Another Word From Our Sponsor: The Return of Renee McMontagne

Renee "McMontagne" brought NPR listeners another McDonald's PR story yesterday morning. On April 5, Montange and her Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep uncritically previewed McDonald's big PR campaign revolving around a one-day hiring blitz to "recast its jobs not as dead-end work, but in ads starring its happy employees as desirable employment" (FAIR Blog, 4/6/11). I noted that McDonald's heiress Joan Kroc gave NPR a 9-figure bequest a few years ago.

Well, Montagne returned to the story yesterday with an on-the-ground report from the scene of a McDonald's hiring event in Philadelphia, where an NPR correspondent interviewed three of those "happy employees" recasting McJobs as, in the words of one of them, "more than just flipping burgers and working on fry. There's a potential for you to come through all the ranks."

What percent of the 50,000 jobs McDonald's is hiring for will be full time? How many will get laid off after the summer rush is over? What are the odds that any of them will actually advance? NPR didn't bother asking. But based on the McDonald's press release that says it will be spending $518 million on the new hires over the coming year, MSNBC.com (4/4/11) pointed out that works out to about $10,000 per worker–which kind of sounds exactly like a typical McJob.