Source: Fraser, C. (1998). "Message to the Media" In Revolution, She Wrote (pp. 195-197). Seattle, WA: Red Letter Press.
First Published: Freedom Socialist, Fall 1977
Transcription/Markup: Philip Davis and Glenn Kirkindall
Copyleft: Internet Archive (marxists.org)
2015. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable — that is the reporter’s mission, as defined by Heywood Broun, the great journalist who founded the Newspaper Guild.
I have encountered dozens of newswriters who did exactly that. I have an abiding respect for the working press — their facility with language, their splitsecond, deadline-haunted timing, and their skillful creation of concise stories that vividly capture the flavor of a happening or viewpoint.
But I have also seen issues cynically distorted by reporters who turn the victim into the villain, and the establishment into the good guys. And many of the bigtime editors who trim the stories and write the heads and captions are something else!
I have never met an editor or publisher of the bourgeois press, but it is clear that their attitudes are securely anchored in their advertisers’ wallets. News about social problems receives some weird and wacky treatment, and a recent experience of mine is a case in point.
• • •
I was “laid off’ from Seattle City Light because the superintendent was rendered apoplectic by my philosophy and activities. My “crimes” were legion:
I joined the striking electrical workers at the utility.
I organized and tried to preserve a trainee program for female electricians.
I testified against the big boss before a public committee investigating his controversial personnel and management policies.
I helped negotiate an employee Bill of Rights that would have subdued his napoleonic powers, had, not the mayor illegally stonewalled the Bill.
I supported a recall campaign against said mayor.
I advocated career training and upgrading for Black women clerical workers.
So I was fired, and I protested. I contend that I, a socialist, have as much right to work for the government as a Republican or Prohibitionist.
• • •
I appealed to the city’ s Department of Human Rights, charging discrimination on account of sex and politics, and the agency found on my behalf.
This judgment was exceptionally significant because mine was the first complaint filed under the “political ideology” section of the fair employment practices ordinance. It may well be the first such case in the country.
Since the agency cannot publicize its findings, I did — and many reporters and photographers came to my press conference.
• • •
TV treatment was curt and cursory. One channel flashed the item by so fast that I couldn’ t follow it, especially since wrong information was being transmitted.
On another channel, the anchorman “talked over” a picture of me on the screen, so my own words were not heard.
The third station let me speak. Their review was relatively extensive and correct — which may explain why the story was not rerun on the late evening time slot, when office workers and women watch the tube.
Came the dawn, and the morning paper featured a front-page capsule preview: “CLARA FRASER, fired by City Light in 1975, said the Seattle Dept. of Human Rights backs her six-point discrimination complaint.” The gist of the matter was not that an impartial agency upheld me — but that I said they did! This introductory blurb hinted that perhaps I was talking through my bonnet, even though the full story quoted the agency’ s attorney.
The headline was a triumph of folksiness: “Clara Fraser Isn’ t Through With City Light Yet.” My photo was captioned “Clara Fraser — Not Through Yet.” (My paranoid vibes whispered that the subliminal, missing word was “unfortunately.”)
OK, no big problem, and what’ s wrong with humor, anyway. But this PR experience triggered an old irritation. We, the afflicted, are being taken — and in my next column, I’ ll tell you where.
(To be continued)