Corporate Media Love A Good Protest
Big Media Shows Turned Out For Jena, but Not For Anti-War.
On Thursday, the corporate media turned out in impressive numbers to cover the pro-justice march in Jena, Louisiana. But last Saturday, just five days before, that same corporate media barely addressed the anti-war march in Washington DC.Personally, I’m thrilled the mainstream corporate media covered Jena, but I’m not delusional as to why:
For the Bush-crony corporate media, which owns profitable “defense” industry businesses and serves the military industrial complex in myriad ways, the march in Jena was viable to promote. It served the interests of both the Bush administration and American media corporations by providing a global view of Bush’s exportable democracy. Unlike the anti-war movement that directly targets George Bush and Dick Cheney, the Jena march targeted local officials and local injustice. It never mentioned George W. Bush or his administration. Thus, the Jena march was covered and the anti-war march was not.
Furthermore, if Bush put a media kibosh on the Jena march the way he does on anti-war marches, he would ensure an even greater divide between Black Americans, the Republican party and his administration. Activists know the success of public demonstration is judged by the attention it gets. If the Jena march generates media attention, the march is deemed a success. If the Republicans and George Bush want to keep any faith with Black Americans, they had better let the media work.
Plus, on the heels of the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, where the world watched America’s disenfranchised Black population purposely forsaken, what better promo for Bush’s portrait of transferable global democracy than a media barrage showing Black Americans free to congregate, chant and march? The fact is, if Bush and the corporations hadn’t approved the media coverage in Jena and recognized how they could benefit from it, it would never have taken place. But since these same media conglomerates also profit from the military industrial complex, the coverage of Jena was a win all around. If Bush and the corporations can show that democracy works, they can argue it’s worth exporting, and they are noble for passing it on - regardless of the cost!
Thursday’s march in Jena broadcast to the world that Americans have freedom of discourse. However, the extent of Jena’s coverage was predicated on the subjects the discourse was on. Since the marchers didn’t demonstrate against the government, the media or the President, the exposure was high. Had they taken on the government, the media or the President, the exposure would have been little to none. So much for the beatitude of Bush’s exportable democracy.
In truth, it was great to see Jena’s streets filled to capacity for civil rights. And great to see the media converge to report it. Unfortunately, the reporting was more for “photo-ops” than to advance the marchers’ cause. This was corporate media’s opportunity to transmit exportable democracy to every corner of the globe. After all, one can’t export democracy if one can’t show the world it exists. It will be interesting to see how long corporate media broadcasts the Jena story. Likely just as long as the focus stays off Bush, Cheney and Washington, DC.
Despite the media’s questionable motives for covering the events in Jena, I’m ecstatic that they did. The injustice served upon the young Jena Six, upon young Genarlow Wilson and Troy Davis in Georgia, and upon thousands of young black men trapped in America’s prison industrial complex, is reprehensible. It must stop!
My great hope is that this is the beginning of a new civil rights movement that I become part of. In all my years in the social justice movement, my biggest regret was never marching with Dr. King. But I couldn’t. In 1963 I was fourteen years old and not permitted to go. Now forty-four years later I had to pass on Jena, too, having just returned from Washington where I’d marched against the war.
Of course the media was barely there.
On September 15th, I, along with 100,000 kindred activists, marched through the nation’s capitol where we were pretty much ignored. The minimal media we did get was distorted and untrue. When a small, sadistic band of war-hawks showed up to oppose us, the press slanted their numbers as if they equaled our own. The truth is, their numbers were one-hundredth the size of ours, although one would never know that from this deceptive headline in The Washington Post: “Dueling Demonstrations.”
It’s a travesty that mainstream journalists ignore the anti-war movement and serve their corporate masters to the detriment of our nation. Of course, there are no photo-ops at peace marches to support the export of Bush’s democracy. There is only the truth which apparently isn’t enough. It’s sad.
During the extensive coverage of Jena on Thursday, CNN’s Kyra Phillips was so bubbled over by her freedom to report that she blurted out on camera, “this is what we went to journalism school for - to do stories like this.”
On that point Ms. Phillips is correct. She did learn in journalism school that there is honor in her profession. She also learned in journalism school that the only master she serves is ‘the truth’. Not her corporate bosses.
