Thoughts re: media coverage of 9/24 march

[WilliamPitt]

There has been a fair amount of grousing regarding the lack of media coverage of the march yesterday, that people won't know it happened because the media was silent about it. But try this reality on for size:

If the mainstream television media had covered it wall-to-wall yesterday, most people still wouldn't have been aware of it from the TV. Why?

Because no one watches the news on Saturday. Period. That's Media 101.

A lot of people, however, read their Sunday papers. I am seeing articles on the rally in DC (and the rallies elsewhere) in the New York Times, the Washington Post (front page: "Antiwar Fervor Fills the Streets; Demonstration Is Largest in Capital Since U.S. Military Invaded Iraq"), the Boston Globe, and a bunch of others.

Maybe some will lowball the numbers, but the coverage I have seen in print has been mostly positive.

So there's that, for what it's worth.

[zanne]

1. Most people don't read newspapers.

Yes, I guess "alot" do, but compared to cable TV news watchers, not that many. I think that if we're pinning our hopes on people who actually read, we're bound to be disappointed.

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. "Alot"

Combined Sunday circulation of the top 10 newspapers in the U.S., as compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six-month period ending March 31, 2005:

9,280,185

Factor in the number of actual readers per newspaper — established to be between 2 and 2.5 — and you've got about 20 million readers of these 10 Sunday newspapers. (There are more than 1,300 daily newspapers in the U.S.)

Any cable news network CEO would eat his children for those numbers.

[demnan]

2. Thanks for the words of encouragement

It helps me forget my knees - protest marches are tough work! Now it's out to buy the Washington Post to see for myself.

[tnlefty]

18. I have blisters on top of my blisters, but the energy was awesome.

For a while an elder gent was walking with us and he was using one of the smaller walkers with wheels. I figured if he could be there, I was gonna forget about my feet for a while!

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. As long as Rove knows what was going on, I'm happy

[Lerkfish]

4. Unfortunately, in today's Dayton Daily News, no protest numbers, BUT

they DID list the estimate of counterprotesters (several hundred) but no totals for the protest itself.

I would encourage any fellow Daytonians to contact the paper about that discrepancy

[electropop]

13. I did see half a dozen anti-choice people in the Code Pink area

but no anti-war people. Would have been hard to spot a few hundred crazies when engulfed by a crowd literally 1,000 times larger.

[ClusterFreak]

5. I don't buy it. n/t

[WilliamPitt]

11. Care to elaborate on why?

[ClusterFreak]

21. I agree with you as far as the print media is concerned...

....I'm referring to broadcast media really. I just think it's pretty clear that CNN/the "networks" have tamped down their negative Bush coverage, quite clearly, since the early days of Katrina. Not that it was particularly devastating to begin with. I don't see any reason (not a justifiable one anyway) why they couldn't have a person or persons in place in DC yesterday to do live cut-ins - or at least a pre-packaged wrap or two - and handle their Rita responsibilities as well. I don't see where the size of a Saturday news audience comes in to play. Not from my point of view, although maybe from that of some cigar-smoking exec at AOL/Time-Warner or NBC/Universal. Having said that...(I hate it when people begin a sentence that way!!)...I didn't really watch much TV at all yesterday, so perhaps the coverage was more in-depth. I did briefly catch CNN mid-afternoon, and the only reference I saw to the protest whizzed across the screen in the crawl. That doesn't cut it IMO. It seemed to be a clear and deliberate avoidance of a major anti-war/anti-Bush (whatever you want to call it) event.

[kentuck]

6. That is encouraging.

That the news is positive. I'm not sure what message the majority of Americans would take from the television event?

[nonconformist]

7. I agree with you, I was thinking the same thing. nt

[Arkham House]

8. "The Whole World is Watching"

As a veteran of most of the big anti-Vietnam protests, I recall very well that it was the TV coverage of the antiwar movement that really tipped the balance. Newspaper reports just aren't the same...and with the relative decline of papers, that makes it all the more necessary to have some *images* engraved in the hearts of the American people. Of course, with the blogosphere, we have a factor that didn't exist in the Good(?) Old Days...so maybe that compensates in part...what we couldn't have done with the Internet in 1969...:-)...

[GalleryGod]

9. Thanks, Will. We were a River of Humanity Yesterday!

They used to ignore us 35 years ago, too.

