Stenographers for Power: MLive and the DeVos Family
Yesterday, MLive once again demonstrated how they acts as stenographers for the local power structure, by using the occasion of a corporate awards ceremony to let members of the DeVos family have an uncontested opportunity to present their own narrative on the history of Amway.
The MLive story focuses on Dick and Doug DeVos, both of whom were inducted into the Direct Selling Association Hall of Fame at an event held in Dallas, Texas. However, Rich DeVos, who was also at the event, was sought ought by the MLive reporter for additional comments about the family business.
There was some mention in the article about how when Rich DeVos was inducted into the same Hall of Fame in 1979, it “came on the heels of an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into the company’s practices and compensation structure that concluded Amway was not a pyramid scheme.” Beyond this bit of information there in no deviation from the DeVos family and Amway narrative.
The MLive article allows the DeVos family to spin their own Horatio Alger myth about the family’s humble beginnings in their home to a global company that generates billions in annual sales. The DeVos/Amway narrative is best reflected in the headline, which reads, “From clearing plates to leading a company: How the DeVos brothers grew up to change Amway.”
To further demonstrate the stenographic role that MLive played with the DeVos brothers, the article includes a link to 6 video excerpts with Doug and Dick DeVos talking about the business, their dad and ArtPrize. It is impossible to know how the questions were framed, but each of the video responses are very short with no challenging questions from the reporter. In one of the videos, Dick DeVos says that his dad is a person who is quick to offer encouragement and affirmation to people, but does that mean all people or just those he agrees with. I mean, Rich DeVos has demonstrated over the years that he has no problem funding campaigns to suppress opposing views by attacking unions, the LGBT community and supporting domestic and foreign policy that is repressive.
The most recent example is Rich DeVos’ $250,000 contribution to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for his successful bid to win re-election in a recall effort. MLive did report on the donation by DeVos, but they don’t include any investigation into why the elder DeVos would give such a large sum to Walker, nor do they ask this kind of question when they have his two sons on camera.
The MLive reporter also decided not to pursue any discussion with either Dick or Doug DeVos around the economic and political power they wield in West Michigan. Not that we expect that MLive would do that, but this would be at least be a more honest function of journalism, to actually challenge power.
It would be useful information for the general public for the local news media to make the links between the DeVos involvement in entities like the West Michigan Policy Forum, One Kent Coalition, Grand Action, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, the Econ Club of Grand Rapids, the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
It would also be useful for the general public to know more details on what entities the DeVos family has funded over the years, particularly the groups that suppress rights or promote far right values such as the American Family Association or their funding of efforts to privatize public education. Hell, even regular updates on how much money they donate to candidates would be useful information for the public, but this is not what stenographers do. Stenographers don’t ask questions, and when it comes to the DeVos family, MLive might as well by called the Stenographers of Power.
Occupy Grand Rapids Spring Training set for June 16
In preparation for the July 4 re-occupation action, Occupy Grand Rapids is hosting a Spring Training on June 16. Here is what their announcement says:
“MoveOn’s 99% Spring co-optation effort got ya down? Or just want to learn some mad skillz? Then come out to Occupy Grand Rapid’s Spring Training.
On Saturday, June 16 at 12pm, we’ll be making our triumphant return to Ah-Nab-Awen Park (the site of last fall’s occupation) for an afternoon of workshops and discussions aimed at increasing our collective knowledge base to get ready for our re-occupation.
We’ll be talking about all sorts of practical, hands-on stuff that anyone participating in an occupation or any activist project would likely need to know: basic legal and “know your rights” info, how to work or not work with the media, direct action (different tactics, why use direct action, etc), health and safety, and more surprises TBA.”
Occupy GR Spring Training
June 16
Noon
Ah-Nab-Awen Park in downtown Grand Rapids
For more information, check out their facebook event page.
Media Alert: Don’t Let Congress and Broadcasters Keep You in the Dark about Political Ads
This Media Alert is from Free Press.
A House Appropriations Subcommittee just voted on a measure to decrease transparency for political ads aired on local television stations.
If signed into law, this bill would deny the public better access to information about the wealthy corporations and individuals that are inundating our airwaves with misleading political ads in 2012.
The FCC decision was a milestone in the fight for better democracy. Yet as with any hard-won reform in the age of big-money politics, this change in being attacked by unscrupulous members of Congress, who put the interests of corporate lobbyists before those of everyday Americans.
Please sign this letter to your members of Congress and demand that they serve the public first.
In this post-Citizens United era, we can’t let broadcasters hide their political profits.
Wisconsin and the Left
This article by Steve Horn is re-posted from CounterPunch.
There was an expression among activists that went “One year longer, one year stronger” a year after the beginning of the “Wisconsin Uprising” here in Madison, WI. The reality is that one year+ longer, the left as an organizing force is “one year weaker.”
