Neil Young’s song about the Dakota Access pipeline fight is 5 minutes, 39 seconds longer than the combined coverage of the controversy on the ABC and NBC networks. (screenshot: Slate; original photo by Rob Wilson)
The Sacred Stone Camp established by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota has brought together thousands of demonstrators in opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile conduit designed to carry some 200 million barrels of crude oil per year from fracking fields in North Dakota to Southern Illinois. An unprecedented coalition of hundreds of Native American tribes has faced down attack dogs and pepper spray in defense of sacred and historic sites, irreplaceable water resources and the planet’s climate.
The action has won the support of environmental groups, some labor activists and numerous celebrities, and has halted pipeline construction at least temporarily. The Obama administration issued a statement calling for a work stoppage and saying, “This case has highlighted the need for a serious discussion on whether there should be nationwide reform with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects.”
Nevertheless, to this day, ABC News and NBC News have yet to broadcast a word about the pipeline struggle, according to searches of the Nexis news database.
FAIR noted on September 7 that CBS, alone of the three major broadcast news networks, had aired anything on Dakota Access—and that was a lone report on CBS Morning News (9/5/16), amounting to 48 words read at 4 o’clock in the morning. Since then, CBS has returned to the story repeatedly—including two medium-sized reports on the network’s flagship news show, CBS Evening News (9/8/16, 9/10/16).
The pipeline issue did receive lengthy (by TV news standards) and sympathetic reports on MSNBC‘s Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell (8/25/16, 8/29/16, 9/6/16, 9/9/16) and Maddow (9/9/16) . It also appeared on CNN, including The Lead With Jake Tapper (9/5/16) and Anderson Cooper 360 (9/8/16). Even Fox News brought it up (Special Report, 9/15/16), challenging Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein as to why she had been charged with vandalism for spray-painting construction equipment at the protest. The PBS NewsHour took a more than cursory look at the Dakota Access controversy on September 16.
As of this writing, no TV outlet included in the Nexis database has mentioned that independent journalist Amy Goodman was charged with trespassing for reporting on the pipeline protest (FAIR.org, 9/15/16)—though Lawrence O’Donnell (Last Word, 9/6/16, 9/9/16) did twice mention the footage Goodman shot for Democracy Now! of Dakota Access guard dogs with bloody mouths after being used to attack protesters. Nor has any national newspaper reported on North Dakota’s legal assault on newsgathering.
Rock legend Neil Young released a song called “Indian Givers” in support of the Dakota Access mobilization. The chorus of the song repeats, “I wish somebody would share the news.”
I wish more corporate media decision-makers were Neil Young fans.
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @JNaureckas.
You can send messages to ABC News and NBC News (or via Twitter: @ABC or @NBCNews). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Disappearing the undeniable
Corpress (and cop shop) common practice
It was just Amy Goodman that was charged and/or arrested, correct? I thought that I heard that other independent journalists were targeted as well. Am I correct on this?
*not just
I also like to pray for north dakota people, that they will win this battle. I feel that we as brethren and children of God have a mandate that is higher than any other, whether any coalition, strength or bands of armies, even higher than military force. For what strength is that that is higher than the power of God. Prayer warriors are able to combat the sin of dark and evil motives being done to the helpless. Who keep fighting with a peaceful protest following the machines as they go from one end to the other. No those machines must stop! And that’s where we come in as prayer warriors to march onward as Christian soldiers. Let us go and praise the Lord. Let us go and sound the trumpet. Let us take our timbrels and our harps so that they may Praise the Lord! Come on saints! We are NOT to be like the helpless. We are equipped to stand and fight not carnally but with the blood of the l aid them in prayer not stand with them but to stand against the enemy attacks and begin to fight the demonic forces being unlawfully executed!
Prayers are nothing without action. prayer without works is dead
YOUR GOVERNMENT IN A COMMUNIST MODE!
AND WE THE PEOPLE ARE BEING TO STUPID TO STAND UP!
VOTE DONALD J TRUMP, STOP THIS CRAP!
You are out of your mind.
Gary Johnson
Johnson is not an alpha male and that’s what we need right now.
Amen, Prayers are nothing without action.
Lynda is posting rabid (as in mad dog) right wing idiocy. People First. Love of Money (profit) IS the root of evil.
God’s only excuse is She doesn’t exist. If there were a God, how could She allow to go on in the world what does?
Please find another pulpit to practice your religious diatribe
Germany has banned “Fracking” for all time.
Perhaps this news can be carried across the Atlantic to Germany, share it in person to those who will listen.
North American networks are too dependant on revenue from advertisers,in North America, news networks there may have less to lose from local advertisers.
Call for a national blackout and boycott of their channels until they give equal air time and start calling the executives and send letters and emails. This also includes contacting Disney and boycotting all Disney channels since Disney owns ABC. http://www.disneyabcpress.com/abc/abc-executives/
Great song. I sometimes wonder where Neil thinks the gas comes from to power the vintage cars he loves so much.
