Grapes of the New Wrath

Marc Cooper in LA Weekly:

At times my work has drawn criticism, protest, denunciation and condemnation. Yet not once has anything I’ve penned drawn the direct threat of a lawsuit. Not until now, that is. Sitting in front of me is a 20-page demand that threatens such action if the Weekly does not “correct” or retract what I have written. The threat doesn’t come from an offended Bush-administration official, nor from a fat-cat factory owner, nor a sweatshop operator. It comes, rather, from lawyers representing a union. The United Farm Workers.

I can fairly summarize its complaint by saying it vigorously disagrees with my suggestion that it has failed in its historic mission. When you consider that at most 2 percent of California’s farm workers are represented by the UFW, and that working conditions overall for those workers are in decline, it’s difficult to conclude otherwise. The UFW is free to dissent from that notion. But since this is still America, a difference of opinion is not, and should not be, the basis of a lawsuit.

Funny, I thought all the crushing of dissent came from the Oval Office and all it's lackeys. Here's a link to Cooper's original piece.