The truth? People, as a mass movement in the United States, are attracted to right-wing populism, embodied by the likes of Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who recently won the recall election by an astounding 7-percent landslide.
Sure, there are refrains, such as “this was an auction, not an election,” and that “money won this election.” But people still voted and have agency. And Walker won by a long-shot.
Many important questions arise for those who consider themselves, broadly speaking, on the left: a.) Why the grassroots attraction to right-wing populism? b.) How’d the left (both liberals and leftists alike) get steam-rolled so badly? c.) What’s next for the grassroots activist of a left-leaning orientation now that, bluntly speaking and when looked at through a sober viewpoint, the cause has been so badly bludgeoned since last year’s “Uprising”?
Right-Wing Populism Explained
Many schools of thought exist as to why people of a working class background have flocked toward the Tea Party.
There’s Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” argument, which posits that, in essence, working class people are duped by wedge issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, into voting against their economic class interests. This, of course, assumes the Democratic Party is the “party of the people.”
There is also the Chris Hedges’ “Death of the Liberal Class” argument, which says what he conceptualizes as the “liberal class” is dead and has lost its legitimacy among the United States’ citizenry. Another way to refer to the “liberal class” is to call it the “liberal elite.” This argument is far more compelling and complex than the Frank argument.
Hedges posits that long ago, liberal elites abandoned the rank-and-file of the working class, though they have continued to, in a hollow manner, speak on behalf of it. Because an untold number of people feel abandoned by liberal elites, its void has been filled by an organized and outraged right-wing populist front, argues Hedges. Hedges argues that Wall Street Democrats like President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama serve as Exhibit A of the liberal class. I would take that a step further and say so too did Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett.
Then there’s the Noam Chomsky argument, which in most ways mirrors the Hedges argument, but directly addresses the question of the Tea Party. In a speech he gave in Madison, WI in April 2010, he stated, “Ridiculing Tea Party shenanigans is a serious error, I think. It would be far more appropriate to understand what lies behind them and to ask ourselves why justly angry people are being mobilized by the extreme right and not by forces like those that did so in my childhood, in the days of formation of the CIO and other constructive activism.”
What Happened to the Left?
Emma Goldman had it right when she stated, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” Labor and the left in Wisconsin committed suicide when it demobilized a legitimate grassroots movement and turned it into an electoral campaign. It has been a long, slow death.
Grassroots activists with righteous indignation gave up their agency to do that which was deemed “acceptable” to the powers that be, namely the “Union Bosses” and the Democratic Party apparatchiks. Why was a general strike never considered? Why not creative tactics to “kill the bill,” Act 10, the reason for the “Uprising” and recall to begin with? How’d this all morph into what it’s morphed into?
In the main, the left has failed to understand that what populist right-wing activists hate more than anything else is the Democratic Party and unions, two pillars of what Hedges defines as the “Liberal Class.” Their hatred is justified, given that, as Hedges points out, these institutions abandoned working class people long ago. Thus, the left confused real grassroots power with the Liberal Class and are now paying the consequences.
What’s Next?
Some will say that the John Doe affair could bring the demise of Walker, keeping hope alive of a Walker unseating. Others will say it’s time to put all efforts into the Obama campaign.
But that’s all, for the most part, a grand charade for movements representing the working class.
What’s really needed?
An acknowledgement, at the very least, that the working-class grassroots in the majority of Wisconsin are attracted to right-wing populism. They see Madison (rightfully so, I’d argue) as an elitist, detached enclave 77 square miles surrounded by reality. Any left-leaning independent activism strategy that has any force, meaning and direction will have to see that these are people are allies in the fight, not people to scoff at as dumb, naive or absurd.
For now, it’s “One Year Longer, One Year Weaker,” but it doesn’t have to be like that forever. In the meantime its “Back to the drawing board,” as the old adage goes.
Crucial 2012 Farm Bill in the Senate this week
Editors Note: We have been tracking Michigan Senator Stabenow’s role on this issue, since she is the Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Food & Water Watch began a campaign last year to target Stabenow, but despite the thousands of letters and signatures Stabenow has not taken the position they had hoped. Below is the most recent update from Food & Water Watch on the 2012 Farm Bill.
This week, the Senate will start debating the next Farm Bill.
This is a critical moment for our food. The Farm Bill is a massive, far-reaching bill that touches almost every aspect of our food, from research funding to agricultural policy to farm subsidies. It is only renewed about once every 5 years. We need to make sure the 2012 Farm Bill moves our food system in the right direction.
In this new Farm Bill, we need to protect what we gained in the 2008 bill, and on that foundation, we need to begin building a food system where consumers have access to safe, healthy food and small farmers can compete in the market. But giant corporate interests are ready to block us every step of the way, using the Farm Bill to win bigger profits for themselves. That’s why we need our Senators to use the 2012 Farm Bill to fix our broken food system.
