Categories: OLD Media Moves

UAW strike doesn't resonate on networks

Julie Hinds of the Detroit Free Press writes Wednesday that the United Auto Workers’ strike against General Motors barely registered on theÂ cable networks on Tuesday.

Hinds wrote, “Although the strike consumed the thoughts and news outlets of Detroit, it didnâ€™t register as loudly within the 24-hour echo chamber of substance, hype and partisan bickering that is cable news programming. It received some coverage, but not the overwhelming kind that turns up the heat on topics like celebrity scandals or missing women.

“On Tuesday night, the second day of the strike was barely registering on some popular cable news shows. The top story on Fox Newsâ€™s ‘Hannity & Colmes’ was a day two followup â€“ ‘day two of the Iranian invasion of New York,’ as an on-screen title described the segment on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejadâ€™s visit to Manhattan.

“On the same night, the strike wasnâ€™t among of the top five stories on MSNBCâ€™s ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann,’ but the arrival of the Halo 3 video game was. CNNâ€™s ‘Anderson Cooper 360’ devoted a few seconds to a strike update in a news roundup.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.