If Ms. Phillips and her colleagues choose to report on the truth, the anti-war movement is an excellent source. In fact, here’s a small sampling of some stories she could have told from the peace march on September 15th:
* On the eve of the September 15th PEACE march, several members of the Rolling Thunder and Gathering of Eagles Pro-War/Pro-Violence motorcycle gangs showed up at the CODEPINK House in Washington, DC to harass the peace loving WOMEN in pink. It was an unconscionable bullying act. CODEPINK diffused the encounter and engaged them in peaceful conversation. I was staying at the House at the time.
* During Saturday’s peace march, a six-foot-tall pro-war/pro-violence male agitator slapped CODEPINK’s 23-year-old staffer, Alexandra, across her face when she tried to intercede in an argument. Fortunately, the cowardly attacker was hauled off and arrested by the Capitol Police. I saw the bruise on Ally’’s left cheek. I hope the attacker is appropriately punished.
* One of the cowardly members of the Rolling Thunder and Gathering of Eagles Pro-War/Pro-Violence motorcycle gangs approached CODEPINK women during the march with a knife and slashed the giant PEACE banners they were holding.
AND THE STORY THAT REALLY MUST BE TOLD:
* Several cowardly members of the Rolling Thunder and Gathering of Eagles Pro-War/Pro-Violence motorcycle gangs BEAT AND KICKED GoldStar father Carlos Arredondo during the peace march. They beat Carlos so badly that he had deep cuts and bruises all over his body. For those who may not know Carlos Arredondo, he is the grieving father who set fire to himself when told his Marine son Alex was killed in Iraq. I saw Carlos’ wounds. They were deep, bloody and painful, but no where near as painful as the pain from losing his child!
Shame on The Gathering of Eagles and Rolling Thunder.!
Shame on The Corporate Media!
Shame on George W. Bush!
Final note: The corporate media’s exploitation of the “Jena Six” has given the story the renown it deserves. It’s the dawning of a renewed and needed movement. As one who protested the Vietnam war, I remember what it was like to link arms in a multi-cultural rainbow and march in lockstep toward peace. I’ve long wished for greater diversity in the current peace movement.
Nonetheless, in the United States Congress, the strongest anti-Iraq war voice belongs to Congresswoman Maxine Waters who marched in Jena this week. As Congresswoman Waters clearly knows, at the core of America’s economic problems is the ever-growing cost of war. It is my hope that millions more Americans will join this revitalized civil rights movement and the peace movement. It is my further hope or dream that the two will merge into one powerful force to take on illegal war, American imperialism, racial injustice, the prison industrial complex, poverty, health-care and the multitude of ills that plague our nation and our world. When we are that powerful, the corporate media and the administration can’t afford to turn away.
Linda Milazzo is a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist. Her writing has appeared in numerous domestic and international newspapers, magazines and journals. Over the past three decades, Linda has divided her time between the entertainment industry, community development projects and education.
And everybody denies any coercion of the US press by this administration!
I sat in a meeting in 2002 where 2 journalists - 1 TV and 1 newspaper - volunteered the information that representatives of the Bush administration were visiting news orgs and giving them instructions on how to cover the news or lose all access to govt info.
They also each cited instances when a news story detrimental to either Bush, Israel or in praise of Muslims generated threats by corporations to pull advertising over the story content.
So in many cases this has become a way of life.
A good example is in many of today’s papers the headline reads:
“Democrats fail to pass anti-war legislation despite unpopular conflict in Iraq”
A more accurate headline would be:
“Republicans block passage of anti-war legislation despite unpopular conflict in Iraq”
The first gives impression to casual reader that the war is due to Dems. the second correctly describes event.
This is only a very minor example of the ‘bowdlerized’ stories demanded by this admin. as well as banning war photos that show the unvarnished results of our actions in Iraq and elsewhere.
We could also talk about the ban on photos of US war dead being returned.
And on… and on…..
Any time African Americans protest about an African American topic, of course the media will be there. It’s just another way to make this population look like “Other People” rather than just plain Americans. And why should the media cover anti-War protests when their coporatate parents have so much to gain by war activity? There’s no mystery here. It’s just mores media drumbeat of the status quo.
