You know what really fucking sucks?

[tjwash]

2003 and 2005 saw the most people in history demonstrating against the Iraq war. There were millions of people involved, and it spanned the entire globe with close to sixty different countries that were united in opposition to the US led invasion of Iraq.






FUCK....in New York, there were easily 100,000 people protesting the Iraq War, and all the fucking New York Times did was bury it on page 8 the next day, underneath the ads for preparation H and viagra, with a 2 sentence blurb about it.


So I check the paper this morning, and what is front and fucking center?



Un. Fucking. Believable. Millions of protesters, spanning 60 different countries, against war atrocities, torture, and war crimes, and none of them get a fraction of the US media attention that a handful of incoherent right wing shit-brains are getting today.

I swear-not since the days of W.R. Hearst, has the media been so bound together, and used as a tool to manipulate so many people.

[mucifer]

1. Yup, I went to one of those. I bet lots of us on this board were there.

Makes me want to spit.

[shadowknows69]

24. September 2005, and it was pretty much the last hurrah for my back

Now I couldn't march two blocks. Also if I remember correctly the field of green you see in that pic was covered with people at our marches.

[Sub Atomic]

2. The Union Tribune has always been a mouthpiece of the dumb and dumber.

This comes as no surprise.

[Odin2005]

3. The media virtually ignored us during the anti-Iraq war protests.

And they emphasized pictures of people like the ANSWER brigade and similar wacko types in order to smear us as loonies.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. I remember the rw troublemakers trying to start shit and get the

popo involved at some of the earliest protests where well known personalities were speaking at the podium minus the uzi, stone knives or bear skins.

[DainBramaged]

4. More people will be at the SD Chargers game today than were in DC

That picture is pathetic and PROVES what a minority they are.

[Doremus]

6. Stark reality is a bitch, eh?

Ever notice how it takes brute force to effect real change?

Just sayin'.

[lostnfound]

7. According to another thread here, the NYT does NOT have this on page 1 either

The San Diego Union Tribune? Well, it's not the NYT.
Not saying the media coverage isn't imbalanced. There are plenty of examples to make the case.

[Overseas]

8. I agree. Just more evidence on the heap demonstrating right wing domination of our media.

The right wing attempt to push our national dialogue way off to the right has been a systematic campaign. It is well documented in Eric Alterman's book, "What Liberal Media?" www.whatliberalmedia.com

We have a few token left-leaning news shows on TV to demonstrate that "You see, we've got liberals on, so we're balanced."

But crackpots who continue to utter falsehoods and say they're delighted to support racist demonstrations are still allowed lots of air time. And instead of broadcasting the more interesting facet of the "genuine grass roots" storming of town halls this summer-- that they were financed with corporate cash funneled through amoral right wing PR groups that ginned up dangerous fear and hatred to protect private profits-- most news broadcasters talked about the storming as though it was just genuine opposition to reform.

The GOP has been playing hardball with their professional bullying and yet they are invited on to TV news chat shows as though they were decent politicians.

The GOP's popularity has sunk really low and yet they are invited on air in equal numbers with the Democratic politicians. The GOP is rewarded with air time even though it is inflaming and sucking up to its lunatic right wing fringe and repeating falsehoods with aplomb.

I sincerely hope we can revoke "Corporate Personhood" as soon as possible. We don't want even more right wing corporate cash fueling the many attempts to derail our Democratic President.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/fascism-com...

[haele]

9. I notice they didn't cover the perhaps 70 or so wingnuts - er - "tax protesters"

who spread out up against Broadway in front of the NBC building downtown yesterday afternoon to make it look as if they had at least 200, because of the tourists, Horton Plaza shoppers, and people waiting at the transit center that would also be in the area. (They may have also picked that spot because it was close to public restrooms, and no one would have to rent porta-potties)...If they were to compare it to the Prop-8 protesters earlier this year, it would have been pitiful, to say the least.
One of the whitest crowds I've seen in a long time, and most looked to be blue-collar types around age 45/50 and up. And it was all about the tyranny and socialism, very little about health care. Since parking is at a premium and seriously enforced downtown, I suspect they all hopped the Trolley - public transportation - down to the site.

I saw bigger crowds - at least three times as many people - at the Jeopardy tryout a couple months ago.

Haele

[stevedeshazer]

10. Yeah. I was here.

[malaise]

11. Great post

We shall overcome.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. There was a "Black Family Reunion Celebration" on the Mall at the same time

and I bet half those people around the monument in that picture were from that event.

[countingbluecars]

14. Yes, I believe the tents and crowds

in front of the monument are the celebration.

[customerserviceguy]

13. Their problem is that they were well-behaved

The only way peaceful protest works is if the other side overreacts, like it did with the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960's.

When protesters are polite, and the police are, too, then the story belongs on page 8.

[kentuck]

15. I have been to several large-crowd rock concerts...

up to as many as 400,000 people and I can tell you by comparison that the number of people at yesterday march is, at the maximum, somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000. That is the max.

[LiberalEsto]

16. Same with the Washington Pest

If we'd rallied the exact same number of pro-healthcare reform demonstrators at the Capitol, the pro-corporate Post would have buried it in a paragraph at the bottom of page 30.

[intheflow]

17. Here's a photo from the 2004 Reproductive Rights Rally on the Mall:

Again, four times the people who showed up for yesterday's whiny tea party.

[Nay]

18. I was at the 2003 one, and I was angered by how the media ignored

how many people were actually there. I think things will have to break down completely and be built from the ground up.

