Students have been protesting for WEEKS in the UK. Why do you suppose US media ignores it?

[Matariki]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11960242

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. To be fair, it's a fairly UK-specific story

It's about English (and maybe Northern Irish) university fees (fees payable by EU citizens - students from outside the EU already pay a much higher fee).

[Matariki]

2. I don't think that's the reason at all

The US media covered the 'Orange Revolution' protests in the Ukraine very closely a couple years ago.

I think the protests in the UK are very significant in terms of the population reacting to austerity measures - something affecting both Europe and the US. Frankly I see it as a definite decision to minimize coverage. Wouldn't want to serve as an example to people here in the face of rising education and health care costs - or Social Security cuts.

[brooklynite]

10. The "Orange" (or Green or Velvet) Revolution is not comparble...

Fighting for basic political rights isn't the same thing in the slightest from protesting paying more for college.

The bottom line is that the media doesn't think the average viewer is interested in a "local" financial issue, and they're probably right.

[Matariki]

18. When the streets of major European cities are packed with protesters, it's news.

No matter what the reason.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. It's a protest around Parliament, not packing the city streets

The life of the city went on unaffected outside the small area. And that went for earlier days of protest too.

[RufusTFirefly]

12. But when people were setting fire to cars in Paris, it was fairly big news

In fact, the scope of those particular riots was way overplayed.

Stories that reinforce the Fundamental Narrative get plenty of play. Stories that don't, don't.

We can't let our sensitive citizens realize that taking to the streets is a viable option in the face of injustice.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Setting fire to many vehicles is a lot bigger than chucking a fire extinguisher from a roof

That is, literally, the biggest illegal act the tuition protests have included. Until today, anyway, when they have just broken some windows in the Treasury.

Really, do you think that student loans to pay back fees of £9,000 will be seen as a major issue in the US? When many students in the US get bigger debts than that already? In Britain, it's sometimes reported as "my god, the situation could get as bad as the USA". I can see why Americans might think this a minor matter.

[Matariki]

23. Hello - did you watch the video in the OP? That fire is a lot bigger than a 'fire extinguisher'

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. You were complaining about the coverage before today

"Students have been protesting for WEEKS in the UK. Why do you suppose US media ignores it?"

The fire today was an empty security guard shelter. Still about the same size as one car. This is nowhere near the scale of the French unrest.

[Matariki]

34. And the link is from the BBC - British media. I was noting the minimal US coverage.

I really don't know what point you are trying to make - that weeks of protests in a major European city is somehow insignificant?

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. My point is these protests have been insignificant compared to the Greek ones, or the Paris riots

A march that ended by getting into the building containing the Conservative Party offices, and chucking a fire extinguisher off the top; some sit-ins in university buildings; a couple of other marches, at which nothing particular happened; and then today's protests. They've never threatened to disrupt anything in particular; the main thing they've done is let the Liberal Democrats know how disgusted students (and many lecturers) are with them, and that many of them are thus likely to lose their seats in university-related constituencies. That has produced splits in that party - hence the close vote, today.

The marches have not been widely connected with other concerns about government budget cuts; it's been all about the affordability of going to university. No particular reaction to them by trade unions. The lack of US coverage really doesn't concern me. You've had far more wide-reaching events going on in the US - tax and benefit decisions that affect more people.

[Matariki]

46. Hey Muriel - check out these photos

From Turborama's thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9736556&mesg_id=9736556

A fire extinguisher?







And maybe THIS one will get US Media attention:

[muriel_volestrangler]

49. Look - it's quite simple: you complained about lack of coverage for weeks

and so the pictures from today don't mean anything about the previous coverage, do they? All your pictures are from today.

Yes, a fire extinguisher - look at the amount of coverage it got:

http://news.google.co.uk/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&hl=en&q=%22fire+extinguisher%22

because that was the highlight of the first march. The one you were complaining got no coverage in the US.

