Why is it that antiwar protesters are invisible to the press

[Generic Other]

while the immigrant protests are getting non-stop coverage?

I am not in any way denigrating the protests, just noticing that they get the kind of press coverage that the anti-war movement would kill for. How do we draw as much attention to our causes?

I don't think it's the numbers. The anti-war movement has had some pretty big protests across the country with nary a peep from the MSM. What do we have to do to get anyone's attention?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4439801

[babylonsister]

1. The last big protest in DC, Sept. 24th, I think, fell on the same

day Hurricane Rita hit. I remember it well and when I finally got back home, I did look for coverage. There wasn't much as it was 24-hour hurricane news.
But I agree, in general. Out of sight, out of mind with this media.

[sadiesworld]

2. Corporate media likes cheap labor.

Corporate media doesn't like challenges to the military-industrial complex.

(it's really that simple)

[SmokingJacket]

44. Bingo.

People always act in ways that benefit them. Period.

[Lib Grrrrl]

3. The Problem Is This...

According to the press, antiwar protesters are on the "wrong" side of the issue. Immigration protesters are on the "right" side of the issue.

Simply put...if the press generally AGREES with your stand, they will cover you. If they do not agree with your stand, they will not.

The press is biased. The question should be "How do we make the press un-biased" or "How do we make the press cover news, regardless of their bias?"

[Generic Other]

6. Welcome to DU Lib Grrrl

:hi:

[NotGivingUp]

11. Exactly!

[Generic Other]

25. Welcome to DU NotGivingUp

:hi:

[WhiteTara]

37. reinstitute the fairness doctrine

that was stripped from the law.

[Wise Doubter]

4. Start waving the Mexican flag ? n/t

[madame defarge]

5. I disagree...

They've got LOTS more people have shown up for the immigration protests in many more cities than we ever get for the anti-war protests. I'm so impressed with their ability to organize.

But there probably is something to MSM ignoring "a bunch of old hippies" protesting the war...again...

[Generic Other]

10. We had a million people in Washington DC on Sept. 24

The only coverage came from a traffic cam on 15th and Constitution Ave.



There were 500,000 protesting the GOP convention in NYC.

We had 10 million worldwide on the eve of the Iraq war.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4439801

I have been keeping score.

[Hissyspit]

17. Yes, and thank you for that.

It is not just about numbers. The Sept. 2005 protest got very little coverage and it was unprecedented (in the sense that so many showed up to protest THIS war in those numbers in this cultural milieu). But I have to wonder, as well, why we didn't/don't get larger numbers - why as many people are in the streets screaming for Bush to resign, as their are for the immigration protests - no denigration to the immigration protesters, of course.

[Generic Other]

22. And we are getting these numbers out in spite of being

undercounted, ignored, devalued, etc.

[BrklynLiberal]

20. We didn't see any of these pics in the media either!!!

I was in DC when they were taken.
NO MEDIA WAS THERE. We kept looking for them. Not one MSM reporter, or one MSM camera.

[Generic Other]

23. Not even CSPAN showed the massive crowds on Sept 24

They showed a freeper rally with a dozen supporters as I recall while refusing to SEE a million protesters!!

[Breeze54]

55. I was interviewed by the MSM on 09/24/05 in DC!

The media WAS there but I think Hurricane Rita took the show.
I DID see coverage on CSPAN and on the local news in DC but nothing like
the coverage concerning illegal immigration today and the last week!
I was at the march so I don't know what the national coverage was like but when I got home,
on Tuesday, it (the DC march) was still being talked about on my local news!

It IS total BS and pisses me off that the MSM doesn't bother to report about it!

The media was there on 09/26/05 also! At and on the march to the WH on Monday too!


Note the TV camera's and mics.


But? Of course it was Cindy Sheehan and they wanted to hear what she had to say.
I did see reporters, with 2 wheeled baggage/book carts, pulling video and audio equipment,
in the march in DC last September.

Maybe the lack of TV coverage (compared to the immigration marches) will change now
that the "leaker" had been outed! :shrug:
Barring anymore national disasters at the same time or other marches!

[BrklynLiberal]

7. BFEE WANTS to publicize the immigration issue in order to create a wedge

issue. They did NOT want to publicize how many people were involved in the peace marches and the women's right marches since it did not serve their purpose.

The BFEE controls the media.

ERGO.

We see the immigration protests and we do not see the peace marches and the women's rights marches.

[napi21]

8. I really do think it's mostly because of the numbers.

I know, all day yesterday and today, I've been hearing about all the different immigration protests in several different cities across the Country. Being a constant Duer, een I haven't heard of many protests in several cities at one time.

Sorry, but it takes numbers and also needs to be a popular issue before it gets media coverage. I don't know why, but the anti war issue just hasn't gained enough popular attention...YET!

[BrklynLiberal]

9. There were hundreds of thousands of marchers against the war in virtually

every city on one day, and almost a million people in DC.
Almost no mainstream media coverage.
I was at the DC march and a friend of mine was searching all day for coverage on the media at home. She finally found a little bit of coverage on CNN or CSPAN.I cannot remember which one it was.

What you see and hear is determined more by the BFEE and the CEO's of the media than by anything else.

[newswolf56]

I am deeply offended by the arrogance of people who use obscure...

abbreviations and then expect me (or anyone else) to know what they are talking about. What -- please (and with all due respect) -- is "BFEE," and how precisely does it "control the media"?

(Please also see my response to the OP.)

[Generic Other]

18. BFEE = Bush Family Evil Empire

Many on DU have used this for so long we think it's universally known. :)

[NorCalDem]

19. Bush Family Evil Empire :)

All the "in-house" references take awhile to pick up :D

[Breeze54]

59. lol...I was thinking the same thing...

... but I just call them pigs!! It's a lot easier!!
:rofl:

[beltanefauve]

67. Check out the DU Research Forum

I'm pretty sure there's a glossary of DUisms in there, among other things.

[cornermouse]

12. I wondered the same thing when I heard the stories about it today.

[Xithras]

13. A.N.S.W.E.R. et al.

The problem with anti-war rallies is that they're not really anti-war rallies in this country. You have people holding giant puppet shows, people arguing to free Mumia, people arguing against capitalism, people protesting for gay rights, people arguing about Venezuela, people who just like to get stoned in a group, people trying to restore Indian sovreignity, and people out to show support for any one of a dozen other causes. Oh, and we get some anti-war protesters too.

I went to a couple of anti war protests, and they were the most schizophrenic, confusing, poorly organized events I'd ever been to. There was no "message", just huge crowds of people fighting for attention.

The immigrant protests get a lot of airtime because the protesters are delivering one message, with one voice. They are simultaneously pulling off protests in many cities, for days on end, and they are doing it with a single, unwavering, and undivided message.

The anti-war movement needs to learn that it's better to have smaller numbers and a consistent message than it is to pad your numbers by including every political group in the country...increasing the size of your protests but diluting the message beyond hope.

[Generic Other]

15. The Cindy Sheehan rallies last summer seemed very focused

That's not it. We are invisible. We need to make more noise (and yes, I mean this in a bad way).

[Terran1212]

48. Mainstream Media just won't give antiwar "agenda" any air

Any antiwar: ANSWER, United for peace and justice, foreign, etc.

[Breeze54]

58. um... 'ANSWER' WAS the organizer for

the March in DC last September!!!
They also are involved in the immigration protests!
So? I guess I'm wondering why the Peace March in DC didn't get more than a blurb and
and the latest immigration marches are all over the news. :shrug:
And you are correct.
There were other 'groups' in DC but the majority were ANTI-WAR PEACE marchers!

[me b zola]

14. I've had that same question on my mind as well

I agree with the posters upthread who believe it is a matter of what benifits the corporate owners of the media and their agenda.

[Generic Other]

16. How then do we get a little more airtime for our causes?

Do we have to act like the folks did at the Seattle WTC riots?

[me b zola]

21. Or at least large scale peaceful civil disobedience

PEACEFUL unpermitted marches that shut down a city will get airtime:)
I'm not convinced, though, that it would generate the same type (camera angles) & amount of media coverage, but I could be wrong.

[Generic Other]

24. Maybe if we all removed our clothing during protests?

They'd certainly take notice...

March on to freeways and lie down on the roads?

Jump off buildings?

Set ourselves on fire like Buddhist monks?

I am seriously frustrated by all of this.

[Karenina]

34. The PEOPLE have to TAKE BACK THE MEDIA.

As long as *they are permitted BY YOU to conduct "Biz as Usual," spinning, lying, playing +CYA for +TPTB NOTHING will change. THE VERY DAY they CANNOT send out a remote truck without shouting PATRIOTS greeting them demanding they stop their distractions and grunt work for the defense industry overlords (by whom they are OWNED) or get to their corner offices without having to circumvent AMERICAN CITIZENS outraged by their duplicity and surrounding their HQs NOTHING WILL CHANGE. America's airwaves have been STOLEN from her people. If they are not retrieved, NOTHING WILL CHANGE, indeed, things will continue to deteriorate.

+Cover Your Ass
+The Powers That Be

[Generic Other]

36. I get this sudden image of anti-war folks standing behind the media

flashing signs, chanting everytime a crew turns on a camera. Hounding them. It would be kind of funny. Sort of like peace movement people acting like Howard Stern fans. :)

[Karenina]

43. LOVE your image!

I'm gonna visualize it before I go to sleep tonite!

[me b zola]

38. I'm more than a little frustrated, too

Well, if we did harmful things to ourselves (set our selves on fire/jump off a building) we would get press, but I doubt that that would cause the press to cover the march/protest any better. And although I loved the ladies Sept 24 who were topless (I don't recall the name of their miny movement) I doubt that our nudeness would gain press for the larger movement.

I think maybe a combination of effectively shutting down a city/ies and having our own professional camera people atop buildings to record and distrubute the TRUE size of our protests may be closer to the answer.




BTW, I hardly ever really speak to anybody, but I wanted to tell you that your artwork for the mask auction to benifit the survivors of Katrina bush* was fabulous. I am truly in awe.

[Generic Other]

41. I am not advocating doing anything I am too chicken to do myself

so I will probably not try self-immolation or such. I'll stick to subversive art and other peaceful means of protest.

Thanks for your kind words, mbzola.

[Sapphire Blue]

57. Marching on the freeways might do it...

... and since no permit would be given for that, marchers would have to be willing to be arrested en masse. Do we have the courage for that?

I'm ready.

[Jose Diablo]

28. The purpose of civil disobedience is to provoke a response

Sometimes getting beat-up by the police is just the response thats needed. Really, really piss-off the flat-feet. Just make sure it's on camera, so the courts have to call the cops on the carpet.

As for airtime, if it sells products, it will be shown. I don't think swaying to the music, arm in arm, is the type of civil disobedience these times demand.

[Generic Other]

39. Part of the problem with this is that peace folks turn out with their kids

I don't want to see violence, but that may be the only thing they will respond to.

I am reminded of the scene on the Odessa steps from "Battleship Potemkin" when the Czar's troops attack the protestors killing a mother who loses her grip on a baby carriage which begins to descend the stairs hurtling forward toward disaster.

[NotGivingUp]

26. it serves corporate america...plain and simple....

check out this article for explanation:

How Immigration Is Being Used To Destroy The US By The Elite.

Illegal immigration has been the hot topic on the news this past week. Everyone has been talking about the 500,000 people that gathered in Los Angeles to protest the immigration law which has been proposed by Congress. In this article I want to explain why immigration is being used as a tool to divide and conquer the United States.

rest of article:
http://theconspiracyzone.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-immigration-is-being-used-to.html

[Generic Other]

31. So what you are saying is that since corp. Amer. wants citizens to

hate/fear illegal immigrants, they are willing to show us millions of them "defying" our laws, but since the same corporate controllers don't want citizens to sympathize with/join the antiwar movement, they don't dare honestly report our numbers?

Suggests they actually fear our power, doesn't it?

[newswolf56]

27. Speaking from 45 years of journalism experience, I can attest...

the posters who believe it's censorship are on the right track, though it's a bit more complicated than simple bias. Mass media in the U.S. is owned by corporate monopolies and therefore expresses the corporate viewpoint to the methodical exclusion of all else; from the perspective of corporate media, immigration demonstrations are "big news" because the ruling class -- especially those who employ illegal immigrants as wage-reducers and union-busters -- buy lots of advertising. Anti-war demonstrations are suppressed because their opponents -- defense contractors and the like -- also buy lots of advertising. The effect is the same, but the underlying cause of the censorship is somewhat different: once again the ultimate relevance of the historical truth of class-struggle -- why Marx is more relevant now than ever.

(An especially eye-opening source on the topic of mass media is Doug Underwood's When MBAs Rule the Newsroom, censorship-priced at $75 per copy to keep it away from the general public but available online used in excellent condition for about $25.)

[leftstreet]

30. What would be media response if war protestors joined immigration protest

..ors?

[newswolf56]

46. Excellent point and Bravo! This could actually happen because:

(1)-Labor has stepped beyond its former essentialist stance to make common bond and thus a united working-class front with immigrants;

(2)-The emergence of this united front is definitive proof that labor is at last (and at least potentially) re-awakening to the tabooed historical truth of class-struggle;

(3)-Labor is already strongly but obscurely anti-war (obscurely because its stance is thoroughly censored by mass media); note for example the link here:

http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2003/04/a.html

and here:

http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/

(4)-Thus labor could become the coordinating agency for linking anti-war groups with immigration groups.

But...

This is not likely to happen specifically because too many anti-war protesters are pseudo-leftist members of the bourgeoisie who despise both unions and unionists: that is, they carry the huge taint of anti-working-class (anti-union, anti-blue-collar, anti-rural) hatefulness that is the ugly residue of the Vietnam Era -- a malice often evident on this very site: absolute proof of how thoroughly the ruling class has divided us against ourselves.

And if such a united front did emerge despite the odds against it...

The ruling class in sheer pant-befouling terror of the capability of such a united front -- especially with its dramatically expanded potential for re-acknowledgment of the ultimate relevance and power of Marxist analysis -- would respond with McCarthy Era oppression at the very least, and probably with the invocation of a "state of emergency" that would not only end constitutional governance forever but replace it with blatantly Nazi tyranny: literally the U.S. as the Fourth Reich.

[leftstreet]

50. It doesn't help when corporate media play politics by time zones.

"This is not likely to happen specifically because too many anti-war protesters are pseudo-leftist members of the bourgeoisie who despise both unions and unionists"

That's not the experience out here in the wild west. Anti-war/pro-labor tend to go hand and hand. "Bourgeoisie" would likely be identified as some kind of wine.

Out here in the wild-west (PST), there is virtually no television news in the evenings. The evening being the time the anti-war/pro-labor worker has the best opportunity to find out what's going on in the world. Unfortunately, by then the cable news stations are a vast wasteland of missing women, heart wrenching re-visits of Katrina/New Orleans, or Larry King interviewing old sitcom stars.

Corporate controlled news gets progressively dumber by time zone.

LOL - I think I've forgotten what my point was.

[newswolf56]

53. Don't know where you are in WA, but the Puget Sound area...

is the only place in America I ever saw (or even heard of) draft-exempt anti-war students literally spitting in the faces of anti-war veterans, denouncing us as "baby killers" and "Nazi war criminals" and refusing to march in anti-war protests with us merely because we had served -- enlisted or reported as ordered -- rather than dodge the draft as these infinitely pampered members of the bourgeoisie were able to do thanks to their parents' wealth and influence. The same irrational hatred my fellow veterans and I experienced has since found a new rationale in the fanatical hostility against firearms owners (again mostly union, blue-collar, rural and ex-military folk) that is one of the identifying characteristics of the Puget Sound-area Democratic Party and especially of Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, who routinely express their anti-working-class malice via definitively anti-labor votes: NAFTA, CAFTA and especially the re-imposition of indentured servitude disguised as "bankruptcy reform" -- the most savagely anti-working-class measure Congress has ever imposed:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0316-03.htm

Fortunately there are some RURAL Washington Democrats who are just as you describe -- and Gov. Christine Gregoire (who may be one of our best governors ever) is becoming more rational on the firearms issue with the passage of time -- but as long as the oppressively bourgeois Seattle-Bellingham Cult of Political Correctness controls the party, none of these genuinely working-class Democrats will ever be allowed to rise above the statehouse level.

As to your comment about TV news -- that it "gets dumber by time zone" -- I completely agree: "lions and tigers and bears...and missing blonde co-eds, oh my," the "circus" component of the modern-day equivalent of the Imperial Roman opiate of the masses: panem et circenses-- bread and circuses.

Or as I said to a then-well-known Western Washington TV commentator at a party many years ago, "admit it: 'television news' is a contradiction in terms." His response? He was so speechlessly furious he punched me in the mouth -- literally -- a reaction I have always taken as absolute and definitive proof of the medium's true intellectual level.

_________
Edit: typo.

[Generic Other]

61. Tell!! It was Aaron Brown wasn't it? Just sounds like something

he would do...Can't imagine any of the others being willing to muss up their hair...punching someone? Much too messy...

Come on spill it!

[newswolf56]

63. Was NOT Aaron Brown; he's actually a real gentleman. (n/t)

[leftstreet]

64. Get out quick!

You'll end up drowning in sloshed lattes. Get thee to anything east of the peaks of the Crashcades. Anything rural in WA, OR, MT.

:rofl:

Yeah, that's just it. The(my)west is populated by people with fewer ties to US social history as experienced in immigrant ethnic neighborhoods of the east, or the Civil War south.

Debatable, informative "news" isn't reaching a significant block of voters. Voters who see economics before race. Good example: I was talking with an acquaintance about immigration reform and he eventually says, "Yeah, I know about all those protests. But shit. Those poor bastards don't realize they'll just have to get back out there in a few years to protest against all the "illegals" jumping over the fence to come and take THEIR jobs. It's bullshit, man."

[Generic Other]

35. We are certainly beating our heads against hard brick walls

Maybe the bloggers are the only hope. It is true that without the internets, most of us would be totally in the dark about what's going on in the world.

It must gall corporates that they haven't been able to fully control all our voices.

[cynatnite]

29. Monday thru Friday

The weekend really doesn't seem to generate that much attention. I personally think a massive protest during the week would garner the kind of attention the anti-war movement needs.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

32. Because one's old and the other is new.

Americans have been demonstrating en masse against the war in Iraq for several years, but so far as I know the recent pro-imigration demonstration was the first of its kind, and as such is more newsworthy.

It's less fun than attributing sinister motivations and agendas to "the media", but that's the main reason, I think.

If the anti-war movement want to attract more attention, they need to do something new and different. I can't think of any such thing that would be both legal and effective, and I'm not sure they exist, but if the main aim is to make the news then you have to do something new.

[spanone]

33. Diversion for the King?

[leftchick]

40. because the immigration issue is a distraction

There is no way in hell that the media would show this video if it was a real issue. The M$M dutifully follows the distractions. This is so not an urgent issue. WTF? Did 11 million illegal immigrants come into this country in the past month??

No! let us talk about Iraq, Iran, CIA Spy Leaks, Cherry Picking Intel for War, The Economy with real numbers, Censure, Impeachment, Cindy Sheehan, etc.... Distract, distract.

[Generic Other]

42. Good point

They do love to distract us, don't they? And divide us.

[Generic Other]

45. There are some big peace protests coming up

april 29th in nyc - rainbow push. NOW, UP&J...
this should be huge

and may 13-14 mother's day overnight vigil in dc - Code Pink for end the war
now....

How do we best support/build on these events?

Are there other antiwar protests planned elsewhere?

[leftchick]

47. I can't make NYC

but the Code Pink one sounds do able, with my boys! :)

I don't know about spreading the word except moveon etc. It has worked well in the past.

Thank you for the info!

:hi:

[HamDon]

49. Brown people are scary, that's why

[Generic Other]

51. Welcome to DU HamDon

I like your "sarcasm, irony and bitterness" emoticon.

[HamDon]

68. I borrowed it from someone else

someone I think you may know.

On edit: Thanks for the welcome.

[meganmonkey]

52. Because these are happening day-in-day-out

and they are happening during the regular work-week.

They are shaking things up, they are disrupting things, and people can't help but notice.

The anti-war movement could learn a thing (or 5) from this...

:patriot:

[Zookeeper]

54. I have noticed that our local paper...

will cover an anti-war rally, but usually include a few paragraphs, and even photos, devoted to a handful of pro-BushCo counterprotestors. That also holds true for Pro-choice and Gay Pride rallies.

However, the paper's coverage of the illegal immigration marches has featured half a paragraph, at most, and no photos of rallies in support of enforcing immigration laws.

[helderheid]

56. I asked my hubby the same thing tonight

[nofurylike]

60. excellent point! thank you for making it! and not only the peace marches.

but remember 1.5 million in the last pro-choice march, reported, at BEST, as tens of thousands...

and they actually counted the marchers at that one.

the whole thing is infuriating and depressing, which i imagine is part of why so many decide not to go to marches, not realizing the potential we have in them.


peace and solidarity, always!!

[Beelzebud]

62. The same companies that own the media profit from war.

[RagingInMiami]

65. With the exception of the huge protest in DC last year

There hasn't been any large-scale protests.

[killbotfactory]

66. They are visible if they look wierd

and are easy to dismiss as lunatics.