FAIR hits NPR, New York Times
Media watchdog criticizes anti-war rally coverage
Coverage of the huge Washington, D.C., anti-war
demonstration on Oct. 26 was so belittling and biased in the
New York Times and on National Public Radio that it evoked a
firestorm of protest from a broad section of the movement. The
Times coverage was minimal and derogatory. It estimated the
crowd at "thousands" and said organizers were disappointed at
the turnout.
But after the Times was bombarded with thousands of
calls, including from the ANSWER coalition organizers, and its
obvious lies became a hot issue with Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting and programs like Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now, the
newspaper finally, on Oct. 30, published a second article on
the demonstration. It acknowledged that at least 100,000 people
had marched, far exceeding the organizers' original estimates,
and reported that the success of the event was spurring on
plans for new protests all over the country.
Following are excerpts from an advisory sent out by
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting on Oct. 28:
National Public Radio and the New York Times arrived at the
same conclusion about the anti-war rally in Washington, D.C.
this weekend [Oct. 26]: The turnout was disappointing. But
neither report matched reality.
The Times account on Oct. 27 was vague, reporting that
"thousands of protesters marched through Washington's streets,"
adding that "fewer people attended than organizers had said
they hoped for." The report, which was under 500 words,
appeared on page 8 of the paper.
On the Oct. 26 broadcast of Weekend Edition, NPR's Nancy
Marshall went even further to disparage the turnout by offering
an estimate on the crowd's size: "It was not as large as the
organizers of the protest had predicted. They had said there
would be 100,000 people here. I'd say there are fewer than
10,000."
While a turnout of less than 10,000 might have been a
disappointment, NPR's estimate is greatly at odds with those of
other observers. The Los Angeles Times (10/27/02) reported that
over 100,000 participated in the march, while the Washington
Post's page A1 story (10/27/02) was headlined "100,000 Rally,
March Against War in Iraq." The Post added that Saturday's
march was "an anti-war demonstration that organizers and police
suggested was likely Washington's largest since the Vietnam
era."
While both the Times and NPR reported the apparent
disappointment of the organizers, none were named or quoted
directly.
Those who spoke to other news outlets expressed just the
opposite; organizer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard told the Washington
Post the march was "just extremely, extremely successful."
Perhaps someone at NPR noticed: The next day Weekend Edition
anchor Liane Hansen introduced a report about anti-war
demonstrations by saying that "organizers say 100,000
protesters were gathered." The New York Times did not run any
follow-up article updating its estimate of the crowd size.
[Since this was written, it has.--WW]
Reprinted from the Nov. 7, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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