“[...]Union membership in the US has been cut from 25% to 7% since the Reagan years, and the legacy of Reaganomics is continuing to devastate this nation as our Department of Labor has been morphed into the Department of Union-Busting. Meanwhile, union friendly China is indisputably moving in the right direction for its economy and the standard of living of its citizens[...]“

I guess this is a sign that education blogging has hit the big time. Education blogs, including this one, are cited in documents obtained from the Department of Labor (DOL) by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) through……

Edwize and its readers are entitled to think Intercepts is mentioned frequently, too frequently, or shouldn’t be mentioned at all — just as long as they actually know how many times and in what context.

I think you get that, so we’re cool.

Regards,

Mike

You may be underestimating your role with your soulmates in the DOL. You’re right that you come up only a few times in the documents, but the FOIA Request was actually fairly narrow. What was suprising from the documents, and I could be naive, is just how much the DOL relies on right-wing anti-union front groups for basic cursory information, including clippings. It’s an interesting part of the thrust of the documents. CREW is appearently going to fight for the documents that DOL wouldn’t provide, so I guess there’s more to the story that we’re hopefully going to be reading.

However, singling out my appearances in CREW’s fishing expedition and characterizing them as “frequent” is a disservice to your readers, particularly those who won’t wade through the 108 pages to learn that Intercepts shows up a whopping three times — each time as an appearance in the State Policy Network’s newsletter, State Labor Policy Exchange, which DOL evidently passes around.

The SPN newsletters list dozens of articles from various sources, including the AFL-CIO, Jonathan Tasini’s Working Life Blog (three mentions), People’s Weekly World, and union press releases.

So I’m unsure if you want DOL to stop forwarding the SPN newsletter entirely, or if DOL should just avert their eyes if I’m mentioned in one.

Either way, you’re left without a point, other than the fact that you don’t like me or what I do. I guarantee you there are more NEA and AFT members (and staff) reading and forwarding Intercepts than there are DOL employees who do so.

Sincerely,

Mike Antonucci
Director
Education Intelligence Agency