Monday, January 29, 2007

Media Frenzy

I haven't come to expect great things from the media when covering enormous war protests, but the coverage of the local Fox station last Saturday was downright infuriating. I've heard estimates ranging from the "tens of thousands" to around 100,000 of how many antiwar protesters attended the event. During the march, I'd venture that I saw roughly 30 pro-war protesters. I'm sure I didn't see every pro-war person who showed up. I'll be charitable and imagine there were 100. That puts it at about a 1000:1 ratio.

How do you suppose Fox 5 treated the situation? With both sides getting equal coverage on the local news, of course.

Additionally, I am disappointed with the organizers of the march for putting Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and Jane Fonda at the front of the line. These people are not the leaders of the antiwar movement. It's fine if they want to join the protest, but we shouldn't be creating any special places for them. Naturally, Fonda's presence became a major issue in the coverage of the protest as well, taking attention away from where everyone who was actually trying to draw coverage to, you know, the war.

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