Saturday, October 30, 2010
Watch out for mainstream media coverage of Sanity rally
by Larry Geller
No sooner is the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear over than Fox News and the commercial press get busy putting insanity back in place.
Let’s see which article the Star-Advertiser prints in tomorrow’s paper—the dishonest AP article on their webpage that suggests attendance was only 60,000, or something better.
It’s odd to read rally coverage on the Star-Advertiser website by the Associated Press anyway. ABC, CBS, the New York Times, the Associated Press and even National Public Radio barred their employees from attending the rally, so presumably this AP report was made sitting in front of the writers’ home TV sets where the boss wouldn’t catch them. In other words, they most likely were not at the rally they reported on. Where did they report from?
And woe to the AP reporter who casts the rally in a favorable light, I suppose.
Editors make a choice in the articles they select to print, and that choice can both reflect and reveal their biases.
This is a sad commentary on Democracy in America, but the probem is explained by the dictates of the corporate media controlling the news and looking foolish. I sat in the shade at the capitol yesterday, watching the people, and wondering why most of them didn't show up for important events like Peace & Justice & Stop the Wars?
: October 31, 2010 at 10:04:00 AM HST From what I understand, and maybe incorrectly as I forget where I saw/read this, employees from those media outlets were barred from attending the rally, UNLESS they were reporting on it. A small difference, but a noteworthy one, I believe. I still think it unnecessary to bar non-reporting staff from the rally, but I would presume it was to guard against the perceived taint of bias.
Keep up the good work. Your blog, along with iLind and a couple of others, is where I regularly turn for a different and/or more in depth spin on what the mainstream media feeds us (or in many cases, doesn't feed us).
-r-
Thanks for your kind words.
I think you are correct. NPR reported on the rally Sunday morning. I thought it was pathetic. I'll try and write about it, at least a short reaction.
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