Not to mention the Democratic Leadership
By PHK
Here we go again. Buses are rolling into Washington, D.C. for what the organizers claim will be the largest anti-war in Iraq demonstration since March 2003. But where is the New York Times? And, for that matter where will the Democratic Party leadership be tomorrow? It’s as if the Times has its head in the sand once again and the Democrats are afraid to touch the demonstration because, oh my gosh, it’s being organized by America’s political left.
Meanwhile, Georgie-porgie rallied his troops on Thursday in a well-covered speech at the Pentagon. We’re told he plans to be away from Washington tomorrow. Just as well. He probably wouldn’t like what he saw. Maybe he and the Democratic leadership – which apparently also plans to be away from the Capital according to Knight Ridder – will cut brush together and bike around Crawford. Then maybe some mint-juleps on the lawn while the other half of Texas tries to flee Rita?
Or no, the news reports that he’s watching the anti hurricane disaster preparation from the US military command in Colorado. I’ll bet the command is just thrilled. Is Laura now planning to skip the Library of Congress’ National Book Festival? Or maybe not. Whatever. She appears to have far more fortitude and common sense than her husband and is, therefore, more likely at least to make a politically intelligent decision about whether or not to attend the annual event of one of her pet charities.
I wouldn’t have known about the Sept. 24 anti-Iraq war demonstration if Elizabeth D. Dyson, a Washington attorney, hadn’t tipped me off. She inspired me to do some research and then write a post about the fact that the protest and the Laura Bush supported National Library of Congress Book Festival are scheduled for the same day in downtown DC – one on the Ellipse, the other on the Mall.
There was little press attention then – and only today have I seen MSM articles – beginning with the quirky and generally right-wing Albuquerque Journal which carried AP and Knight Ridder stories about the upcoming demonstration(s) and who and who isn’t planning to be in town.
Meanwhile I’ve just done some Internet searching, because it seemed to me that the demonstration should be being well covered since the organizers have been organizing it for months. Not silently either. Further, this demonstration is becoming far more than just a fringe affair of the extreme left. Gold Star Families for Peace leader Cindy Sheehan and Military Families Speak Out will be just two of 1,200 organizations in Washington to support the rally – which begins tomorrow and lasts through Monday
Yes, I did find reports today in the MSM. Some of the above information came from Joanna Neuman of the Los Angeles Times which, in my view, was the most informative article that I could find. The WaPo article was good too with a headline favorable to the anti-war group.
But the New York Times today seems to have come up missing. Yet again. Why is it that America’s flagship newspaper seems to be far more focused on sporadically editorializing about poor-Judith Miller’s self-inflicted detainment in the Alexandria Detention Center and otherwise concentrating on the progress of Hurricane Rita, Katrina’s successor?
What’s stranger is the Times itself today published an article on its Internet site about President Bush’s popularity having “fallen to an all-time low” and that now ordinary Americans are relating the Administration’s abysmal performance to respond adequately to NOLA to the continued hemorrhaging of people, resources and equipment in Iraq.
So it’s OK to report on prospective hurricane damage and not on a major anti-war in Iraq demonstration about to hit at the same time? When even the American people have made the political link between the two?
At least the WaPo covered tomorrow’s demonstration with a report by its own reporter Petula Dvorak. The Post did not just rerun the AP story that has been circulating in much of the rest of the media. This including Fox. The last time I looked, the AP story on the anti-war demonstration that I had read this morning in the Albuquerque Journal appeared - updated - at the bottom of Fox News’ stories of national interest (if you get that far down the list) just before dinner. At least, Fox carried it. That’s more than I could find on the BBC. PBS’ Jim Lehrer mentioned the demonstration as one of many items in his summary of the daily news tonight.
Then of course there’s the inevitable right-wing spin that seems to obsess so much of corporate media. Here, for example, is the Boston Globe headline “Bush asserts troops must stay in Iraq: Says US can fight war, offer hurricane relief.” This report characterizes Bush’s Pentagon speech on Thursday where he was surrounded by “Vice President Cheney and his national security team” as “clearly designed to dampen the potential impact of the antiwar rally.” Right. Astute analysis. But what about the rally?
As for perfect “balance,” the AP-Knight Ridder reporters tell us that this major demonstration of perhaps 100,000 is going to be balanced by a counter demonstration organized by groups like the FreeRepublic.com and Protest Warrior whose total numbers are expected to be in the hundreds. Oh, come on. Since when is a protest by few hundred diehard warriors for Bush as newsworthy as a major anti-war demonstration of thousands with sister protests in several other cities – and whose demonstrators’ sentiment reflects that of a growing number of Americans?
How will the MSM handle tomorrow's events? Is AP going to send an equal number of reporters to both? Or simply not cover at all? And will The New York Times reporters stay home yet again, since they’d only be interviewing people in the streets carrying placards– not the political elite in Guccis with whom they have become apparently all too clubby.
Tomorrow should be an interesting day. Hopefully, ANSWER, the coordinating group for the anti-war demonstration will keep its demonstrators “on message” as it has promised. This is no time for the left-wing to splinter into innumerable petty protests as has sometimes happened in the past. If they can stay together maybe then The New York Times – and other MSM media from London to Los Angeles will take their message seriously.