[electropop]

10. Thanks for the boost.

I was there, and it was amazing. The whole downtown seemed to be filled with people: the Mall, Pennsylvania Ave, 14th & 15 Streets were all one huge crowd. The creativity of the signs was impressive. Oh yeah, our side is the smart side. :-) At the concert, Jello Biafra announced an estimate of 300,000, which was just what I had been thinking, before I left the concert area and saw how many other streets were filled.

The speakers and the performers were fantastic. Joan Baez still has the voice and the body of a 20 year old. Maxine Waters had fire and brimstone that whipped the crowd into loud enthusiasm. The movement definitely seems to have moved beyond "bring them home" to "impeach NOW."

The weather was gray and occasionally chilly, but that was actually great. Nobody was dropping from heat stroke or dehydration. It was perfect marching weather.

As soon as I got home, I tuned in to CNN. After 1/2 hour of waiting, I soptted one, four-second blip on the demonstration. Sheesh. I caught a the end of something about it on the local (DC) NBC affiliate. The ABC and CBS affiliates had cencelled the news for football games.

Glad to hear about the Post - gonna go get me one!

[Dogmeat]

12. Washed Away

by Hurricane. I've got a bunch of great shots from the March. Can someone clue me in on how to post j-pegs?

[zalinda]

14. Most people buy the sunday paper

if for nothing else than the tv guide. My paper, The Post-Standard, here in Syracuse, NY, which I think, is a Knight-Ridder paper, has a blurb on the front page, and the full story on page 20. Takes up almost the entire page. Gives crowd estimate at 200,000. Here's the kicker, almost every account I've read, it makes it clear that there were ALL types of people there, young and old. Whereas the 60's protests were young people.

zalinda

[Horse with no Name]

15. If nothing else Will

the 500,000 that participated ALL know at LEAST 1 person...who know 1 person...who know 1 person.

The grass roots potential is awesome.

Thanks for the great reports Will.

[FloridaCrat]

16. So, How many people do you think were there, Will? n/t

[enough]

17. Two half-columns on page 2 of today's Philadelphia Inquirer

"Tens of Thousands near White House rally against war" is the headline, with a small shot of Cindy and Jesse Jackson. No crowd shot.

[Alamom]

19. 1/3 page....Birmingham News

100,000 gather in Washington to decry war in Iraq
Sunday, September 25, 2005
GIGI DOUBAN
News staff writer
More than 100,000 people showed up Saturday in Washington, D.C. to protest the war in Iraq, making it the largest antiwar protest in the nation's capital since the U.S. invasion.

Similar events were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris and other European cities.

The Birmingham rally at Kelly Ingram Park began with a march downtown, with some beating hand drums and others holding signs such as "G.W.B. is a W.M.D.," "Osama bin Forgotten" and "Stop Mad Cowboy Disease."


In Washington, speakers from the stage attacked President Bush's policies head on, but he was not at the White House to hear it. He spent the day in Colorado and Texas, monitoring hurricane recovery.



http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1127640474114720.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

[Mutley]

20. Article in the Baltimore Sun.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.march25sep25,1,5099422.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

WASHINGTON // Chanting "Bring our troops home now" and "George Bush has got to go," tens of thousands of protesters descended on the White House yesterday in the largest antiwar rally here since the start of the Iraq war.

A crowd, informally estimated by police at 100,000, marched through downtown Washington under a dark gray sky and occasional drizzle, toting signs, bullhorns and bongo drums to make their case against the Bush administration.

The demonstration, which included a concert on the Washington Monument grounds that was scheduled to run until midnight, was largely peaceful. By early evening, Washington police had reported three arrests.

Marchers and rally speakers called for the impeachment of President Bush and drew parallels between the conflict in Iraq and the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, portraying both as examples of administration failures.

[Toasted_Halo]

22. Agreed!

There was good coverage in the paper here today!

[Emit]

24. As one who was doing a lot of the 'grousing' thanks n'/t

[DemReadingDU]

25. On CNN Headline news

Several times Sunday morning, they showed a lot of footage!

of Cindy Sheehan speaking in front of a huge crowd

of Jesse Jackson in the huge crowd

of the super huge march on the streets

of the mother with Military Families Speak Out (forget her name)

they also interviewed 1 mother supporting Bush

I saw it about 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, maybe more, but then I switched to watch Meet the Press.