We have a choice: will this Farm Bill get our broken food system back on track, or if it will continue to favor corporate agriculture over small farmers and consumers? Every Senator will be key in making this choice, and they need to hear from you. Will you ask your Senator to help craft a Fair Farm Bill?
There are two key amendments you should urge your Senator to support:
- Help small farmers compete in the marketplace with the packer ban amendment. Every day, family farms are going out of business, largely because they can’t compete against large corporations that control most aspects of our food supply. One damaging tactic that corporations use is holding onto their livestock, manipulating the price of meat in the markets and selling when it benefits them most. But small farmers can’t afford to wait for the right market conditions to sell their livestock. We need to ban meatpackers from owning livestock, to level the playing field for family farmers.
- Protect the future of non-GE crops with the Tester amendment on seeds and breeds. More and more, agriculture research is controlled by corporations who are focused on expanding their genetically engineered crops. Every year farmers are left with fewer choices of seeds that are not genetically engineered. This amendment would guarantee that non-GE crops get a fair share of the research funds. At least 5% of research funding would have to go toward something other than genetically engineered crops.
Big corporations will be pushing for policies in the new Farm Bill that help their profit margin. Make sure your Senator knows that’s not what our country needs. It’s up to us to urge our Senators to protect small farmers, and consumers like you, in the Farm Bill, not pave the way for more industrialization of our food. If these policies are put in place, we could make progress toward a more equitable food system. Tell your Senators that you demand their strong leadership for a Fair Farm Bill.
On June 14 the new group “Left Forum” will be showing the classic labor film SALT OF THE EARTH.
In a gritty mining town in New Mexico, Mexican-American workers go on strike to protest their dangerous working conditions and low wages. They meet with fierce opposition from company thugs and local sheriff’s deputies. After vicious beatings and the suffering of the miner’s families, the wives and mothers of the striking workers take over the picket line in a final demand for justice.
SALT OF THE EARTH was the only black listed American film in history. SALT OF THE EARTH was banned for its daring political content, which anticipated the civil rights and feminist movements by nearly ten years. This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library Of Congress, in 1992.
Grand Rapids own Virginia Chambers was an actress in this film. We will be having a discussion afterward on her. The film is free and open to the public. The film will be shown on a TV set.
Thursday, June 14
7:00PM
Institute for Global Education
1118 Wealthy St., Grand Rapids, Mi. 49506
On June 5th, 1995, 2500 campesinos angered by the direction that the Mexican government was taking the economy, entered the Mexico City Stock Exchange and shut it down.
Mexico had succumbed to the structural adjustment polices of the IMF starting in the late 1980s, under the administration of Carlos Salinas. These policies of privatizing public services and dismantling any protections for Mexican businesses was followed by the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993.
On January 1st, 1994, NAFTA went into effect and was greeted in Mexico by the indigenous uprising in southern Mexico of armed insurgents known as the Zapatistas.
Despite the IMF policies and the passage of NAFTA, the economy crashed in Mexico with the peso devalued significantly in just a few days. Outraged Mexicans from all sectors engaged in massive demonstrations and even a business group, known as El Barzon, took to the streets as NAFTA was wreaking havoc on the majority of Mexicans.
Small farmers or campesinos were hit the hardest, since NAFTA allowed for the US to flood the Mexican market with cheap, subsidized corn from the US. Small farmers could not compete and many of them left their land for the cities or migrated north to the US in search of employment.
Other campesinos joined insurgent groups in Chiapas and Guerrero, while others participated in other forms of resistance such as street protests and occupations.
The June 5, 1995 occupation of the Mexico City Stock Exchange was one of the many actions that Mexicans have taken to confront and resistance the political and economic system that serves the super wealthy in that country. Mexico saw the largest increase in billionaires from the mid-90s to the present than any other country in the world.
Earlier that year, the independent news sources CounterPunch had received a copy of a memo from Chase Bank, which stated:
“There are three areas in which the current monetary crisis can undermine political stability in Mexico. The first is in Chiapas, the second in the upcoming elections and the third is the role of the labor unions, their relationship to the government and the governing PRI.”
The memo goes on to say:
“While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be so by many in the investment community. The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy.”
Just days after the campesino occupation of the Mexico City Stock exchange I attended a forum in Grand Rapids hosted by an ad agency on how to market your company in Mexico.
The forum was a disgusting display of US business arrogance, which featured a Comerica Bank economist who stated that the structural adjustment policies and the passage of NAFTA were only going to result in the “growth” of the Mexican economy. The question to always ask at this point is, from whom will the economy grow?
