NewsBriefs...
SAG, AFTRA Boards Approve Merger
The boards of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA) have both agreed to a merger plan which will now be voted on by rank and file members.
Meetings on creating a merger package have been going on since June of last year. The AFTRA board called the 
new union — which will be called SAG-AFTRA— a "unified, powerful union committed to organizing all work in our jurisdictions, negotiating the best wages, working conditions and health and pension benefits, preserving and expanding our members' work opportunities, vigorously enforcing our contracts and protecting our members against the unauthorized use of their work."
The merger will combine AFTRA's 70,000-plus members--actors and performers in TV, radio, recording and digital media, with SAG's 125,000-plus actors in commercials, TV programs, video games, corporate/educational media and new media.
SAG President Ken Howard said, "Professional performers are now an important step closer to the strongest union representation possible. Just as our boards have, I believe our members will decisively approve this merger and that SAG-AFTRA will be a leader in shaping the entertainment and media industries."
Local New Directors Grade National TV News
As a group, the six major national TV news organizations are journalistic underachievers, according to a TVNewsCheck survey of the news directors at TV stations across 
the country.
While the three broadcast network news organizations earned solid Bs with NBC News leading the way with a 3.18 GPA, the three cable news networks clearly have some work to do, the survey found.
CNN pulled a B- with a 2.78 GPA, MSNBC brought home a C with a 1.92 GPA and Fox News Channel (FNC) managed only a C- and 1.68 GPA.
In the survey, the news directors were asked to grade the six organizations' "overall journalistic quality" using conventional letter grades, A to F. The GPA were calculated by assigning the letter grades a point value from 4 to 0 as is the convention in many schools. Read More
Palm Springs Stations Merge Operations
Desert Television's KPSP Palm Springs has merged with Gulf-California's KESQ following the sale of KPSP to Gulf-California, which is part of News-Press & Gazette. The deal puts the local ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and Telemundo affiliates under the same owner.
Desert Television chief James Houston, a successful entrepreneur, called 
KPSP "a labor of love" for his late wife Jackie Lee, who died in September.
"In addition to its excellent local news commitment, the station has made a tremendous contribution to the non-profit community of the Coachella Valley," said Houston. "With [Jackie Lee's] passing, we have now made the difficult decision to find a new owner for our television operation. While a number of options were carefully considered, a merger with the Bradley family, owners of Gulf-California, was ultimately chosen as the best opportunity."
The Desert Sun newspaper says around half of KPSP's staff lost their jobs as a result of the merger, but 70% of on-air personalities survived.
"We feel very fortunate to be able to acquire such a strong station with a huge commitment to local news coverage," said David Bradley, CEO of NPG. "This arrangement allows us to combine the two best newsgathering organizations in the Coachella Valley with each station continuing to maintain their own unique news brands."
Mike Stutz, former News Director at KGTV, is KESQ's General Manager and Corporate Director of News.
Univision, Disney Mull English News Channel
Univision and Disney are in talks to create a 24-hour cable news channel for Latinos in English, two sources close to the negotiations said.
The goal would be to begin broadcasting before the November presidential election. 
That would give the network plenty of time to provide political coverage geared toward Hispanics, who are considered influential swing voters in states like Florida, New Mexico and Colorado.
Univision is the nation's largest Spanish-language media company, and it has long prided itself on its Spanish-language content. In recent years, officials have quietly acknowledged that in order to maintain and expand viewership, they also need to provide content to second and third-generation Latinos who speak English as their first language.
The move comes in response to the 2010 census, which showed U.S. born Latinos made up nearly 60% of the growth in the nation's Hispanic population over the last decade.
The proposed deal also reflects the stepped up efforts of mainstream media companies to target Latinos. Fox News added its Fox News Latino website in 2010 and Huffington Post now has an online Huffpost LatinoVoices site. Meanwhile, NBC Universal has increased the cross-pollination between its NBC News division and that of its Spanish language network, Telemundo.
CWA, Allies Fight Corporate Money in Politics
CWA, working with several organizations determined to restore our democracy, spotlighted the destructive influence of corporate money in politics in actions and events tied 
to the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling. That decision, two years ago, allows unlimited spending by corporations and other groups through super PACs, with no restrictions as long as there is no coordination with the political candidate.
Eliminating corporate money in politics, taking action on voter suppression and fixing the broken Senate rules are among CWA's top priorities this year.
CWA has partnered with Common Cause, Democracy For America, MoveOn, Move to Amend, Occupy, Public Citizen and other groups committed to the fight for democracy.
A new public survey shows that the Citizens United decision has very little support. Americans across all parties oppose the ruling; among all voters, 62% oppose the decision and nearly half (46%) strongly oppose it. More than half of all voters say they would support a constitutional amendment to reverse the opinion.
Indiana Workers Vow to Fight ‘Right to Work’ for Less
The Indiana state Senate has approved (28-22) a “right to work” for less bill. Passage of the bill, says Indiana State AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott, “means that strong arm tactics, 
misinformation and big money have won at the Indiana Statehouse.”
Guyott says the bill, which Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) will sign, sets Indiana upon "a path that will lead to lower wages for all working Hoosiers, less safety at work and less dignity and security in old age or ill health. Indiana’s elected officials have given the wrong answer to the most important question of this generation."
While thousands of working people—some days more than 10,000—traveled to Indianapolis over the past few weeks as Daniels, House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) and others muscled the bill through the legislature, they were often denied the right to be heard.
"Citizens who stood against this legislation were barred from entering the Statehouse, were denied the chance to testify before the committees considering it and were refused meetings with their own legislators," said Guyott.
A similar bill was passed in 1957, but voters not only turned out the Republican majority in the next election cycle, but the law was was repealed in 1965. Guyott said, "As working men and women did in the 1950s and 60s, this generation of Hoosiers will now rise up, join forces and repeal this anti-worker agenda again."
