Ombudsman: Reporting on protests can be tricky business

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Ombudsman: Reporting on protests can be tricky business
By Dave Mazzarella, Stars and Stripes ombudsman
Pacific edition, Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Sgt. Selena Coppa of Wiesbaden, Germany, accuses Stars and Stripes of a double standard. The paper writes hugely about demonstrations by populations overseas, she argues, but gives little notice to protests at home — specifically those that target U.S. military policy.

What set this off for Coppa was a big feature in Stripes last month that described South Koreans’ penchant for protest demonstrations of one kind or another. (Several of the protests have been against the U.S. Army in the country.)

“I find it a real shame that we can get coverage about dissent in South Korea, but dissent at home is judged too dangerous to be permitted to soldiers,” she wrote in a letter to the editor. “That’s not the freedom of speech and press I raised my right hand to defend.” She cited an example: an anti-war demonstration staged in connection with the last presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York. A retired Army sergeant, Nick Morgan, was injured during the protest when he was struck by a police horse. Stripes ran a wire service story on the debate, but it did not include anything about the protest.

It turns out The Associated Press did distribute a four-paragraph article alongside its debate coverage. It said 15 demonstrators, out of about 350, had been taken into custody outside the debate hall. It didn’t mention the injury; a number of independent blog postings did. Even without news of the injury, in my opinion Stripes would have done well to carry at least a brief mention of the demonstration. It would be unrealistic to expect stories about every protest of this kind that takes place around the country but, in this case, a fair number of people were involved, and they were protesting close to two men vying to be president of the United States.

It would be a mistake, though, to accuse Stripes of willfully ignoring protests. When larger demonstrations took place in the early days of the Middle East wars, as well as some that occurred as recently as this year, Stripes covered them at length, with photographs. It also hasn’t shied away from covering the protests of individuals or small groups. It had stories about a chaplain who got into trouble for wearing his uniform at a demonstration and, as recently as this month, gave full coverage to atheists and agnostics who charge their rights are being violated in the service.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=58884