have no rights. They are attempting to normalize that premise by attacking unions and ignoring the fact that workers currently do have rights.

      Once the public no longer believes workers do or should have rights, it makes it that much easier to eliminate them.

      Then we get to run the whole violent workers' rights cycle through again.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Jscott (September 16, 2011 7:40 pm ET)
        1  
        Careful, that last sentence will have the republitards frothing about your thuggish union language.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by Jscott (September 16, 2011 7:40 pm ET)
           
        Careful, that last sentence will have the republitards frothing about your thuggish union language.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by Chameo (September 16, 2011 11:42 am ET)
      1  
      They (and the rest of the media) are doing an excellent job of muddying the waters by hiding the actual behavior -- not just by not mentioning but by using whitewash language. "Discriminating against union workers" and "retaliatory practices" are not as clear as "they told workers that they had taken work away from them because they exercised their right to strike and threatened that they would do it again if the workers went on strike again."
      Report Abuse
    • Author by OhImRight (September 16, 2011 6:40 pm ET)
      1  
      Fox News makes a lot of things Disappear within a story to suit their Agenda

      NOTHING NEW!!!
      Report Abuse