Earlier tonight, I clicked on an article on my lovely hometown newspaper's website about Missouri repealing a minimum wage law, passed by the voters in 2006.
Here is a part of the article:
Members of a labor rights group called Missouri Jobs for Justice said the state should keep its current law in place. They said it helps workers keep up with price increases for things they need, such as food and housing.
“To working people (a minimum wage increase) really isn’t a raise,” said the group’s director, Lara Granich. “It’s really just a way of making sure you don’t fall behind.”
Alluding to lawmakers’ desire to cut spending and balance the state’s budget this legislative session, Granich also told committee members that workers who don’t make enough to keep up with inflation end up relying on state service funded by tax dollars.
Parkinson said he has seen pink and black bumper stickers from Prince’s business on many cars around the state. When the lawmakers said that demonstrated the loyalty of the store customers, Prince said the loyalty is the result of close ties his customers have to his employees.
“They’re loyal to Matt and Orlandez and the 23 other employees who work here because they’re really good at what they do,” he said.
In the second to last paragraph I became confused, because who are Parkinson and Prince? They never come up before or after in the article, so I searched for the same AP story in Google.
On Yahoo! I found the same AP article. Here is the same section:
Members of a labor rights group called Missouri Jobs for Justice said the state should keep its current law in place. They said it helps workers keep up with price increases for things they need, such as food and housing.
"To working people (a minimum wage increase) really isn't a raise," said the group's director, Lara Granich. "It's really just a way of making sure you don't fall behind."
Alluding to lawmakers' desire to cut spending and balance the state's budget this legislative session, Granich also told committee members that workers who don't make enough to keep up with inflation end up relying on state service funded by tax dollars.
Lew Prince, the owner of a vinyl record store in University City, said paying more than the minimum wage has helped him hire better workers than national chains paying minimum wage.
"I can compete on service," he said. "If we can force the large out-of-state companies to compete with me, I have the advantage."
Parkinson said he has seen pink and black bumper stickers from Prince's business on many cars around the state. When the lawmakers said that demonstrated the loyalty of the store customers, Prince said the loyalty is the result of close ties his customers have to his employees.
"They're loyal to Matt and Orlandez and the 23 other employees who work here because they're really good at what they do," he said.
See two more complete paragraphs! I learned that Prince is a small business owner in University City. Also I accumulated further evidence that the News Tribune cannot edit AP stories properly and likes to conveniently take out paragraphs they do not agree with, like a small business owner who pays his employees better to compete with big box stores. Their motto is "Reporting the News We Agree With".
(Another example of their news coverage is that they will print a story about a judge overturning the Health Care Reform law on the front page, while not mentioning at all when a judge upholds the same law. How convenient!)
Now after reading the article on Yahoo! News I knew who Prince is, but who is Parkinson?
So, I went back and searched Google. I failed to find any stories that actually give more details about Parkinson. I will assume he is an employee of Prince, but why cut out crucial information about him, like identifying him as an employee of the record store.
I think this article just highlights the state of the news today: Shoddy and incomplete. How can we be informed citizens if our news outlets will not give us coherent articles? This article show the lack of journalism basics!
I was not even looking for an example of bad reporting. I just wanted to be informed of an issue in my state!
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