[Matariki]

57. I think we disagree on the significance of the protests.

My opinion is that they have wider implications than a local tuition hike, but are part of the far reaching austerity measures being put into motion. Those austerity measures are on the backs of regular working people while the world's wealth accumulates more and more in the hands of a very few.

This is happening globally, but specifically in Europe and the US. I really, honestly believe that the media is complicit in down-playing the reactions of people in Europe. However, today it's reached a 'hard to ignore' flash point.

[Hannah Bell]

27. hardly. it's about austerity programs & attacks on education, common to most of the

developed world at present.

[readmoreoften]

28. Except that there have been big protests in the US and Italy as well.

The California system, U. of Texas, and the CUNY system have been protesting and even small unis in Italy are occupied.

[nadinbrzezinski]

48. That is why the story has been present in Mexican Papers

try again...

[girl gone mad]

54. No, this is a global story.

Governments forcing austerity on the people to pay for the private sector banking losses that were transferred onto the public balance sheet.

It represents a massive wealth transfer, and it happened in the USA, too.

[Robbien]

3. On my PBS station right now Russian Times is doing a good job explaining it

France 24 News also spent about half their time on it
Aljazeera News spent a good deal of time talking about how devastating it is

I've heard almost nothing on it from the BBC News or PBS's News Hour.

Funny.

[Matariki]

6. I did a google news search and noticed all the articles were out of the US

Nothing from major US papers - at least not at the top of the search results.

[Robbien]

15. It is hard to find any news in US news

It is all propaganda. If there were any reports in the US sites on this story, they would slant the stories to make students be the bad guys for being upset that their tuition is going up threefold.

[Robbien]

4. By the way, British elite are bragging about tripling university tuition

Business Secretary Vince Cable has declared that he is "proud" of the government's plans to raise tuition fees
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9273000/9273867.stm


Rich elite are the same the world over. Clueless thugs.

[Matariki]

9. Yeah, I saw that. Fuckers.

Make education only affordable for the well off. Create a society not unlike Haiti or South America.

[readmoreoften]

5. I was in Europe last week. Buildings were occupied even in small towns in Italy

as well as France, Spain, and the UK.

[Matariki]

7. Really???

That hasn't been in the news here at all. Was it over the austerity measures?

That's really significant.

[Catherina]

35. The war is on. And this time, I think we can say it started in Greece

when those damn Communists refused to lay down.

[toddwv]

8. I've seen constant updates about it.

Learned the term "kettling".

[ananda]

11. Guess what? The students just lost.

Parliament passed the tuition hikes anyway.

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Another big FU from the People in Charge

Similar to the outcome of the retirement age protests in France.

[Supersedeas]

37. the Shock Doctrine in its many variations

[SoCalDem]

43. Now, the students just need to withdraw from college... ALL the paying students

Let those big old drafty buildings lay fallow for a semester or two & watch them try to figure out a way to pay their staff & themselves..

[jwirr]

14. In the 60-80 the MSM was blamed for the protests because they

would show what was happening. They stopped. US MSM is just making sure that our students do not see this. Waste of time - we can see anything we want to on the internet.

[EC]

16. It hasn't been ignored

what are you talking about? I've seen it multiple times on multiple stations for weeks...so why are you saying this? What's the point you are making?

[Matariki]

17. Where have you seen it? What stations? How often?

I don't watch television. I did a google news search and there were no major US papers reporting on it.

My greater point is that we don't protest in the US - and there must be a reason for it. After the WTO protests there was a unified decision to under-report protests here.

[Catherina]

36. My mother, with no internet, was aware of it. She was delighted.

I don't know how she knew. NPR maybe?

[Matariki]

21. btw, I've heard far more news about protests in Haiti over cholera than the protests in England

[Poboy]

19. Fire has a tendency to spread. The mushrrooms are best kept

in the dark, and fed a bunch of shit.

[Lisa0825]

24. CNN Breaking News email:

Prince Charles and Camilla's car attacked by student protesters in London; both unhurt.

