Just one highlight in Brad Jacobson’s wide-ranging interview of Editor & Publisher‘s Greg Mitchell (Media Bloodhound, 5/5/09) is Mitchell’s scorn for “media coverage of the anti-tax tea parties”:
Greg Mitchell: Most amazing was that they tended to treat it like protests in the past. There have been national abortion rights protests and immigration rights protests and of course anti-war protests and everything spread out around the country. But never, that I’m aware of, has there ever been protests like this that were essentially promoted by a major news organization, that is Fox, who were actually promoting it, not just saying we’re going to cover this. And so it was almost like the mainstream media was afraid to sort of say, “Look, this is not just grassrootsy or even sponsored by a national organization.” It was also promoted by talk radio and promoted by the leading cable news network, which makes it a completely different thing than local activists who want to speak out. They’re going to a rally to see Glenn Beck. It’s a whole different thing.
Well worth reading, the interview also hits upon coverage of the McCain/Palin ticket, Internet media’s effect on for-profit journalism and Jon Stewart’s “boiling point.” Also listen to any of Mitchell’s CounterSpin appearances–on topics as varied as media presentations of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, friendly fire-victim Pat Tillman and the New York Times‘ mea culpa for pre-Iraq War misreportage.
“They’re going to a rally to see Glenn Beck. It’s a whole different thing.”
That’s a bit misleading. MOST of the rallies, and there were hundreds, did not feature Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity etc. They WERE, to be sure, promoted by FOX in a way that no antiwar or other progressive rally ever has been.
In May, 2006, there were HUGE immigrant rights rallies on May Day – 100,000+ in San Jose, for example. Those rallies were HEAVILY promoted by Spanish-language radio stations, but no one denigrated them because of that.
The plain fact of the matter is that a lot of people came out to demonstrate. Just because you (or I) don’t agree with their cause is no reason to denigrate them.
I think the point being made is that these were manufactured events, which were promoted by corpress outlets in the same way that TV networks pimp their programs … but were portrayed as some grassroots welling up of popular anti-tax anger.
Community radio stations promoting a community event … which is one way to define the immigrant rights rallies … is a whole other thing, isn’t it? These were organized by rights advocates without the assistance of news media companies … and, of course, didn’t get the coverage they warranted by same.
And to my knowledge, FOX (and CNN and NBC and CBS et al) have never in *any* way promoted a progressive rally … nor should they. They *should* give them the attention they merit as expressions of popular support for peace and justice and all that good stuff, shouldn’t they?
(And our gummint should abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … which it’s assiduously ignored for six decades.
Good luck on both counts.)