Tuesday, March 1, 2011

My debate on public sector unions on Fox News today

Check out my debate on Fox News today on a "power panel" with Steven Malanga of the right wing Manhattan Institute and Tracy Byrnes, Fox business correspondent. Megyn Kelly was pretty fair as the moderator, I thought.

My favorite moment was when Malanga said he didn't feel "oppressed" by not being a member of a union.

My least favorite? Having three irate voicemail messages on my machine when I returned to my office twenty minutes later. One woman screamed at me for having messy hair!

As the booking producer pointed out, this proves at least people were watching. He said this show has more than one million viewers. Scary! Please leave a comment.

16 comments:

Pogue said...

Great job, Leonie. I thought you were the calmest and laid out the most factual points of the panel. Tracy Byrnes came off extremely shill-like.

Wonderful job.

Leonie Haimson said...

thanks Pogue; hard to believe that Tracy Byrnes is a professional journalist. She was so shrill; and so off point.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't have expected anything less from the Fox Freaks.

Good job telling the truth Leonie. They just didn't like hearing it.

Rose said...

What wasn't mentioned was that the reason many private companies do not have unions is the knowledge that if the workers don't have at least minimum wage and some benefits, they can try to unionize. Perhaps that should have been brought up to Malanga? Yes, you were the calmest one there and Tracy Byrnes acted more like a troll rather than a reporter. It surprised me that Megyn Kelly tried to give you a chance to speak and let you be the last one to comment - I wouldn't have expected that from FOX.

Keep the police involve if those phone calls seem dangerous. You are wonderful!!

Anonymous said...

thanks for taking on those nasty bulldogs leonie. clearly the manhattan institute guy never attempted take a sick day from a walmart job or talk to anyone who did. wonder about the sacrifices tracy has made so her job won't go over seas.

Leonie Haimson said...

Perhaps they should outsource her!

Zulma said...

Leonie you were the only one there that provided facts to support your arguments and you held your composure better than the others.

It never ceases to amaze me when I see people get riled up when a raw nerve is hit. And you did a great job by hitting that raw nerve about the wealthy not paying their fair share and who's truly the blame for the downfall in the economy.

Norm's blog clearly says that it was 3 against 1! Of course, you were clearly the champion in today's panel discussion.

Thank you Leonie for your courage in standing up to those 3 supporters of the Bloomberg agenda and for ruffling their feathers. BTW, you look fantastic!

Anonymous said...

You did a great job, very calm, poised and eloquent. Very nice.

~Tracie

P.S. Your hair looked absolutely fine. Don't offensive and uncouth thought boggle your mind.

Unknown said...

Brave woman, Leonie, to go on Fox News! Thanks so much for standing up for all of us - in Wisconsin, the rest of the country and the world!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic Leonie. Through the barely coherent screaching of Ms. Byrnes, I thought I heard her refering to 'outsourcing'... weren't you talking about public sector unions primarily? If so, outsourcing doesn't really apply no?

Secondly, your point about the middle class was well taken. If you look at graphs plotting incomes/middle class, those living in poverty, the number of folks in unionized jobs, and the distribution of wealth over the last 30 years, you will see a striking correlation: as union jobs decrease, so do American incomes, the middle class shrinks, the number of those in poverty increases, and there is an out of control disproportionate distribution of wealth.

Finally, your hair looked beautiful :)

Anonymous said...

Link brought me to a garbage Fox shmooze show. Is there a permalink to your bit?

Jonathan

Wilphil said...

You were great, Leonie. It's amazing how whenever one starts to tell the truth and deviates from the Neo-Con script, they start shouting and trying to insert points from the script regardless of whether it has anything to do with the topic.

You held firm beautifully.

Cibijoy said...

I thought you gave a good defense of the unions, but we should not conflate public unions with private unions. Public unions do have an unfair advantage to private unions-- it's called tax payer money. This makes ALL the difference.

Anonymous said...

Amazing job, especially with people shouting and over talking you and being out numbered. You held your cool and made your points. Awesome presentation!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for speaking up for the unions. By the way, I'm so sick of everyone saying that teachers get the summer off. First off, the summer is two months. Second, we spend most of that time recovering, teaching summer school, going to workshops, reading books, and buying supplies for the next year. With email accounts, now we also get to dispute report card grades with parents well into July. By the way, I was a TV producer before I was a teacher and made more in one summer at Fox News Channel than I made in the entire school year! Thanks again.

Mrs. McCabe's Computer Class said...

Fantastic Job Leonie! I enjoyed listening your discussion. You gave and intelligent, professional argument. Unfortunately it fell on deaf (and dumb)ears. Please keep up the great work.