mediacrit.com

At one point, in live, late night coverage, CNN’s Anderson Cooper reminded viewers that this Appalachian region mines a lot of coal, which is used to fuel many of the power plants supplying electricity to viewers around the country. (In fact, more than half of the electricity used in the U.S. comes from coal.)

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On March 23, 2005, a woman dining at a San Jose Wendy’s restaurant claimed to find a finger in her chili. You might remember hearing about this. The incident generated immediate and extensive national coverage – at least 170 stories in the LexisNexis major newspaper database through the end of May 2005. Meanwhile, in U.S. workplaces, an estimated two dozen finger amputations happen each day. At least some of those cases, one might assume, are interesting stories. Yet, stories of fingers amputated in workplace accidents hardly registered a blip in major newspapers.

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There has been mounting criticism of Wal-Mart in recent years. Critics charge they kill off small local businesses, they contribute to urban sprawl, they squeeze suppliers into bankruptcy, they discriminate against female employees, they hire illegal aliens and fire union organizers.

Last January, Wal-Mart fought back with a multi-million-dollar massive public relations blitz, including full-page advertisements in more than 100 newspapers, a new round of television commercials featuring happy blue-vested Wal-Mart workers, and a web site called walmartfacts.com (as an antidote to critical sites such as walmartwatch.com).

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If you are fortunate enough to not be working at the minimum wage, you might be shocked to learn that it’s still $5.15 an hour. The last time the wage was raised was 1996-97, when it was raised from $4.25.

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