[sabrina 1]

19. I didn't see any Robo Cops at the Teabagger

demonstration. Do they only harass progressives?

[Downtown Hound]

20. Yes. n/t

[depakid]

21. You know what sucks even worse?

Those millions and millions (including me) were trying to prevent the greatest strategic blunder in US history- while the corporate media driven teabaggers are trying to magnify the suffering of US citizens while driving the nation further down the road to third world status.

[Hissyspit]

22. 2005

This is the beginning of the march. Many more lie out of view.

[HughBeaumont]

23. Yep, I was in that crowd.

Blocks and blocks and BLOCKS of citizens. Similar numbers were there in 2007 as well. I had a great time.

Here's another facet: The FootShooter Parade had months of promotion on not only the Reich Wing Blogs, but most major cable and radio news networks. Dick Armey, Hannity and Glenn Beck (who didn't even show up to his own event, BTW) were allowed practically free air time to shill this date. I think considering all of that, combined with the fact that our protests have no such major media luxury (mostly word of mouth and internet promotion), the fact that we still outdraw their joke of a "demonstration" says we remain the prominent voice of the American people.

The TeaRacist Party didn't even come CLOSE.

[deutsey]

25. It does indeed suck, but it's not surprising

I think I had my first real taste of how corporate-owned media is used to distort and distract when I protested Bush's first inauguration.

I was elated (initially) by what I saw in the streets: way more anti-Bush protesters than there were Bush supporters, with a broad diversity of people comiing in from all around the country to protest the theft of the election. And it was a cold, wintry day in DC threatening snow, too.

I thought, wow, this is going to be a great sign that Bush's election theft faces a lot of resistance. Then, when a friend of mine and I stopped into a restaurant for something to eat late that afternoon, we saw the only coverage at that point was a short clip of a black-bloc anarchist scuffling with police on the street.

The coverage didn't improve later that evening, either. What I experienced in the streets was not even remotely reflected on the news coverage I saw. That experience continued on throughout the ensuing eight years with rare exceptions (as when the NYTimes and NPR--those are the two I remember, anyway--retracted their initial reports of an anti-war protest in which they glaringly underestimated the numbers of protesters).

Unfortunately, this kind of propaganda is to be expected so long as most media outlets are owned by corporate conglomerates. MSNBC has made it a little more bearable recently with Maddow and Olbermann, but MSNBC was also pretty cowardly when it axed Phil Donahue for his anti-war coverage. I imagine under similar circumstances they would drop these shows as well.

[redqueen]

26. It's... cause of, like... ratings... or controversy, or something.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

[BlooInBloo]

27. Our liberal media at work.

[Arugula Latte]

28. We need to put the energy into getting our share of the media that

we put into getting Obama elected. I don't know how it will be done, but until it is done, we will continue to be shat upon by the media and elected officials. If a million of us sent in a small amount of money, we could probably buy a cable network ... How do we do it? Who has the knowledge to organize this? I don't know.

[Bluenorthwest]

31. Al Gore already thought of that

We have Current TV on our cable. It is wonderful. They are also online. Current Vanguard is the employer of Ling and Lee, recently set free from North Korea. They air much content made by viewers as well.
Not that we shouldn't start another one! Or five of them. But give Current a whirl, they have some new ways of newsing.

[defendandprotect]

35. What cable service do you have?

I have Version now -- I'll look for it!

[defendandprotect]

34. Fairness in Broadcasting Doctrine renewal, breaking up monopolies,

Re-regulating capitalism --

Unregulated capitalism is merely organized crime --

ending campaign finance BRIBERY ---

How about we hire Erin Brockovich to represent us and advise us --

Hey -- it's one way of thinking about things!!




PS: And I think your idea is terrific --

but then you will own a "typewriter" and you have to make sure that the
control of it remains in the "public's" interest. How would we do that?

Remember, PBS and NPR? It was, of course, run with taxpayer money but
the GOP put the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- actually a private
corporation -- in charge of the programming and the money!! Goodbye NPR
and PBS though it took them some 20 years to totally kill them.

[ChiciB1]

29. Yep, I Was There... And Was Appalled By The Coverage! Still I'm WILLING

to do it again!! OUR voice is about all we have, especially when the crazies are getting ALL the attention, we may as well get out there too!!

Makes us look a bit "wimpy!" but I KNOW too many think protests are useless and I understand why. Still, one more time just to "show them" can't be all that bad!!

[Soylent Brice]

30. K&R

[TxRider]

32. Of course none of those people, and likely not even MSM "journalists" know who WR Hearst was

[Echo In Light]

33. Rec 73

[Tace]

36. I Was In NY That Day -- I Think A Million, Easy

There were a whole bunch of people on hand.

[harmonicon]

37. that's the liberal media, for ya (nt)

[karenha5]

38. The media sometimes seems very confused...

On our local station, the byline and spoken news story was indeed on "local protests to government run health care." But the video showed a large sign saying "SINGLE PAYER NOW" along with other similarly worded signs and posters. I thought to myself- my goodness, the media don't even know how to get supporting shots for their tagline. Do they not even understand what "single payer" healthcare is??

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. Oh com'on it is our LOCAL RW rag

the Union Trib, which has a readership of 1.2 million, so they claim...

[iceman66]

40. Maybe the next big protest march should be outside CNN headquarters,

or Fox news.

The media has become almost an unofficial fourth branch of the government, and one which Democrats have little voice in.