The people who support war do not want dissent within the military to spread.
Imo the march in Washington has been hushed up because veterans of the Iraq war are now speaking against the war.
If the military men turn against the war in Iraq who will fight it? How do you conduct a war with dissent in the ranks?
(I have never felt comfortable speaking to people who were going to the war zone about opposition to the war. Imo they are under so much pressure already. However people who have served in Iraq can speak about the situation in Iraq to people going to Iraq.)
I think we are seeing a split in the military in their views about the Iraq war.
Bush continues to amaze me in his abilities to create problems for America.
And I was in Washington and imo the pro war people were sent there to harass the anti war protesters.
I saw one older man harassing a child and calling him a jihadi. Also pro war people went into locations where the ant war protesters were. This was not accidental. They were sent there and told to cause trouble.
However the numbers of pro war demonstrators were so low they could not easily confront the large numbers of anti war demonstrators who really looked like a cross section of Americans and who often had their children with them. Imo that is why Code Pink and some others were targeted. They do not look like average Americans. Perhaps those like Code Pink should be surrounded with the ordinary looking Americans to protect them from these pro war provocateurs.
This is a common racial problem in East Texas and Louisiana.
Alto, TX youth John Brown was beating by a sheriff’s deputy and his ankle broken. Civil Rights charges were lost in Marshall, TX. A white police officer in Jacksonville, TX was sentenced to rape and retailiation for 12 years, but the local County Attorney continued to seek charges against innocent black people at :
http://www.jacksonvilleprogress.com/local/local_story_027183239.html?keyword=secondarystory
If that doesn’t make your blood boil, then
read more at : www.cherokeecountytexas.blogspot.com
It is much easier to attack women or an elderly man then it is to go and volunteer for Iraq(where you can also attack women and elderly men–but you get paid for it and have more chances of getting attacked yourself).
It doesnt matter whether you are 15 or 70. There is some way you can volunteer and go to Iraq–as a truck driver, cleaner whatever.
You can do your part–any pro war person who isnt in Iraq right now is a coward and hypocrite.
We need an administration that works for us instead of for corporations. If we incorporate We the People, we can have one.
I would like to see a stronger coalition between the people protesting in Jena and the anti war protesters.
Martin Luther King is the model.
There needs to be an ORANGE REVOLUTION of Non Violent resistance where Antiwar Protesters march through the nation’s capitol and stay until impeachment proceedings begin or BUSHCO resign… It would require a million anti-war protesters with plenty of passion….
Disjunctively, the average American is not directly affected by the war…Again Cheney understood the real fundamental reason for the Vietnam Antiwar success…Hence, the innovative use of ‘Guns for Hire’ Blackwater… This would preclude average Americans any direct participation or cost… Resulting in what we have today a fragmented, divided and disenfranchised Anti War movement…. With the Warmongers seemingly always one step ahead…
Ms. Milazzo’s analysis is excellent.
We all need to understand why certain stories appear on our TV screens and papers to the exclusion of much more compelling ones.
However, we don’t need to invoke direct government or even corporate CEO involvement to explain how this works, just remember this quote:
“Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.”
-George Orwell
I encourage everyone to join Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) www.FAIR.org
Because the media will do anything to distract us from the Iraq war including fanning the flames of racial tensions. What happened in Jena is a tradgedy but its being used as something to divide a great wedge between African Americans and Caucasion Americans. We need to unite as brothers and sisters against the war, the corporate media, and this god-awful administration. Peace don’t let them use divide and conquer!
In this day & age, there are no reasons to watch the corporate Media.
Thank you Linda Milazzo for straightforward reporting in this and other articles you have written for Common Dreams. You are a fine journalist and those of us who care about our country and the world need people like you.
‘Rolling Thunder and The Gathering of Eagles’ are the American version of the ‘black shirts of Italy and the brown shirts of Germany’ circa 1920’s-1945, and it is a shame how this country has sunk so low, but quite understandable as to why.
More military personnel with moral conscience that have served in Iraq and saw or took part in American atrocities are resisting this criminal government and speaking the truth and refusing to take part in legalized murder and the carnage we have inflicted on the Iraqi people.