[justinaforjustice]

25. U.S. Media Doesn't Want U.S. Citizens Getting Any Ideas.

The U.S. media is owned by 5 or big capitalist corporations. The last thing they want is for Americans to see how European are in revolt and join them. The last thing the big corporations want is for Americans to get smart and start opposing all the pro-corporate policies that the the big corporations have put in place to increase their profits. To keep Americans dumb and quiet, the media controls the news we all see.

Thank God for the internet. We have to keep it free and accessible to everyone. We also have to encourage our friends and neighbors to join the internet generation and seek out the facts about our world and is political reality.

[spanone]

26. they're too busy showing us a home burning down. the 'bomb house'

so it's.....burning.

foreign student protests are not profitable reporting

[Blue_Tires]

29. media only like showy faux protests like the teabaggers

[badtoworse]

30. Yawn! Not interested.

Too much of our own shit to worry about

[brooklynite]

32. Breaking on CNN; "Prince Charles and Camilla's car attacked by student protesters in London"

I can promise you that WILL be a story on the News. The celebrity angle is much more saleable to the audience than the economics.

[Catherina]

39. It's on. When you attack the Royal family, you've reached the point of not turning back

[progressoid]

33. Does it have anything to do with Lady Gaga?

[Hannah Bell]

38. maybe because they don't want the peons to know that austerity is occurring across the

developed world, not just in the us -- but others are protesting rather than lying down.

[RufusTFirefly]

40. Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winnah!! n/t

[Matariki]

41. Precisely what I was thinking.

I've been contemplating WHY we don't often protest in the US. And why so many people (including people here at DU) are so derisive of those who do.

I've noticed a tendency to say that current protests are NOT like protests or acts of Civil Disobedience of the past.

Why is that do you think? And why are people more offended by affronts to convenience and 'decorum' than to war crimes and torture?

[SoCalDem]

44. People here don;t protest much because they have too much on the line

If you have a sick kid, an underwater mortgage, 50K in student loan debt & you owe credit cards to the tune of $10K, you are NOT likely to stay home from work so you can join a protest movement.

People who HAVE jobs are not about to jeopardize the security of their families, so that someone somewhere can have things a little bit better.

Until ENOUGH people are personally affected, they will not "take to the streets, en masse".

Viet Nam protests only happened because MOST families back then were affected, and of course we also had a broader based media too.

If large companies start dropping medical coverage as a benefit, and what's left of the middle class, all of a sudden LOSES the option of employer assisted/paid medical insurance, you MIGHT see people in the streets....but not before.. People who have it will hunker down & "be good", so they don't lose it...and the ones who don't have it, are probably lower paid people who cannot spare the time off work..and no one in power cares much about them anyway .

[Matariki]

45. Our lack of a social safety net, coupled with all the material things we have -

that's what I was thinking is one of the root causes. People are too afraid to take days off to protest things that are happening far away.

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. you are forgetting something else about those protests

we had a secure middle class... why the power structure has gone out of its way to destroy it in the false belief that by doing that the peasants will be easier to manage....

Of course you push ANY population far enough.... they will revolt.

[SoCalDem]

51. There may be a tipping point, but we are not there yet.

I've always thought it would be when corporations decide that they will no longer "offer" health care assistance...

Until it's life/death, most people will put up with a LOT...

[nadinbrzezinski]

53. We are starting to near that

in fact, it is closer than most people believe, and that will not be it. Trends six months ago would have... this is moving fast now.

Today's events in Congress reallhy accelerated the dynamic in the US, and not necessarily in a good way, as much as I support them. As to these riots... they are starting to feel like more than just isolated events. You were around for the Summer of 1968.... which affected MANY places around the world... this is starting to have that feel to it.

[SoCalDem]

55. It was world-wide, but not a lot here know that

and of course it's probably NOT taught in school...can't have those kids getting any ideas, now can we?

[nadinbrzezinski]

56. there you go

I am going to go home and pick up my book on the meaning of those revolts in Mexico City.

Got it when I went down there...

[Individualist]

47. Exactly.

[Avalux]

52. It only mattered when the car Charles and Camilla were in was attacked.

There are 3 different threads in GD with their names in it.