A-Infos (en) Nike: buying silence?

["Shawn Ewald" <shawn@wilshire.net>]

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NIKE: BUYING SILENCE?
February 11, 1998

On April 18, human rights advocates around the world will demonstrate in
support of the rights of Nike production workers. In many U.S. communities,
local activists will use the occasion to talk about building cross-border
solidarity - in the Western Hemisphere and around the world - to resist the
global corporate agenda, as embodied in NAFTA, GATT and the proposed Free
Trade Area of the Americas. Activists in other countries also are invited to
use their April 18 activities as a forum for discussing the trade agreements
and policies which most affect their regions. The theme of this second
International Nike Mobilization is "Hands across Borders." Activists in
border areas will be forming human chains across the international barriers
which divide worker from worker. In other cities, activists will form human
chains between Nike outlets and other buildings implicated in the global
sweatshop. Where physical location does not allow for linkages between
actual buildings, activists can gather in front of Nike outlets to form
human chains between large symbolic cardboard or plywood cut-outs.

The following piece appeared in today's Washington Post. In 1996,
investigative reporter Roberta Baskin of CBS News did a widely publicized
piece on abuses of workers at a Nike factory in Vietnam. Since then, CBS has
resisted her entreaties to be allowed to follow up on that story. When she
saw CBS News staff wearing the Nike logo on camera during Nike-sponsored
coverage of the Olympics, she wrote a blistering memo accusing CBS of caving
in to advertiser pressure. As the following article shows, CBS News
executives were shocked - *S*H*0*C*K*E*D* - at the allegation. Whether or
not Nike ever flexed its muscle overtly, media analysts have long held that
the corporate-owned news media practice extensive and rigorous
self-censorship so as not to lose advertising dollars. For more on this
subject, we recommend the excellent book, Manufacturing Consent, written by
Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky and published by Pantheon Books. 

CBS Reporter Creates Internal Furor over Nike
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post   February 11, 1998

CBS News President Andrew Heyward, in a stinging rebuke, has accused one of
his correspondents, Roberta Baskin, of "reckless and irresponsible" behavior.

Heyward was responding to a missive from Baskin in which the investigative
reporter declared that the network had derailed her attempts to investigate
Nike because of concern that it might affect the sneaker company's decision
to sponsor CBS's broadcast of the Winter Olympics.

Taking issue with each of Baskin's allegations, Heyward wrote: "Your rush to
make charges of this kind, without either knowing or acknowledging the
facts, is not only deeply distressing to me, but potentially injurious to
the reputation of CBS News."

Baskin said yesterday she could not comment on her letter because "it was a
confidential and internal communication at CBS. The letter really speaks for
itself." The six-year CBS veteran, who got her start at WJLA here, is known
for taking on big companies and has won two duPont and two Peabody awards.
CBS submitted her October 1996 piece on poor working conditions and low
wages at a Nike factory in Vietnam for a duPont Award.

Baskin's Friday letter, with copies sent to anchors Dan Rather, Bryant
Gumbel and other top executives, exploded with maximum force at CBS. "That
is so far off the wall," said Jeff Fager, executive producer of the "CBS
Evening News." "I cannot imagine how she drew those conclusions. It is so
far from reality."

"Never, never was the word 'sales' mentioned to me. . . . It's unthinkable
that Andrew would ever mention that to me," said Susan Zirinsky, Baskin's
boss as executive producer of "48 Hours."

Some offered a more measured assessment. "I admire Roberta's passion and her
willingness to fight for what she thinks is right," a CBS colleague said.
"But sometimes she kind of crosses a line." Several openly wondered whether
Baskin, with a few months left on her contract, was looking to leave CBS.

Baskin's two-page letter said she was "dismayed and embarrassed" at seeing
CBS News staffers reporting from Nagano, Japan, in blue jackets emblazoned
with the Nike logo. Heyward has since told his correspondents not to allow
the "swoosh" logo to be seen on the air, although it has been visible in
some pieces that were taped earlier.

Baskin says that months after her 1996 piece on Nike - which included the
allegation that some workers were beaten with the soles of shoes - Heyward
vetoed a summer rebroadcast of the report. Baskin says that Zirinsky
overheard Heyward and his deputy, Jonathan Klein, talking about a Nike
letter to the CBS sales department that expressed concern about the two
companies' relationship at the upcoming Olympics. 

Zirinsky disputed that account. She said Heyward had asked her directly
about responding to an internal Nike memo, which had made its way to CBS,
complaining about Baskin's story. But Zirinsky said it was a typical
corporate complaint and had nothing to do with advertising.

Heyward, in an interview, called Baskin's secondhand account of the
conversation "completely fictitious." He said the original version of her
Nike report was "thin" and that "we weren't happy, it was difficult to bring
to air."

Stressing that he knew nothing about any CBS advertising discussions with
Nike, Heyward said: "We aired the piece. This is about an investigative
piece that aired on CBS News."

But Baskin argues that she was muzzled after that. She says Heyward refused
to let her respond to a Wall Street Journal column that criticized her story
for having "trashed" Nike. Last fall, when Baskin obtained a report prepared
by Nike's own auditors that documented abuses at the Vietnam plant, she says
her bosses would not let her do a follow-up piece. "I was heartbroken to see
that story on the front page of the New York Times that weekend," she wrote.

The audit report, by Ernst & Young, said that workers at the factory were
exposed to carcinogens, that 77 percent suffered from respiratory problems
and that employees were forced to work 65 hours a week for $10.

In his letter, Heyward said he had no involvement in that decision. But he
dismissed "the truly preposterous assertion that the stories didn't run
because of Nike's Olympic deal." Heyward said he vetoed Baskin's proposed
response to the Wall Street Journal because of its "tone of advocacy." And
he said her Nike report was not rebroadcast because he and other executives
did not think it was "strong enough" -- although CBS did submit it for an award.

"The simple fact is this, Roberta. There is no connection whatsoever - NONE
- between Nike's sponsorship of the Olympic Games or any other CBS programs
it might sponsor and CBS News coverage of the Nike story," Heyward wrote.
"You would have known that if, like the reporter you are paid to be, you had
bothered to ask."

Lee Weinstein, Nike's communications director, said that "Roberta certainly
has a point of view and her bias is well known." But he said it is
"completely untrue" that Nike tried to put any pressure on CBS News.

Weinstein said Nike gave CBS the free jackets "in exchange for commercial
air time" and that the correspondents' use of them "helps us build awareness
about our products." 


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-------Message History -------
Date:          Wed, 11 Feb 1998 20:47:40 -0800 (PST)
To:            clr@igc.org
From:          Campaign for Labor Rights <clr@igc.apc.org>
Subject:       Nike: buying silence?
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