How closely have you been following the West Virginia teacher strike?

I live in WV, and have been following the news.
The only thing I can think of is that it has all been very peaceful, no fights, no fires, no murders during these rally’s, so it’s not news worthy to the big networks. It looks like it won’t end any time soon. The teachers were told they would get a 5% increase and their union reps agreed to this without asking if the teachers agreed. Our teachers Pay ranks about 48th in the nation. Their insurance costs and deductions have skyrocketed.
I feel bad for the parents that don’t have anywhere for their kids to go during the strike, but the strike is necessary.
I also want to point out that the teachers have pooled their money to buy food for brown bag breakfast and lunches for the kids to get because for lots of the kids, school breakfast and lunches are their only meals.

I’m aware of it mainly because of @chyna .

I didn’t know about it!

I’ve been reading about it online, and saw something about it on the national morning news this week.

Here’s a good breakdown of just how bad corporate media, like MSNBC, is on this issue (among other really important issues).

My mistake. I thought your Q was about the strike itself, sorry.

@canidmajor: “My mistake. I thought your Q was about the strike itself, sorry.”

?

@thisismyusername: ”?”

Your post directly above mine would indicate that your focus is the media coverage.
And your point is taken. I will try to remember to reference the remark I am responding to, even even it has s directly above mine.

@canidmajor: “Your post directly above mine would indicate that your focus is the media coverage.”

My focus is on the strike. Media coverage is everything. A large part of activism involves fighting one of the largest obstacles – the media. So, even if we were to spend 100 comments discussing the media coverage of it, that would be really be part of the strike.

The fact that you have been reading about it online is great. I’ve been following it for the last week as well. But there are people I’ve met who have no idea that the teachers in the entire state of WV have been on strike for the past week. That’s not an accident, and it’s one of the most critical things we need to think about when dealing with activism of any kind.

I’ve seen quite a bit of coverage online. It seems to have gotten quite a bit of mention for a local labor dispute, no?

Not sure why MSNBC is used as the measuring stick. NBC News has had some coverage on television and it was the featured story for most of the day on their website.

I’m just impressed that news outlets are getting our states name correct. A lot of people think we are the western part of Virginia.

@funkdaddy It falls on MSNBC to serve as” measuring stick” because the network is sadly what passes as the pop watch dog for perspectives from the left. And in this instance, the dog analogy is indeed apt. The dog has sunk its teeth into the Trump/Russia scandals and mauls furiously away to all but complete exclusion of other matters.

Maddow in particular has an enormous following, and I will grant you that you will not find more thorough in depth coverage of anything Trump or Russian anywhere on the airwaves. Perhaps Maddow has a full plate, but for the network overall to allow the strike to pass virtually unnoticed is scandalous considering its significance as THE current billboard for the ongoing rot of public education. You might think that if any audience might give a shit about the decline and wasting away of the nation’s public schools it would have to be the cadre of educated liberal intellectuals worshipfuly tuned to MSNBC.

Maddow has really gone full-Glenn Beck.

Only in fervor. HER “conspiracy theories” bear fruit before our eyes.

^ I disagree, and the focus of her efforts is disproportionate to… everything, and her presence is harmful to those left of center and even Democrats. It’s some of the worst “journalism” the corporate media has to offer.

I learned about it on GMA this week. I have PlutoTV on in the background right now and NBC is covering this very topic as I type.

I think it’s amazing how the teachers are using their own money to provide meals for the students during this strike.

^One of the Senators came out and said that if the teachers can afford to pool their money for food for the kids, then they obviously make enough or too much money. Jerk.

^^ Word

Been following it but I don’t rely on just one news source (in this case MSNBC) for my information. And, yes, they are for all intents and purposes, ignoring it, just like Fox.

The latest I have heard is that, after coming to a 5% agreement, 19 people in the WV senate fucked it all up by demanding only 4%. So, back to the strike. No school for another week at least.

Wonder what the last raise these same Senators got over the past few years?

CNN just reported that the strike is over. The teachers will get a pay raise.

Finally!