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Anti-War Protesters

• September 8 -- Lauding Left-Wing Convention Disruptors
Diane Cardwell seems to admire a radical left-wing group's successful disruption of convention speeches by Bush and Cheney: "While thousands of demonstrators chanted on the streets, drawing only glancing attention from the Republicans, their members were inside Madison Square Garden night after night, unfurling banners and baring their slogans, forcing even the president to take notice."

• September 1 -- Beethoven, Anti-Bush Protester
Music critic Allan Kozinn takes in an anti-Republican "collaborative performance piece" in Manhattan and thought one classical piece fit right in: "Beethoven was an idealist who opposed tyranny, and in the context of a discussion about curtailed civil liberties, elective war and a striving toward empire--the subjects of several of the speeches--it seemed entirely at home."

• September 1 -- Showing the Violent Face of Anti-Bush Protest
The Times doesn't hide the violent, ugly behavior of some anti-Republican protesters: "…marauding crowds cursing at delegates in Midtown and the detention of hundreds of protesters near ground zero--created a day of disorder in a convention week already marked by sustained protests against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq."

• August 31 -- Cute Communists and Jerky Anarchists in Manhattan
Charming Commies and violent anarchists on the streets of Manhattan.

• August 30 -- Republicans Already Upstaged in NYC
Have the protesters already "upstaged" the Republicans?

• August 30 -- Boosting Anti-Bush Crowd Figures, Again
The Times again manages to pass along the highest crowd estimates for an anti-Bush rally in Manhattan, the same way it did during the anti-war protests of March 2003, and passes along more "protesters-as-mainstream-citizens" talking points.

• March 22 -- The Times Passes Up Counting Up Anti-War Protesters
“It is virtually impossible to guess the size of crowds without wading into a swamp of politics,” writes Alan Feuer on a protest marking the first anniversary of the Iraq war. The Times didn’t find it quite so hard to make crowd estimates last year, unearthing 5,000 anti-war protesters in Times Square when other news organizations only found 300.

• November 21 -- Just Your Average Everyday Communists
Lizette Alvarez attempts to mainstream the anti-war protestors who greeted Bush in London: "...a broad cross-section of people turned up for the march, organized by the Stop the War Coalition, which also mobilized a mass protest in February. Grandmothers with canes, parents with children in strollers, high school students, women in business suits, as well as button-bedecked antiwar demonstrators gathered elbow to elbow in Trafalgar Square to voice their disapproval of Mr. Bush and his administration's foreign policies." Alvarez ignored the organizing presence of the far-left Socialist Workers Party.

• August 14 -- Shielding for Saddam
Adam Liptak takes a chronologically challenged look at Americans who went to Iraq as “human shields” and now face fines, alleging: “Several people involved in the effort said that none of the sites were attacked while human shields were present.” Of course they weren’t: These “shields” left Iraq before the war started!

• April 28 -- The Times Repressed Celebrity Syndrome
Reporter Leslie Eaton favorably quotes an ACLU director who sees “a growing pattern of repression against protesters, demonstrators and dissenters,” including “the shunning of celebrities who have opposed the war in Iraq.”

• March 25 -- Paul Krugman’s Fascist Fantasy
Bush-bashing columnist Paul Krugman caught a whiff of fascism at a pro-war rally: “To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of….But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here.”

• March 25 -- Media Companies Doing Political Advocacy? The Times Is Horrified
The Times can’t take criticism of its political advocacy, but it can sure dish it out. Douglas Jehl’s story on a pro-war rally spent six paragraphs on Clear Channel Communications, which has helped organize pro-war rallies. Jehl termed it “an arrangement that has been criticized by those who contend that media companies should not engage in political advocacy.”

• March 21 -- The Times Packs Times Square With Anti-War Protesters
How many in Times Square protesting last night? NYT says 5,000, everyone else says 300. (Well, the LA Times says "thousands" as well.)

• March 20 -- Silent Times? Hardly
The editorial page gets jumpy about criticism of its antiwar stance.

• March 19 -- “Patriotism” Vs. “Tolerance” in Pennsylvania
A Pennsylvania township’s outcry over an anti-war resolution was seen by the Times not as popular rejection of a sanctimonious liberal document, but as a defeat for tolerance itself: “Haines Township might have seemed the perfect place for such a resolution, just because of its history, which some historians say was a celebration of tolerance.”

• March 17 -- Didn't Lerner Its Lesson
Eric Lichtblau's piece, "Tens of Thousands March Against Iraq War," included criticism of ANSWER, the hard-left organizers of the anti-war protest in Washington. ANSWER pleaded ignorance to the Times: "We don't police our speakers at all. People here raise Palestine, Colombia, everything, but it's all basically about peace." Michael Lerner might disagree. A classic liberal, editor of Jewish magazine Tikkun, he's not sufficiently anti-Israel for ANSWER, which barred him from addressing a rally. The Times reported it a week ago, but Lichtblau let ANSWER off the hook.

• February 18 -- NY Times Celebrates Rally: “Throwing a Party With a Purpose” 
The New York Times on Sunday matched the tone of the networks. “Wide Range of Ages, Races and Parties Unite on Iraq,” proclaimed the February 16 headline over a series of dispatches from protest cities. The Times headlined the summary from Paris: “Throwing a Party With a Purpose.” Over the dispatch from Rome: “A Festive Tone, But Somber Ideas.”

• January 20 -- Newspapers Ignore What Official Speakers Said on Stage
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. A Post reporter admired how the marchers “represented a cross- section of the nation, from World War II to Gulf War veterans... The Green Party brought a contingent, as did the American Indian Movement.”

• December 13 -- New York Times Hypes “Growing Wave” Against War
The New York Times hyped a few peaceniks. “Protests Held Across the Country to Oppose War in Iraq,” read the headline over a story by Lynette Clemetson who trumpeted: “Organizers and participants said the diverse turnout represented a growing wave of popular dissent, even as the country inches closer to military action.” How big? Clemetson relayed how “the events ranged in attendance from several dozen at Youngstown, Ohio, and Mineola, N.Y., to several hundred in Santa Fe, N.M.” Plus, the “cross-section of activists, celebrities and everyday Americans,” included “an evening discussion at a Y.W.C.A. in Detroit.”