The unions pay the unwatchable loudmouth a lot of money for that miniscule audience he attracts:
In fiscal 2011, Schultz received $190,000 from the Communications Workers of America for what the U.S. Department of Labor categorized as “representational activities.”
For swag like that, you’d think Schultz could at least get it right about the CWA name. Instead, he invariably refers to it as the “Communication” Workers of America when its president, Larry Cohen, is a guest on Schultz’s radio show, as Cohen often is.
Schultz also received $9,900 in fiscal 2011 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), putting his union haul for the year at almost $200,000.
This represented a fivefold increase over the $37,350 Schultz received from unions in fiscal 2010 — $15,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), $14,850 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and $7,500 from the Communications Workers of America.
The unions clearly don’t know how to be good stewards of their money. Schultz’s audience consists of two kinds of people: Those who already agree with him, and those who laugh at him. He isn’t capable of winning anyone over to his or Big Labor’s side.
More at the link. Everyone should keep in mind from now on, that when Ed Schultz says anything positive about the unions, there are hundreds of thousands of reasons for that. They bought him and they own him.
It’s fair to wonder about the ethics here. MSNBC suspended Keith Olbermann for making political donations. Here’s Ed Schultz on the receiving end of political donations over the course of several years, and he isn’t even running for anything. Did the network know about this arrangement? What’s the ethical defense for this?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member