The Mexican economy continues to serve the super rich, while millions fall deeper into poverty. The June 5th occupation of the Mexico City Stock Exchange only last part of a day, but it is these kinds of actions that can lead to a greater uprising that can really challenge an economic system which benefits so few.
Like the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the Arab Spring and the uprisings in Greece and Spain, direct action always has the capacity to blossom into a full-scale revolution. We honor the campesinos, which acted in 1995 on this day!
Next Tuesday, people are invited to participate in a Rally to End Wage Theft in downtown Grand Rapids.
Wage Theft is a common practice, where employers pay less than minimum wage; refuse overtime pay; force workers to work off the clock; hold back final paychecks; misclassify employees as independent contractors; steal tips; and fail to pay workers at all. Billions of dollars are stolen from workers each year in the US due to Wage Theft.
The Micah Center in Grand Rapids has been working on this issue for the past year with the intent of getting the City of Grand Rapids to pass an ordinance prohibiting Wage Theft. GRIID helped the Micah Center produce a video, which they have been using as an educational tool to get individuals and organizations to sign on to the campaign to End Wage Theft. Here is the trailer for that video.
The Rally will feature Kim Bobo, a national organizer on the issue of Wage Theft and the author of the book Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid-And What We Can Do About It.
The rally will begin at 10:30am at the Calder Plaza and then people will go to the 9th floor of City Hall to present the proposal to end Wage Theft in Grand Rapids.
Rally to End Wage Theft
Tuesday, June 12
10:30am
Calder Plaza, downtown Grand Rapids
For more information on the rally, the campaign to End Wage Theft in Grand Rapids or to host a screening of the Wage Theft video, contact Jordan Bruxvoort jordan.bruxvoort@gmail.com.
We have reported in the past on the stance that some local meteorologists have taken on the issue of global warming.
As we have noted, former WOOD TV 8 meteorologist Craig James and current channel 8 meteorologist Bill Steffens have not been shy about their belief that there is no evidence that humans have caused global warming.
Some might conclude that this is a reflection of the conservative mindset of West Michigan. However, according to the group Forecast the Facts, “A recent study found that 27% of TV meteorologists call global warming a “scam,” while over half deny that humans are the cause.”
The level of denial in the US and amongst meteorologists led to the creation of Forecast the Facts. The group is, “dedicated to ensuring that Americans hear the truth about climate change: that temperatures are increasing, human activity is largely responsible, and that our world is already experiencing the effects.”
So far, Forecast the Facts has challenged the climate-denying message of the Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank that has been at the forefront of climate denial in the US. Forecast the Facts has a campaign to get corporations to end their funding to the Heartland Institute, a campaign that has already resulted in 19 companies pulling their funding.
In addition, Forecast the Facts is monitoring meteorologists all across the country with their Weathercast Watch campaign. This campaign is designed to first find out where the weather-casting community stands of global warming and second, to develop a strategy to shift the national perspective to one where there is agreement that humans are causing global warming.
One component of this strategy is to get the American Meteorological Society to take a strong stance on this issue. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is developing a new official statement on climate change, a process that happens once every five years. Forecast the Facts wants you to pressure the AMS by signing an online petition directed at the American Meteorological Society.
As communications person for Our Kitchen Table, I was pleased when M-Live did a brief story about the Southeast Area Farmers’ Market June 2 opening day. My job is to get the word out about the market and many people in the neighborhood look to M-Live for their news. The comments below the online piece we’re not pleasing. If you’re a GRIID regular, you know all about the ongoing racist comments made on M-Live. In fact, late GRIID reporter, Kate Wheeler, did an excellent job of bringing these types of comments to light and getting promises of action from M-Live staff to curb them.
In addition, a news blog, Michigan News, ran a link to the story with racist wording hacked into the headline and opening paragraph. Seeing these kind of attacks on the work that my team members and I are doing and knowing they were motivated by the snapshot of one of our African American market vendors felt like a swift kick to my stomach.
These comments are a snapshot of the racism that pervades our city, county, state and country. Another snapshot—that of Barack Obama, African American president, may tell a different story–the lie that we live in a post-racist society. And that’s the trouble with snapshots.
We live in a snapshot culture that wants to forget the United States’ entrenched racist history… that even forgets racial injustice that happened a month ago. But the snapshot of Robert Tolbert with word “Plantation” inserted brought it all home. Racism is alive and kicking. It is part and parcel of our institutions (education, healthcare, transportation, military, prison system etc. etc.) and it infects the hearts and minds of our Grand Rapids area neighbors.
If you’re white and don’t consider yourself racist, that’s not enough. We’ve got to take an active stand. As Lila Cabbill, author of Accountability and White Anti-Racist Organizing: Stories from Our Work and president emeritus of the Rosa Parks Institute, told me at an OKT team staff meeting recently, “Only white people can wipe out racism.”
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 