“Job Killers” in the News

Chapter 6investigates one outgrowth of the shift in journalism and politics: the rise of the concept of “job killers.” Conservative politicians have successfully coined the term “job killer” for the laws and policies that impede corporate autonomy and unchecked profit-taking. Ironically, these laws (e.g., minimum wage, health care reform, workplace safety rules) are designed to aid the working class. Yet, the term is often uncritically repeated by journalists. The durability of “job killers” as a public concept speaks to a major failure of the press.

The News Media’s Shift to Upscale Audiences

Chapter 3 analyzes how the U.S. news media made a significant and devastating shift from targeting a mass audience to an upscale, middle class audience beginning in the late 1960s. The chapter draws on dozens of images of the newspapers’ own advertising aimed at corporate advertisers in the long-time industry publication Editor and Publisher, which illustrate the newspaper industry’s change in direction.