ABC News in San Francisco obliterates Hoover Institutions Peter Schweizer about Pelosi and the Union

[trumad]

Click on the link below for the video--it's sweet. oh--and listen for the turdballs excuse when he gets busted.

Right-Wing Attack On Pelosi Over ‘Union Hypocrisy’ Systematically Debunked

Right-wing media outlets are engaged in an effort to tar House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who won the Cesar Chavez award from the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation in 2003, as anti-worker.

The conservative claim, initiated by Hoover Institution fellow Peter Schweizer, is that Pelosi and her husband are guilty of hypocrisy over workers’ rights because they own a vineyard in Napa Valley that is non-union. The claim has filtered up through the blogs to Fox News and conservative print outlets like Investor’s Business Daily.

Last night, the ABC News affiliate in San Francisco filed an investigative report that systematically debunks the charge. Watch it:

Here are the key facts:

1) Pelosi treats her workers better than unionized vineyard workers. “The Pelosis pay more than union workers are paid in the same valley — that from the pastor at St. Helena’s Catholic Church, a well known advocate for farm workers who’s involved in labor negotiations with the same labor manager the Pelosis use. … Monsignor Brenkle says the Pelosis pay a $1.25 an hour more than workers at Napa’s biggest union winery. … Of the more than 300 vineyards, fewer than four are union, and most of the farm workers in the Napa Valley get paid better.”

2) Pelosi is prohibited by law from helping her workers unionize. If Pelosi wanted to have union workers, “she could not ask the union for a contract. It’s illegal and has been since 1975.” Marc Grossman of the United Farm Workers Union explains: “It is patently illegal for any grower to even discuss a union contract, which is the only way you can supply union workers, without the workers first having voted in a state conducted secret ballot election.”

An ABC News reporter asked Peter Schweizer “if he had researched those facts before he called Pelosi a hypocrite.” Schweitzer responded, “It’s not my responsibility to go and find out how every single particular circumstance is handled on the Pelosi vineyard.” Why burden yourself with the facts?
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/29/pelosi-unions/

[williesgirl]

1. This asshole must apologize as should the organization he represents. recommended

[mrdmk]

2. From a saying from years past

"We are amazed but not amused".

I think R/W Think Tanks are nothing more than over rated PR Firms. Their credibility needs to be questioned in fact of the past history of bad judgment calls.

As a side note, I think the Bush Jr. Administration in the year of 2009 will have used all of the political capital and then some the R/W ever had. That is how Mr. Bush Jr. has lead his entire life, just using things up.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

4. RW Think Tanks - experts for hire/whore

I think R/W Think Tanks are nothing more than over rated PR Firms. Their credibility needs to be questioned in fact of the past history of bad judgment calls.

They are the source of a lot of questionable "science" and "scholarly writing" that goes against most of academia.

These are the kinds of places that publish papers saying there is no global warming, etc.

[mrdmk]

6. Your point is well taken, that is not a license to go out and irresponsibly

with ludicrous claims to the public stated as fact.

We need to also remember that the R/W not only paints the media as Liberal out of the mainstream, but also our education in colleges and universities. We need to state and remind the public who is funding these think tanks and what their objectives are, namely making money for themselves. Time to turn the spotlight on the, "greed is good crowd".

[wryter2000]

3. I owe them a mega-apology

I heard the beginning of the story and assumed they were going to trash Pelosi, so I changed the channel. Pete Wilson is rather to the right of center. I can't stand his talk show, and I often can't stand his news broadcasts.

Good on them! I'm off to repudiate my own thread in the Media Forum.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Investigative reporting? Whoa.

As rare as an endangered specie.

Especially on TV.