I see that Mitch Albom is coming to Bend in September. He’s promoting a new book and I’m guessing he’ll spend a fair amount of time telling people how important he is.
Mitch and I were in the same union (Newspaper Guild Local 22) back in 1995 when his employer, the Detroit Free Press, demanded concessions from union workers and forced them out on strike. My employer, the United Auto Workers union, provided material support to the Detroit newspaper strikers, as did our Guild unit in the UAW’s Public Relations Department.
Albom immediately showed his allegiance to the boss at a well-attended union meeting where he demanded that everyone return to work. His suggestion was rejected and a few days later Mitch broke ranks and scabbed.
As a darling columnist at the Free Press, Albom made a lot more money than the average union reporter and the folks who worked in production, printing, circulation, etc. He wasn’t going to suffer from any of the concessions the Free Press demanded.
It wasn’t that he needed the money, Albom told other Local 22 members. It was that “his” readers needed his words. Ah that Mitch, always thinking of other people first. Albom also told the strikers that he would make regular contributions to the strike fund from his hefty salary.
Old news? Yeah, I suppose. But, union folks don’t forget. Albom sold out the rest of the workforce so he could live large while they stuck to their principles and managed on strike pay and odd jobs. And Albom’s pledge of strike assistance was just his imagination. You could call it a lie.
Ten years later, in 2005, Albom actually got suspended by the Detroit Free Press for telling a lie. After he roundly criticized fellow journalist Jayson Blair for making stuff up, Mitch got busted for, yup, making stuff up.
An internal investigation showed that he frequently lifted quotes from other writers without attribution. One reporter told Editor & Publisher that Albom not only lifted quotes, but changed them to make them livelier. Sound familiar? Jonah Lehrer, another best-selling writer, recently lost his job at The New Yorker for doing the same thing.
Mitch has survived it all, won himself fame and fortune, even started a few tax-deductible charity organizations. I’m sure he’ll tell folks all about it. If there’s one thing Mitch Albom likes to talk about its Mitch Albom.
Does he still make stuff up? I don’t know. If you go see him, ask him.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2012.
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I’ve had no use for Mitch Albom since he started his anti gun rage years ago, even before the strike. Not only was he a scab, a liar who made stuff up, but an ill informed idiot who thought guns kill people. I quit the Free Press because of him more than the strike.
What exactly is the point of this letter? The author comes across as nothing but a bitter, thuggish, militant, and most of all pathetic union wacko.
I know relatively little about Mr. Albom, but based upon the description here, it appears that he chose free enterprise over union dogma to his own benefit and union guys are holding a 17 year grudge probably based upon some feeling of inferiority. Mr. Albom chose success and free will, you chose your ideals and that, Mr. Funke will have to be enough for you.
And by the way, employers do not “force” workers out on strike. They strike voluntarily of their own free will. Any privations suffered as a result are their own fault.
My ideals and principles serve me just fine, Jon. I have been living a very complete and happy life, very rewarding in more ways than I can count. Sorry that my principles upset you so much. You sound bitter, perhaps suffering from an inferiority complex. Maybe you could get some therapy through Obamacare.
Inferior to whom? Inferior to what??
I, like Mr. Albom, believe that each individual is a free agent who is able to market his or her own skills to maximum personal benefit wherever they earn the greatest return. I gleefully pursue that success. Meanwhile, you have chosen to write a bitter diatribe about something that happenned 17 years ago that didn’t even affect you. Mitch Albom pursued and earned success as a writer and, apparently, you did not. Get over it!