I have read in the past that his Hummer is bio-diesel
the germans did the same thing with the press…they kept the public blindfolded until it was to late
In the song he says that they are taking back the land that they gave! He doesn’t mention that they took it from the Native Americans first! They really should have put in those treaties, that if anything valuable was found on the land that they would take it back! Thanks!
ABC,CBS and NBC are all owned by the same privileged and self entitled white men who also own large amounts of stock in the pipeline corporations and or corporations, like banks, who will make obscene amounts of money off the pipelines!
These same corporations are the very people who have been part and party to the rise of Mussolini-wanna-be, and scammer, Donald Trumps.
They are all white trash, in suits and ties.
Granted. This is true. Main Stream, Corporate Owned, News Media is corrupted and has failed it’s societal responsibility. The internet & social media has now picked up the banner of social responsibility. This is where the battlefield exists and most of the “Establishment” don’t even know there’s a battlefield and this is it… ATTACK!
I just did a quick search of each of these networks websites and found multiple stories on DAPL. How can you expect people to support your cause if you have to lie about it to promote it?
As we note in the article, the lack of ABC and NBC coverage is based on a search of the Nexis news database–using the files “ABC News” and “NBC News.” These contain the transcripts provided by the networks as a record of their work. They don’t contain the non-broadcast stories found on the networks’ websites, most of which are reposts of Associated Press reports. Nor do they contain reports aired by local affiliates of the networks, because these reports are by definition not products of the networks.
Are u sayng yhat big money corporations are payng news stations Not to rport on what’s going on w/tha pipeline?! N that they’re using attack dogs on Native Americans?! They hav gone too far!
Mz. J
The person who wrote this I suspect has no idea what they they talking about. ABC News, NBC News and CBS News did cover this story.
It goes on to mention that CNN, FOX, MSNBC, PBS’s Newshour all did.
But there is a big difference between CNN, FOX, MSNBC and PBS. FOX and PBS have local affiliates, but not local affiliate newscasts. MSNBC and CNN don’t have any affiliates.
NBC, CBS, and ABC have local affiliates that either have their own local newscasts that airs after the network news. Of course the network newscasts are not going to do the same stories as the local affiliates.
Anywhere in the world be it public of private networks. Like the BBC, ABC, CBC or CTV. It’s very rare that a network newscast will do the same stories.
Who ever wrote this piece didn’t check out the local ABC, NBC, CBS stations. It took me 5 minutes and I found out they did.
MSNBC affiliates NBC CNBC and CNN affiliate HLN
Yes our wonderful government went in and stripped the Indians of everything years ago, then they turned around and gave them land that they felt no real American would be able to survive on. These tribes have survived and have made good on this land bothering on one…now the government had decided to go back and take this away, when will enough be enough? Hey wait they do this everyday right, with our government checks (that we earned) our right to pray in school, do they even have the pledge before class these days, our boys go to fight for this great country and if and when they do come home some have lost their homes, jobs and for some their families because they can’t provide for them. They are left to live on the streets and beg. Time for OUR great America to wake up.
In one paragraph you condemn the government apparently for expecting that you pay taxes which go towards providing you with the infrastructures that provide you with schools, roads, and military hardware for the wars that have cost trillions of dollars. You then go on to complain that religion isn’t allowed in public schools. Most of us are tired of hearing the BS about prayer in the schools. There is a very good reason for the separation of church and state. The reason that there are no jobs is that the trickle down theory of economics just does not work. Our great America isn’t so great anymore which has nothing to do with who was president or who controls the congress. It is about people working with people… remember that pledge you so blatantly espoused every day you were in public school? Thus country will not be made great again by the likes of Donald Dump or Hillary…. it only be made tolerable again when we the people pull our collective heads out of our collective asses and begin the long and painstaking road to finding that politics and religion both serve to separate us as a people… it matters not who you pray to or even not pray to. As for those who really own this land, ask them about immigrants… unwanted as well….
There is also a blackout of reporting about Standing Rock’s related story: people downstream of Standing Rock, all the way through to Iowa. The farmer’s lands that were taken by “imminent domain”, where it is supposed to be for (the public good) so that law does not apply.
The only way to find out what is going on is on the internet.
In North Dakota, when anyone going through the checkpoints on the highway to get to Standing Rock are ID’d, the law enforcement adds their names to the lists that the FBI and NSA are building on environmental activists and anyone reporting what is going on. Currently, local state and who knows who else associated with law enforcement puts in a request (probably under the Patriot Act) through to have their Facebook or online streaming ability shut down (because they have their ID and facial recognition) so they can’t stream to the internet, thus the blackout is getting worse.
