News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

In an otherwise generally good article on the alleged liberal bias of
the mass media at:

http://tinyurl.com/ywbh6n

one finds these comments:

Note over the next months how those "liberal" journalists refer to
people who intend to, and will, protest during the Republican National
Convention in St. Paul.

I'll start you off with two examples from the past week.

A story by two Star Tribune staff writers began this way:

"Anarchists and antiwar organizations preparing for the Republican
National Convention are planning dozens of traffic blockades, are
targeting perceived vulnerable spots in the Twin Cities metro area and
are readying to spring from Internet promises to real-world action."

Anarchists? If there are more than two dozen actual anarchists in the
entire country, I'll eat raw toad.

There are some troublesome punks, looking for excitement, who call
themselves anarchists, undoubtedly, but they probably couldn't even
define the word. And in going "Boo!" about their supposed plans, the
Strib writers deeply color the public's perception of all protests and
demonstrators even though they undoubtedly know that 98 percent of those
who show up to protest the Bush/Cheney actions against this country will
be peaceful, average Americans.

And a St. Paul Pioneer Press story on the probability of convention
protests said in the third paragraph that the anti-war coalition
planning at least some of those protests is made up of 1,400
organizations "-- from activists to communists to pacifists."

Activists, of course. Communists? Not one in 10,000 likely protesters,
but it sure will widen the eyes of readers. Pacifists? Some undoubtedly,
but, again, a small percentage of those likely to demonstrate against
Bush/Cheney in St. Paul. The focus is on a tiny minority; one would
think Karl Rove sent in the notes for the stories.

*****

Now, the writer has a point about the media misrepresenting protestors
as a whole by focusing on oddballs, but he just as clearly goes the
other way in denying the numbers of such individuals -- anarchists,
communists, etc. The guy should eat a raw toad.

--
Dan Clore

My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/1587154838/ref=nosim/thedanclorenecro
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://www.geocities.com/clorebeast/
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

"Don't just question authority,
Don't forget to question me."
-- Jello Biafra