Greek media on strike for 2nd day

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — There is a news blackout in Greece as media strike for a second day in protest at recent layoffs and pay cuts.

The Athens journalists' union demands the rehiring of journalists recently laid off in five newspapers and a TV station and the cancellation of individual employee agreements at Skai media group that supersede previous collective agreements with the union, resulting in deep pay cuts.

The union also protested at publishers' decision to publish Sunday papers on Thursday night, ahead of the 48-hour strike's Friday morning start.

The financial crisis gripping Greece has also hit the media sector. Two dailies and an English-language weekly have already ceased publication and there are fears that more newspapers and TV stations will follow.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-18/greek-media-on-strike-for-2nd-day.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Joanne.

[fascisthunter]

2. imagine something like this happening in the US

no, why? Exactly...

[DetlefK]

3. Stone-throwing protesters and leftist terrorists? Only in Beck's wet dreams...

The problem is, that Greece got all those EU subsidies without proper oversight in place.
Rampant capitalism, cronyism, everyday corruption (a little bit of "faki-laki" and you get your surgery this week instead of next month) ...

After Greece was hit hard by the recession, it looked for ways to cut costs. One of those incredible means was to compile a list of everybody working in public offices: They found several cases in which people claimed 3 wages from 3 jobs, while doing only 1.




Actually, I think this violence has deeper roots: One or two years ago police accidently shoot a teenager during a protest march. This led to a radicalization and estrangement of the youth culture towards government. And now THEY face austerity measures, because THOSE bankers bankrupted their country.

[liberation]

4. The gist of the protests are that governments are willing to use tax dollars to bail out bankers...

... while reducing public services.

Most of the funny games played by the Greek administration regarding the EU money, involved the Greek (conservative) cabinet lowering corporate tax rates and making up the downfall in revenue via EU funds. The EU closed that tit, and the Greek government decided to keep the same tax shenanigans for corporations and wealthy individuals. While passing the downfall onto the citizens via "austerity measures."

Another issue that has gotten absolutely no play in the US media, is that a lot of these nations were some of the principal buyers of the toxic debt packages sold by WallStreet for the better part of the last decade, shit debt rated AAA by the US rating agencies. And now the same agencies are downgrading the debt of the same countries whose economy has been adversely affected by the imploding of the debt originally rated to be great by the same rating agencies. It is a controlled demolition via trojan horse. Yet almost no one, and most definitively not a single of the main US news agencies, in this country is aware of that.

Instead the EU crises are being spun as if somehow those countries economies are collapsing because those entitled Euros expect silly things like their tax money to be used to pay for social services and retirement. The gall!

[fascisthunter]

8. and once again, conservatives sabotage a system from within

just as they are doing on a global scale. I hope there time comes soon for the damage they have caused.

[Arctic Dave]

5. In other news, US journalist haven't showed up to work for years.

News at eleven.

[Historic NY]

6. How do we really know if there is a news blackout?

[jimlup]

7. My thoughts exactly

There's something humorous in this one but I can't really put my finger on the punchline.