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Dear Media, Please Stop Interviewing Corporate Shill Joe Olivo
from No More Mr. Nice Blog, via AlterNet:
Dear Media, Please Stop Interviewing Corporate Shill Joe Olivo
I'm grateful to all of you for your response to my recent post about Joe Olivo. He's a member of the National Federation of Independent Business -- the ALEC/Koch/Rove-affiliated group that was the lead plaintiff in the suit against the health care act that was just decided at the Supreme Court -- but he also owns a printing company in New Jersey, and he makes frequent media appearances posing as a mere small businessman who just so happens to give good quote, in a Koch-y, pro-corporatist way. I posted because he appeared on NBC and NPRjust hours after the health care ruling came down, each time identified as a guy who owns a printing company, with no mention of his NFIB ties.
I saw in comments and on Twitter that a number of you got in touch with NPR and other media outlets about the media's constant use of Olivo without an acknowledgment of his NFIB affiliation. I would have hoped NPR, at least, got the message.
But there he was again, on NPR yesterday.
He was being interviewed by Guy Raz on All Things Considered on the subject of a bill championed by Senator Tom Harkin that would raise the minimum wage. (Needless to say, Olivo's against the idea.) Here's how this is presented in the online version of the story:
Opponents of Harkin's minimum wage bill point to jobs, saying that with such high unemployment, an increase in the minimum wage will make a bad situation worse.
Joe Olivo owns a small printing press in New Jersey that employs 47 people. Olivo tells Raz that a higher minimum wage basically raises the whole wage scale and would force him to make cuts.
"What happens is the employee who's been here for 3 years and has more experience than a person making an entry-level wage, they will rightfully want more for their seniority," Olivo says. "So what it does to me as a business owner, by pushing up wage scale, it increases my expenses."
Olivo says that means he either has to increase revenues — difficult in the current economy — or he must find ways to cut expenses: cutting employees, not hiring new employees or bring in new technology to decrease the number of employees he needs.
"So it really hurts my current employees and it also prevents me from bringing on new ones," he says.
..............(more)
Joe Olivo owns a small printing press in New Jersey that employs 47 people. Olivo tells Raz that a higher minimum wage basically raises the whole wage scale and would force him to make cuts.
"What happens is the employee who's been here for 3 years and has more experience than a person making an entry-level wage, they will rightfully want more for their seniority," Olivo says. "So what it does to me as a business owner, by pushing up wage scale, it increases my expenses."
Olivo says that means he either has to increase revenues — difficult in the current economy — or he must find ways to cut expenses: cutting employees, not hiring new employees or bring in new technology to decrease the number of employees he needs.
"So it really hurts my current employees and it also prevents me from bringing on new ones," he says.
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/1025773/dear_media%2C_please_stop_interviewing_corporate_shill_joe_olivo/
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