Don’t Believe the Fox News Spin About Poor Ken Hamidi
November 9, 2009
Always curious as to what Fox “News” is up to, I took a look at FoxNation a few minutes ago and this headline caught my eye:
My antennae went up immediately went up. Members of the SEIU aren’t prone to beating people up — hell, they’re used to sucking it up given the kind of bosses some of them work for – so I clicked on the link:
A state worker is recovering after a bloody brawl at a union hall. He says members of the local SEIU 1000 beat him up and sent him to the hospital all because he wanted to expose allegedl [sic] corruption within the union.
No investigation. No confirmation. Leave it to Fox to devote a big ol’ headline like this to something someone “says” — as long as what that person “says” fits their agenda. In this case, bashing unions.
The name of that “state worker” is Ken Hamidi. I Googled him and lo and behold, look at what I found:
– An April, 2008 YouTube video of SHOUT TV SoCal reporter Carly Perez interviewing Ken Hamidi, then a candidate for statewide office, SEIU Local 1000. (Compare the image of Hamidi in the video to the picture above. It’s the same guy.)
– A 2003 NYT article about a man named “Kourosh Kenneth Hamidi, known as Ken, who has spent eight years trying to rally employees at Intel, his former employer, to resist what he considers abusive workplace practices.” The article mentions that Mr. Hamidi was born in Tehran. Watch the YouTube video. Mr. Hamidi has an accent.
– In September of 2003, Iranian.com posted an article about Hamidi titled: “Governor Ken,” that seems to talk about Hamidi running for governor of California.
– A long list of recent interviews with Hamidi done by SHOUT TV.
There’s something fishy going on here. Hamidi seems to be the looking for attention — attention that Fox “News” is giving him. There’s more to this story and I’m going to stay on it. Meanwhile, beware if you hear Fox portraying this guy as the innocent victim of thuggish union brutes. Fox wants you to think of unions in that light but I think the thug might actually be Hamidi oh, and Fox “News.”
Entry Filed under: Fox "News"/ Fox "Business" /Rupert Murdoch / Wall Street Journal / My Space / Facebook / DirectTV, etc. (Murdoch owns them all, and more.), Unions. .
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R. Lawson | November 22, 2009 at 4:26 PM
I knew of Hamidi nearly a decade ago when I worked at Intel, and feel he has made more contributions to the rights of labor than most. It was because of him I first learned of the H-1b visa. He came from an industry traditionally non-union, which makes this so much more remarkable.
I’m not sure whats going on regarding Ken getting attacked because I wasn’t there. But I seriously doubt that FAUX news – which is as anti-labor as they come – would have some plot to help Ken out.
My GUESS is that Ken wants to change the way the union does business which doesn’t sit well with other union leaders. The union has not been accepted amongst professional class workers and in my view don’t understand our needs. They should listen to Ken. And maybe Ken could listen back.
The union and Ken Hamidi should be working together, not fighting. Whomever got violent should be ashamed and apologize for hitting a man who is getting up in his years. This is not the type of press unions need.