Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights

NIKE: BUYING SILENCE?

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

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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