NEW YORK In the most recent bout of MoveOn.org actions against Tribune Company job cuts, the progressive advocacy group solicited petition signatures from community members in Baltimore and Allentown, where two Tribune Co. newspapers have significantly reduced staffs.
MoveOn organizers have gathered about 4,000 signatures from Baltimore residents and 1,200 in Allentown, online and during the Dec. 16 drive, asking the Baltimore Sun and Allentown Morning Call not to cut jobs at the papers. The Morning Call eliminated 50 positions in November and bought out an unspecified number of senior employees. The Sun lost about 70 jobs this year through buyouts.
"Part of the reason we're doing these drives is there are lots of people out there, who we met on Friday, who don’t have e-mail addresses but who care deeply about local news," said MoveOn organizer Adam Green. After attending the Baltimore petition push, Green said many readers admitted an underlying frustration with ever-shrinking local coverage but hadn't drawn the connection to newsroom cuts.
Organizers of these actions say the Tribune Co. is decreasing its newspapers' ability to serve the public need for "watchdog" journalism by reducing budgets, which has precipitated the loss of about 800 positions across the company. MoveOn points out that these budget constraints were imposed despite a September Tribune Co. report that its year-over-year profit increased $93 million, or 19%, in 2005.
"In the big picture, we want to create an environment where media corporations can no longer ignore the public's desire for strong watchdog journalism," Green said. "In this particular case, we aim to pressure the Tribune Company to reverse the recent cuts to quality journalism they forced on local papers around the country."
The MoveOn protests began Dec. 1 with e-mail letters sent to MoveOn members potentially affected by cuts at four Tribune Co. papers: The Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, and Chicago Tribune. Online petitions for the papers have since registered more than 23,000 in Los Angeles, 9,100 in Chicago, 3,700 in Baltimore, and 2,700 in Orlando.
With the recent addition of online petitions for the Morning Call, Hartford Courant, Newport News Daily Press, and New York's Newsday, plus the "person-to-person" petitions in Baltimore and Allentown, MoveOn has gathered more than 59,000 total signatures. It plans to implement local petitions at all eight affected communities beginning next week.
Members of MoveOn also tried to deliver 45,000 petition signatures to Tribune Co. CEO Dennis FitzSimons at Credit Suisse First Boston's annual Global Media Conference in New York Dec. 7. The organizers were turned away and FitzSimons declined to respond to questions from a MoveOn.org member inside the conference, but the Tribune Co. has maintained in written statements that it still is deeply invested in strong news coverage and committed "to serve our communities exceptionally well."
The various efforts aimed at Tribune Co. are part of a new project within MoveOn Civil Action, MoveOn Media Action. The media project was formed in September in response to ongoing concerns from members about the devaluation of "strong watchdog journalism." The project will support government policies, like the Truth In Broadcasting Act, which they helped get a Senate floor vote earlier this year. It will also draw public attention to troubling journalistic practices, as it did with complaints to NBC when Pete Williams covered the Scooter Libby indictment with no mention that he previously had served as then-Congressman Dick Cheney’s press secretary.
Miki Johnson (mjohnson@editorandpublisher.com) is a reporter at E&P.