The new movie, ‘IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH’, a Paul Haggis film, which I saw last night is an excellent portrayal of ’soldiers gone wild’ and anyone reading this, please go see it. You won’t regret it unless you’r a Bush/Cheney supporter.
What we need, is not one-day marches or demonstrations, whether it be 100, a 1000, a 100,00, or even a million people for several hours, but a massive work-stoppage and or the general strike by working folks around the country to put a halt to this barbaric regime in Washington, D.C. , otherwise the situation here and abroad will worsen. If the citizens are willing, we can succeed. A concerted plan is paramount.
Maybe our country needs to look like Japan and Germany in 1945 before we wise up and realize ’state-sanctioned murder’, also known as war is not the way to go. I hope not.
Thanks again, Linda
PJD: I agree with you, and ‘FAIR’ is top of the line!
How would we- curmudgeon99, Nellie, colleen, Rusk Texas, kelmer, ezeflyer, PJD, simonhhh, dcbeltway, nymet624 and peaceman- get just one Common Dreams article onto any MSM paper or TV? Just for starters, to see how its done
I assume that many people sending in information to radio hosts (not just talk radio) would be effective. But radio’s power seems to be similar to online magazines like this one- their audience seeks them out… there is not much ‘public traffic’. At least not here in Chicago. TV is the god of media these days, but there are so many TV news programs that if a CD story were included it might be lost in the noise. Now I still believe that most local news gets its information from local papers, and those papers get their information from the AP wire and… I guess the access/exposure of its (dwindling) reporters.
So let’s say that Gannett (who owns the Chicago Sun-Times and probably your local paper) is the best MSM to focus on -other suggestions please- how would we concentrate our efforts to get a story some coverage?
Lack of coverage might not be a strong enough story, but there are many others here on this site. This article is fine enough in my opinion. Anyway, the process would have to involve:
-picking a story/article
-expressing a common focus or mission statement to include in each personal letter to the papers
-informing all here of the appropriate reporter/staffer to send it to among however many papers
-the same thing but with TV news teams (to read the newspaper article)
-informing all associable groups of the story and who needs to read it (to increase pressure)
-asking as many CD members to participate
I would stop short of going to the advertisers, and concentrate on the people staffing the news- remember there are actual people in these corporations. We might be able to come up with the proper incentives for them to pursue this.
Please add or change any steps- I open the floor up to you. I am hoping for something that would require only a few emails or letters, and is quick and easy enough to allow everyone to participate.
I do believe this would be a worthwhile exercise.
Even if you don’t want to participate in this exercise, I sure could use your advice.
The corporate media acts as a levee, controlling the flow of protest and accepted discussion as anger from perceived injustice spreads through US society. Only with a flood of anger generated by a serious economic downturn, or possibly by blowback from bombing Iran, will the levees be breached and discussions of complete transformation of the US political and economic system enter the mainstream.
you could scare them a bit, like what recently happened in the UK, take all your money out of the bank, all of you, they’ll notice that.
dustinchicago,
For starters, most CD articles are taken from the MSM, but they genrally tend to come from a handful of the same sources - mostly outside of the US like the AFP, or the Guardisn the Independent.
Secondly, most CD articles are opinion pieces. So the place for most CD articles would be on the op-ed page. It is up to the author of the piece to get in on the page - not much we can do about it.
dustinchicago,
If enough people wrote to editors of newspapers concerning certain stories that usually are confined to alternative media such as CD, there is a possibility the editorial staff might listen and print, say, Linda Milazzo’s article. PJD is right when he or she states it is up to the author of the piece to get it on the page, but at least if we readers voice our opinion, they may listen.
Those of you old enough to remember the ‘good ol’ days’ of tv news when it was basically only the big three…ABC, CBS, and NBC, and the actual journalists who gave their commentaries every night on the issues of the day. We listened and learned.
In the late 70’s I read the book, ‘NETWORK’, by Paddy Chayefsky, and it later was made into a movie which was just as good as the book, which I still think is terrific. Here’s an idea, dustinchicago.
How about spreading the word to our like-minded fellow citizens to let it be known to our local tv stations that we would be interested in having one segment of the ‘nightly news’ with commentary on one CD article a night. It could be called something like “The Progressive Five’ segment (five minutes to read the article). I think the public would be drawn to it.