Newest update as of 9/23/16: The Sacred Burial grounds around Cannonball have been sold to DAPL. Can you believe it?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sacred-Burial-Grounds-Sold-by-Georgianne-Nienabe-Bank-Of-North-Dakota_Dakota-Access-Pipeline_North-Dakota-160923-959.html
All Americans have been fighting for their rights throughout history. It is their duty to keep fighting for their rights and the rights of others whose voices and stories were stolen.
History teaches: When you see what is being done (what has been done) to the people who have been marginalized, living on the fringes of society ( this can and will eventually be done to you/us.) There is nothing to stop them, if we don’t stop them.
Water is Life on this Pale Blue Dot.
Looking at earth from Voyager:
Carl Sagan:
” Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
— Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
This earth is where you make our stand.
There’s this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD0dXdw6CTQ
This land belonged to the Indian before anyone. They took it away from them and they reclaimed a portion just to have it taken from them again. This is not right or fair. We are treated like mushrooms kept in the dark and fed sh t
http://geenergyfinancialservices.com/press_releases/view/209
FAIR might want to do a little research of its own. The press release above from 2013 tells all about NBC’s virtual silence on the issue seeing that GE is a partner in Bakken and Three Forks Shale. GE is also selling pipeline monitoring software to the Bakken operators. GE is heavily invested and does not want to lose their shirt or piss off their partners. http://thebakken.com/…/ge-accenture-release-intelligent…
GE OWNS NBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GE sold its remaining stake in NBC to Comcast in 2013.
Start covering this
Clean water human right, and if they did this on a veteran cemetery, bet we would stand also, we stand and support NoDAPL
What is being done to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota is a SIN! It is also a sin that big Oil has payed off the Media to not report the wrong they are doing.All the Networks need to be covering this.Shame on them for not covering this.
United States of Corporate America is not our home. We are not free as long as the rich can buy their way out of or into anything! Shame on you Congreas. Shame on you Senate. Shame on you Media.
American Indians were once forced off their lands, relieved of their rightful language culture and religion …….this is 2016 let’s not let it happen again for the profit of petroleum companies.
STOP DAPL AND THE MEDIA BLACKOUT!!! WE DEMAND CLEAN WATER..GIVE BACK OUR LANDS.
It is time for native black indians to receive the respect they deserve as spiritual people, and the rightful inhabitants of this land called North America. Give respect and stop trying to take away the land (reservations) that was assigned to them by the U.S.A. government! The ABC and NBC news should stop trying to hide the evil wrong doings of the government and corporations. Help stop and expose the wrong doings of the U.S. Illegal System. You will reap what you sow, because what goes around comes around. Universal Karma must and will be balanced! Iyah! Wholeness…Oneness…One Love
Why are you not reporting the dakota pipeline story? There was a award winning journilist strip searched and thrown in jail. Then threaten with a jail term of 48 years. Since when are you arrested for peaceful protesting. Biggest gathering of tribes from all over America in history. Celebrities campaigning. Trump behind pipeline. What, still you Choose not to report this story. Wow this will effect every person along the Missouri to the end of the missipsipi. This company is well known for oil leaks. Don’t you think people need to know about what’s happening in there back yard. Because if it not reported theirs going to a lot of questions asked if they were not informed about this. This is huge. You know what’s big news that this not being reported honestly and truthfully by you the media.
I want to hear about this every day! Whoever the pipe line was going to give all those jobs to can find something else for them to do . Like creating clean energy! This planet does not need the pipe line to create jobs. This planet is and our water supply is more important then the price of gas. It is time to face this fact and do something about it, which includes the news media I depend on every day. Otherwise I’m turning you off! You’ll be talking to my hand.
This is getting serious with horses being shot to death & people being shot by all kinds of weapons. This Dakota Pipeline has to be stopped. We all live on this planet & this is a crucial time right now to do the right thing. I stand behind our Native Americans and will not stand for their first amendment rights being violated and the violation of peace treaty agreements.
We have taken from the Indian too many times and too much! We need to stop being Indian givers and our word must mean something. Quit treating them like animals! They are people just like you and I. Why are we not giving them television coverage? Do the Koch brothers everything and everyone in politics! One day all Americans will revolt and no amount of power or money will stop us!
Please STOP WHATS HAPPENING TO OUR INDIANS AND PIPE LINE!
Just STOP!
There are many other things to do fix mess up take away in this world.
FOCUS ON TAKING AWAY WEAPONS DRUGS BOMBS POVERTY PAIN FEAR HUNGER DISEASE FROM ALL not ANYMORE FROM THE INDIANDS
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dakota-access-pipeline-authorities-start-arresting-protesters-new-camp-n674066
The above report is not exactly true. Main network news desks as well as many local desks are reporting on this.
You’re commenting on a piece that was published on September 22. NBC’s on-air national coverage of Dakota Access started on October 27.
How can we force the media to cover this important cause. Report this news gain attention to all of America?
Funny how ABC’s story predates yours by two weeks. So much for legitimacy.
abcnews.go.com/amp/US/tensions-mount-native-american-tribe-fights-block-oil/story%3fid=41891717