A little blue on blue political squabbling to brighten up your weekend. Among many other things, Comcast owns NBC News and MSNBC. Comcast wants to gobble up Time Warner Cable. The Writers Guild of America-East opposes the merger and is now petitioning MSNBC’s liberal hosts to openly oppose the merger because Comcast is — get this — a union buster.
WGAE says Comcast’s behavior will only get worse if the government approves its bid to take over Time Warner Cable.
The writers-producers at Peacock Productions say Comcast has stalled their attempts to form a union for a more than a year. They say Comcast is trying to have it both ways by refusing to recognize their right to organize while profiting from progressive programming.
NBCU says it’s more complicated than that, and that the National Labor Relations Board is addressing the issue.
If MSNBC hosts weren’t constantly encouraging employees at Walmart, McDonald’s and the like to rise up against their own employers, this move by the WGAE would be a little unfair. But all Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and their ilk are being asked to do by the WGAE is what they have asked countless others with a lot more to lose to do.
Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, and company are millionaires who will be just fine if fired by their employer for standing on principle. The people Ed Schultz and company encourage to stand on principle, though, would likely lose everything if they were fired.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC