Protests USED to work. Now they get ZERO coverage

[mudesi]

Protests don't really work anymore, because America is not really a Democracy anymore. It is a corporately controlled fascist state run by one political party.

Just look at CNN. They did a token 2 minute propaganda piece about the protests. Every other hour is spent on garbage. It's pathetic. I didn't even know about the protests today until I read about them here, on an Internet message board. And don't kid yourselves, they will attempt to throttle the Internet in due time.

It may be time for people to take to the streets in much the same way people camped out for weeks to buy an iPhone or a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PlayStation. (Ironic, isn't it? Can you tell my assertion of America being a corporately controlled state is a valid one?)

One day or weekend mass protests won't work anymore. Everybody has to to collectively quit their jobs, occupy every street in every major city of the country, and stay put until system is changed, and if it takes weeks, if it takes months, so be it. I'm talking a general STRIKE like no other.

It won't happen, of course, but it's the only option left, I'm afraid.

[babylonsister]

1. It's being covered on NBC News; reporter said a couple of thousand

people showed up.:eyes:

[Warpy]

3. "Couple of thousand?"

Given the time it took a huge crowd of marchers to pass the traffic cam I was looking at, I'd put the total of marchers closer to 100,000. It should have easily been that when added to the people who didn't march but who assembled at the venue.

Early this morning, the only "news" to mention there was to be a protest today was ABC.

They will undoubtedly talk about the "thousands" of pro war demonstrators. When pictures are posted, we'll see that "multitude" is its typical number, about 20.

[liberaldemocrat7]

21. Call GOP contributor and war contractor General Electric Corporation at 203 373 2211

Call GOP contributor and war contractor General Electric Corporation at 203 373 2211 and ask for the public relations department. Tell the person in public relations that you want the GE CEO to get Bush to end the war in Iraq and then Bush resign with Cheney and until that happens you will not buy any GE products and that you will tell your friends about this.

[ikojo]

49. I watched the pro war group, Gathering of Eagles, on CSPAN and

it looked to be around a thousand misguided people. Saw someone from Free Republic speak and wow! there should be a cliche drinking game when watching pro war demonstrations...this guy used every cliche down to red baiting the American Friends Service Committee! Oy vey!

[gateley]

12. I was just thinking the exact same thing as i was scanning the front pages

of MSNBC.com and CNN.com. With the war such a huge issue, they should actually do pieces on it, bringing it to the people, rather than just 'covering' it in the news. Which they're barely doing anyway.

What is it going to take????

[nancyr]

2. Saturday is not a good news day.

In my part of the country there is basically no news on Saturday. If anyone expected this protest to get any coverage, they weren't thinking straight. The only real news I get is on this site. Not everyone has a computer: they are in the dark if they think they're getting "news." So much for the "media." It has died right along with the rest of the country as we once knew it.

[bobbolink]

4. The public has been innoculated against the same protests.

There are a lot of very smart progressives...

It's time to put heads together and devise a new strategery.

Protests have become just a feel-good, aren't we cool party.

Really.

[Prophet 451]

5. I'm afraid you're fucked

Hate to say it but I think it's gone too far now. You've got a populace convinced that Britney Spears is a bigger news story than the ongoing carnage in the Mid-East, a populace with the collective attention span of a glazed almond; the media is owned by the powers they're supposed to be overseeing, your president and virtually all the contenders to replace him are just different flavours of corporatist "free market uber alles" drones (honourable exception for Kucinich) and your school system seems designed purely to turn out more of them.

I'm honestly afraid it's gone too far to be reversed now. The country is fucked and they'll keep nattering until either they succeed in creating armageddon in the Mid-East, turn us all into the populace of 1984 or just waffle over global warming until the whole question becomes moot. Makes me wish there were some bright, intelligent and principled people around to fund private space research so we could get the hell off this rock and let teh deadheads destroy it without endangering us.

NOTE: None of this should be interpreted as "give up the fight". Always, always keep fighting. Even if you can't win, you can still have the satisfaction of fucking up the other guy before you go down.

[bobbolink]

7. We shouldn't be the ones leaving the planet. It's beautiful, and we are the ones who care about it.

Let the assholes take the first rocket to another planet!

[Prophet 451]

9. Point, but...

Their side has the money and the guns, herding them all onto USS Good Riddance 1 might be a problem.

[Neecy]

14. mmmmm......

Yeah, it might be a problem but what a lovely daydream.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Liftoff!

[John Kerry VonErich]

34. kick

[SlowDownFast]

39. I resent your reference to 'deadheads'...

it ain't us hippies fuckin' up the world!

:hippie: :smoke: :hi:

[Prophet 451]

46. My mistake

My SO pointed that out. Make that "breadheads".

[blm]

6. Why dou you think the fascists bought up all those media outlets in the 80s and 90s?

You didn't think it was because they believed in the public's right to honest and open government did you?

[old guy]

8. The current MSM is the enemy of the people.

[KAZ]

15. And should be treated as such. Time to "freeze" their assets.

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. General Strike?

You mean like this one?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1562370

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. Wrong

Protests never worked

[Connie_Corleone]

13. There was a general strike, and no one showed up.

A draft is the only thing that will get Americans (especially twentysomethings and their parents) to care about the war.

[old guy]

18. My feeling too

[Neecy]

16. it depends on the protest, I think

The protests against the Gulf War - at least the ones I went to - were fairly rowdy and involved shutting down intersections, occasional sacking of newspaper stands etc and running from the riot cops. They arrested so many that people were put in outdoor pens by the Cow Palace because the local facilities couldn't handle them all. Lots of local coverage of our activities.

For some reason the protests during this war have been fairly mild and well-mannered. I have no idea which approach is better, but the first was, I have to say, deeply satisfying (although it didn't stop that war, either).

[Wiley50]

17. We Now Live In A MEDIA-OCRACY

and if it wasn't reported on ________ news, it didn't happen

[L. Coyote]

19. all 472 news articles » Protesters march on the Capitol: 'End the War'

http://news.google.com/news?q=war+protest+march

Protesters march on the Capitol: 'End the War'.....
Thousands attend US anti-war march Aljazeera.net
Antiwar Protest Held in Washington Washington Post
Iraq War Protesters, Supporters March on the Capitol MyFox
CBS News - AFP

all 472 news articles »

And it is a Saturday. Six hours ago, were maybe a dozen. And this will climb still.

[Joanne98]

20. Dis-connected populations. Wal-Mart booths would have more effect!

Sorry to all Walmart haters, but it's the truth!

[WHAT]

22. News doesn't work, anymore...

hardly anyone watches for the same reason.

[Disturbed]

23. Peaceful Protests are not exciting or sensational.

Now if a lot of blood were spilled & cars & building were burned that would get a bit of coverage.

[WHAT]

29. coverage isn't equivalent to audience...

tv news audience is shrinking. I don't understand why people discuss news casters, anymore, when nobody pays attention to them. I think other things are going on outside of what a few discredited people talk loudly about. I have a sense people are biding time...

[tyedyeto]

24. Because, today, they are too peaceful?

:shrug:

[paparush]

25. Folks, the ONLY thing that is going to get attention is UNCIVIL Disobedience

The time is here.

These guys don't play by any rules.

Why the f#ck should we?

Aren't we mad as hell? Are we gonna take it anymore?

1.4 MILLION Iraqis KILLED.

BUSH

1.4 MILLION Iraqis KILLED.

BUSH

1.4 MILLION Iraqis KILLED.

MILLIONS MORE DISPLACED. Injured. Wounded. Maimed. Crippled. Widowed. Orphaned. Homeless.

We have the benefit of history. We KNOW what the Nazis did. We KNOW what Stalin did. We KNOW what Mussolini did.

We, The People, are going to have to bring these criminals to justice. Congress isn't going to do it. These guys don't recognize any governing authority. NATO isn't going to do it. The World Court isn't going to do it. You. Me. WE have to do it. Marching in line. Staying between the barricades. Holding signs. Shouting slogans. Singing songs. It all falls on deaf ears.

[jazzjunkysue]

26. I saw it on CNN several times today. Looked great! WoooHoooo!

[John Kerry VonErich]

38. Just 2 minute spots and most focused on the arrests of protesters and police that were injured.

nt

[Cha]

27. That's cause we need to PROTEST

cnn and storm their offices..forget everything else.."IT'S STILL THE MEDIA, STUPID!!"

[Disturbed]

28. I f a few thousand people stormed Fox Noise and broke

their windows, also CNN, then it would get Media coverage. Of course, it would be negative coverage. I think that peaceful demonstrations are old school. Now they are merely little focus groups that are quaint.

[Cha]

31. faux is a diseased arm of a

diseased body..they will be hoisted on their own petard. cnn tries to fool people and they're the ones who need to have a million protesters blocking their cameras from filming poor britney spears.

[Hamlette]

30. Used to work? When was that?

I protested civil rights and the war in Vietnam. I went to my first protest in the early 60s and was still protesting 10 years later.

Remember the Weathermen and the Black Panthers? They came about because the protests did NOT work. 1968 Democratic convention? The Chicago Seven? A few people arrested at a die-in in DC can't hold a candle to the lengths some people went to to get attention.

The protests did not do one thing to stop the war in Vietnam.

Yeah, we puffed ourselves up and said shit like "WE were the greatest generation. We have the best music and we stopped a war." There is no way you can read a history of the war itself and think the protesters did anything with the possible exception of actually prolonging the war because we polarized the country giving the right a rallying call against traitorous DFHs.

I would also argue that the civil rights protests worked because of the televised violence against innocent blacks. The war protesters never generated that degree of outrage because we were not seen as wronged.

Integration happened because of a multi pronged attack on Jim Crow.

The war in Vietnam ended because the military brass was finally able to tell the politicians "we can't win".

[Roland99]

32. Because antics from groups like A.N.S.W.E.R. have marginalized protests

And die-ins and shrieking in Senate hearing rooms?

Come on.

I've tried to see the positive in stunts like that but there just isn't any.

[John Kerry VonErich]

37. There are no positives to protesting anymore.

nt

[SlowDownFast]

40. Here, here.

ANSWER and their Free Mumia and Free Palestine messages have hijacked and diluted the anti-war movement.

I'm watching it all happen again on CSPAN right now.

I fucking hate ANSWER for this.

Congressman Obey was right - there is such a thing as 'idiot liberals'.

[Posteritatis]

47. Butbutbut powerful symbol! Butbutbut raising awareness! (nt)

[John Kerry VonErich]

33. That or the O word which is a word we aren't allowed to say.

That itself is also a long shot.

[spanone]

35. on the front page of my local rag

[SoCalDem]

36. They quit "working" when the draft was ended.

there are just SO many different causes, and it's hard to get enough people who have the time, energy & money to protest.

People no longer work 9-5 in their local communities.

People do not dare to take vacation time, lest they be replaced, outsourced, undermined while they are gone.

people no longer have "extra money" to travel to protests or for lawyers, should they get arrested.

young people no longer have a carefree life.. they are bogged down with car payments, college loans, rent, several jobs..perhaps a kid or two..

three decades of conservatism has numbed the public's interest in communal fairness, and common interests..

No one's giving away free iPods or X-boxes or chances to be on TV humiliating yourself

People who do protest often have to do outrageous things to be noticed, so the ones with costumes that would make Monty Hall rush towards them with a microphone, are the only ones who get any attention, and when asked to speak, they sometimes say non-mainstream things, so the press is standoffish.

People used to be able to protest where they wanted..they did not ask "permission"..they just showed up in overwhelming numbers..

Police used to be befuddled by large groups, and would often stand down...now they take a more aggressive stance and protests are carefully tucked away out of sight, for the most part..

When I saw the lack of outcry over the 2000 election, I knew that real protest would never happen here again:(.. If ever there was a reason for millions to take to the streets , it was then.. and we didn't.:(

[tom_paine]

41. I think you are correct about that

I also think the Bushies would use such an event as an excuse to start martial law and the REAL Operation Endgame, which for the Bushies I think means Soviet-style unchallengable power.

And I think protests, along with the Geneva Conventions, are in fact quaint and anachronistic holdovers from when Amerika was free...

[JanMichael]

42. I've been to several & while the media pretty much ignores them...

...they are certainly worth the time and effort if only to cleanse, refresh and renew, the attendees.

In addition (while the Corpo media ignores them) when the participants go home they usually get questions and show photos to those who are not so inclined to protest.

It's a operation creep effect.

But all in all I'm in the same pissed off camp you are. It's (The War, the Economy, Healthcare, Income and Wealth Inequity, etcetera) so damned frustrating.

[Jade Fox]

43. I've been saying this for years......

Protests worked in the 60s because they got massive media coverage. Not so now.

We need new tactics, and we should all be thinking about this.

[John Kerry VonErich]

44. Exactly

:toast:

[ljm2002]

45. That really is the difference...

...back in the '60's and '70's, a large demonstration would always get a decent amount of coverage. Nowadays, it's relegated and treated like fluff.

I totally agree, we are well into desperate times, and desperate measures are called for. A general strike is a great idea, it may be the only thing left that will get the attention of the Beltway Bozos.

[ikojo]

48. Protests don't work today because they are so

carefully orchestrated down to the minute. The media know exactly who the guest speakers are and what will happen. For the most part, protests, particularly in DC, take place on empty streets with crowds preaching to their various choirs. Until business as usual is disrupted, as it was in Seattle in November 1999, large organized permitted protests will receive scant coverage.

[dkofos]

50. Next protest they should set up outside the major news studios.

They will be more likely to notice if it is in their faces!!

[John Kerry VonErich]

51. Remember what happened in Kansas City when there was a group at CBS Early Show....

They were put in free speech zones.