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Times Watch for 01/20/03
Newspapers Ignore What Official Speakers Said on Stage
Newspaper whitewash too/Too embarrassed to report what was said from the stage?
A 1,500-word article in Sunday's Washington Post contained a single nine word quote from an official speaker while a 1,000-word New York Times article failed quote a syllable from the DC stage, but offered statement made by Martin Sheen in San Francisco.
From my casual watching of only a part of the program on C-SPAN I know there was plenty of wacky far-left stuff said from the stage including advocacy of all sorts of Muslim causes, Palestinian liberation and, as noted in #1 above, characterizing a convicted murderer of a police officer as “a political prisoner.”
A story in Sunday's Washington Times offered a hint of what the Washington Post and New York Times blacked out. Reporters Denise Barnes and H.J. Brier relayed:
“Ramsey Clark, U.S. attorney general during the Johnson administration, called for Mr. Bush's impeachment, evoking cheers from the throng.
“Mr. Clark noted the U.S. Constitution's impeachment criteria -- 'treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors' -- then laid out his case against Mr. Bush in a stream of rhetorical questions.
“'Has he assumed the power to wage aggressive war by himself? Is that an impeachable offense? Has he threatened to use nuclear weapons? Is that an impeachable offense?' he said, as the crowd yelled 'yes' after each question. 'Then let's impeach him.'
"Mr. Clark and other rally organizers said a Web site will be set up to enlist support for Mr. Bush's impeachment.”
But the Post didn't mention any of that. “Thousands Oppose a Rush to War,” announced the headline over the lead story in Sunday's Washington Post. The inspirational subhead: “Chill Doesn't Cool Fury Over U.S. Stand on Iraq.” But in the 1,500-word story reporters Manny Fernandez and Justin Blum quoted a mere nine words uttered from the stage, an innocuous-sounding comment from Jesse Jackson: “'The world is cold, but our hearts are warm,' Jesse Jackson told the crowd to applause.”
That was it, the totality of what Post readers learned about what the officially sanctioned speakers had to say as the reporters focused on what people in the crowd told them.
Fernandez and Blum began their glowing article: “Tens of thousands of antiwar demonstrators converged on Washington yesterday, making a thunderous presence in the bitter cold and assembling in the shadow of the Capitol dome to oppose a U.S. military strike against Iraq.” For the entire story: CLICK HERE
A Post story datelined San Francisco carried the upbeat headline: “Antiwar Sentiment Galvanizes Thousands.” The agreeable subhead: “Groups See Numbers Rise as They Reach Out to Supporters Via Internet, E-Mail”
Reporter Evelyn Nieves admired the diversity of those who supported the marches: “The rallies organized by A.N.S.W.E.R. here and in Washington, D.C., were promoted through Internet networks. Demonstrating just how effective the Internet has become in expanding and diversifying the antiwar movement since the last big rallies in October, contingents carrying banners in San Francisco included 'Labor Against War,' 'Environmentalists Against the War' and 'Students Against the War' -- national groups that didn't formally exist two months ago.”
“National groups” or really just three people with signs they painted up?
Nieves admiringly observed: “The marchers on a day reminiscent of late spring represented a cross-section of the nation, from World War II to Gulf War veterans, baby boomers and their children, teenagers and many older citizens. The Green Party brought a contingent, as did the American Indian Movement and many other groups.”
That's a cross-section to the Post: radical environmentalists to radical Indian activists!
For the January 19 Nieves article in full: CLICK HERE
Another Post story looked at various crowd estimates, from the probably too conservative 30,000 suggested by the U.S. Capitol Police, to the ludicrous claim of 500,000 forwarded by event organizers. (On Sunday's This Week on ABC George Stephanopoulos cited the range of “50,000 to 500,000.”) For the Post story: CLICK HERE
In Sunday's thousand-word New York Times story reporter Lynette Clemetson didn't find space for any quote from a DC protest rally speaker, but did relay this from the San Francisco event: “'You all know what I do for work, this is what I do for a living,' said Mr. Sheen, who plays the President on the television show The West Wing. 'If the people lead, the leaders will follow.'"
Clemetson described ANSWER as simply an “activist” group: “Both marches were sponsored by the activist group International Answer, after months of intense local organizing following a similar large demonstration in the capital last October.”
She offered more innocuous labeling: “Among the groups in attendance were the Gray Panthers, a social advocacy group; Code Pink, a women's group; Black Voices for Peace, an African-American group; and the Green Party, representing environmentalists.”
For the Times story in its entirety: CLICK HERE
-- Brent Baker
E-mail Times Watch Director, Clay Waters, with Times Watch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org