RNC Protests
30Aug2004 Filed under: LinkageMegan has put together a great slideshow of her shots from the RNC protests yesterday: protest.mov. (Warning: 7mb file.)
On her blog, Megan comments: “besides the local news broadcasts, they showed about 5 minutes of a GIANT (500,000 strong) march on the NBC nightly news, basically saying not much happened. the national news was WEAK and i had a feeling they wouldn’t give the protest justice!”
While I understand her frustration, I would say media coverage of the protest has been relatively good, all things considered. The story was at the top of the front page of both The Seattle Times and the Seattle P-I, with headlines like “Protest massive and peaceful.” Naturally, protester numbers were minimized (they always are), but all the national coverage I’ve seen emphasizes that the protesters were well-behaved. After WTO, I’m cynical and always expect media to misrepresent every single protest as a “riot.” News outlets are desperate for a rowdy, violent crowd and images of angry mobs always sell better than the image of a peaceful, articulate crowd.
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4 Responses to “RNC Protests”
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Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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tamara
August 30th, 2004 at 7:07 pm
My props to megan! great slideshow, I wish I could have been there. As long as people on the street who were there are posting what they saw and heard we will always have the ability to gauge a more complete picture of what really happened. (as opposed to major media representantion)
megan
August 30th, 2004 at 8:12 pm
that is good to hear that the numbers were widely publicized in the papers. i was simply relying on the news coverage that night. and also called my mom as i walked, who said she couldn’t find a thing on it on cable TV. it was disheartening at the time, but i’m glad to hear it at least made the papers (sadly of which most ignorant, uninformed people don’t get around to reading!).
dr. dave
August 31st, 2004 at 7:40 am
I heard someone on NPR yesterday suggest that the whole reason the RNC chose NY in the first place was so there WOULD be massive and violent protests. That way they could point there fingers and say - “Look at those unamerican anarchist hippies out there! These are the kind of people that support Kerrey.”
Which is just insanely cynical, and probably true.
So I’m hoping that the anarchist hippies behave themselves.
dr. dave
Dave
August 31st, 2004 at 9:48 am
These may be isolated incidents, but it’s not ALL peaceful and articulate in NYC.
From the NYTimes:
“When marchers approached the Garden, a police detective was knocked off his scooter. He was then repeatedly kicked and punched in the head by at least one male demonstrator. The detective, William Sample, was listed in serious condition… ”
“…delegates to the Republican National Convention were swarmed by protesters dressed in black and swearing at them. Blocks away, delegates engaged in shoving matches with protesters seeking to spoil their night at the theater. And outside “The Lion King” on 42nd Street, a delegate was punched by a protester who ran by.”
“As delegate buses arrived at the Garden yesterday afternoon, protesters who had gathered for a demonstration screamed obscenities and gestured rudely at them”
“…angry encounters and planned harassment of convention delegates as they go out on the town”
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I’m concerned that it’s only going to get worse as the week goes on. If that happens, and *if* the media covers it (lots of conservatives think they’ll minimize it; media bias and conspiracies and all that), it may indeed hurt Kerry to some very small degree with the older middle-America undecideds. Probably not enough to matter though.
Personally, I’m all for peaceful organized demonstrations. But (and this applies to the left and the right) if you can’t make your point without using excessive obscenities, without harrassing and intimidating people trying to have dinner or go to the theatre or just walk down the street, or without beating up cops, don’t expect me to give you, your cause, or your candidate any serious consideration.
Surely the people behaving this way don’t *really* think they’re going to win anybody over to their side? Such asinine behaviour can only be what we southerners call “preaching to the choir”, and could be counterproductive.