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The ‘Rust’ Killing & America’s Labor Uprising
Halyna Hutchin’s tragic death is a reminder of the shocking conditions employees are expected to work in
If you’ve turned on the news or opened up any social media app, even briefly this week, you’re almost certainly aware of the tragic accident that occurred on the set of ‘Rust’ (an upcoming Western) where Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchin and injured director Joel Souza.
The back-to-back news coverage, if nothing else, has proved that quantity does not equal quality; for all the countless hours dedicated to this story by major news networks, the quality of that coverage has been largely tasteless and narrow-focused. Coverage has centered on Baldwin and his celebrity, rather than on the death of Hutchin; a death that has left her husband widowed and her child motherless. Meanwhile, the media — in particular, tabloids like the Daily Mail — have recklessly tried to pin blame solely on particular individuals (Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, Dave Halls) based on very limited evidence and speculative musings.
This approach isn’t just dangerous, it obscures the much wider context of a nationwide disregard for worker safety and worker concerns in general. “It surprises me that more [workers on set] aren’t hurt more often,” said attorney…
