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News :: Civil & Human Rights : Government Secrecy : International Relations : Iraq : Media : Protest Activity : Regime |
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Hundreds Protest in Downtown Champaign as War in Iraq Enters Third Year |
Current rating: 0 |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
20 Mar 2005
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On the second anniversary of the beginning of Bush's "preemptive" war of choice on Iraq, hundreds of local residents gathered on an afternoon only slighty warmer than a compassionate conservative's heart to protest the toll of Bush's war on Iraq and its people, on the youth of America, and on a national budget cut to the bone to finance the war and tax cuts for the wealthy. |
Click on image for a larger version  |
Photo by Ben Grosser
On the second anniversary of the beginning of Bush's "preemptive" war of choice on Iraq, hundreds of local residents gathered on an afternoon only slighty warmer than a compassionate conservative's heart to protest the toll of Bush's war on Iraq and its people, on the youth of America, and on a budget cut to the bone to finance the war and tax cuts for the wealthy.
The protest, organized by Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort, is just the latest in their years-long effort to call attention to the injustice of aggressive war as practiced by a Republican adminstration increasingly out of touch with the public. AWARE typically sponsors monthly protests along the main road, Norh Prospect, into Champaign's shopping district on the first Saturday of every month, but decided to move the protest on the war's second annuiversary into downtown Champaign. Recent polls show a growing majority of Americans oppose the war in Iraq. AWARE is a local peace group which meets on every Sunday at the Urbana-Champaign IMC from 5-7pm.
Despite occurring just a block from the local daily newspaper's office, the local dominant media were notable by their absence. Thousands of local people drove by the location of the protest at One Main, the interesection of Main and Neil Streets in downtown Champaign. The N-G, which recently updated in design and format so that they could cover "more local news," managed to only run a wire service story buried in the middle of the A section on the national and inetrnational protests against the war. The paper, notable for its conservative editorial line and support for the ware, completely ignored the fact that hundreds of local residents chose to brave a windy cold afternoon to raise their voice against the moral and political evils of preemptive war. Local TV stations, including WCIA -- which was recently noted as running unattributed government propaganda -- also were notable by their absence in covering this news-worthy event. |
See also:
http://www.anti-war.net/
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Related stories on this site:
Nader -- Restarting the Anti-War Movement
Photos of Anti-War Rally in Downtown Champaign
In a Warped Reality: Two Years On, The Occupiers Justify the War by Embracing the Irrelevant and Ignoring the Inconvenient
IMC Radio News March 21, 2005
Over 75 Reports of Protests on M 19
Widespread Protests Mark 2nd Anniversary of Invasion of Iraq
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Comments
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Re: Hundreds Protest in Downtown Champaign as War in Iraq Enters Third Year |
by Nick Mann
urbanaphotographer (no spam) gmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
20 Mar 2005
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Hi,
I've uploaded the photos I took yesterday to my website.
www.pbase.com/urbana_photographer
Please enjoy, Nick |
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Media Downplay Historic Day of Protests |
by Scott Galindez
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Mar 2005
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Fayetteville, NC -- The second anniversary of the war was the impetus for major demonstrations throughout the world. In the United States, over 800 communities held events calling for an end to the occupation.
CNN, however, reported that in the United States "barely a ripple was made while large protests took place in Europe." The New York Times reported that protests in the United States ranged from 350 people in Times Square to thousands in San Francisco. Later in the same story, the Times reported that several thousand marched from Harlem to Central Park. If thousands marched in New York, why did the Times highlight the 350 in Times Square?
CNN's report was worse … nothing about US protests. While they only saw a ripple, a huge wave passed them by. If CNN had been in Fayetteville, North Carolina, they would have seen what could be a major turning point in the anti-war movement. The largest Anti-war protest ever in this heavily military town took place.
The march was led by two banners carried by family members of soldiers who died or served in Iraq. The first banner said "The World Still Says No to War" and the second banner was "Bring the Troops Home Now." A few feet behind was a banner carried by Veterans of the Iraq War. One of those veterans, Sergeant Camillo Mejia, recently served 9 months in jail for refusing to return to Iraq after leave. Mejia told the crowd: "After going to war and seeing its ugly face, I could no longer be a part of it."
Following the Iraq Veterans was Military Families Speak Out. "I can't remain silent on these issues, slap a yellow ribbon on my car and call it supporting our troops," said Kara Hollingsworth, the wife of a soldier serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. "I support our troops by making sure they are not put in harm's way unless absolutely necessary."
Many veterans of past wars were also among the ranks. Sections of the march resembled army units marching in formation calling cadence.
Speaker after speaker told stories of loved ones they had lost during the war and the now 2-year-old occupation of Iraq. Flag-draped mock coffins were carried by many.
Congresswoman Lynn Woosley of California called on the crowd to lobby Congress in support of House Concurrent Resolution 35, calling on the President to bring U.S. troops home.
The March was part of a series of events aimed at breathing new life into the anti-war movement. The first-ever Iraq Veterans Against the War national conference is also taking place, along with a Conference of Military Families Speak Out. A third major conference of Southern anti-war organizers is also taking place in Fayetteville.
CNN missed the boat … perhaps a good thing for them, since they were only prepared for a ripple and not the giant wave that formed in Fayetteville.
Scott Galindez is the Managing Editor of truthout.org
http://www.truthout.org |
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Re: Hundreds Protest in Downtown Champaign as War in Iraq Enters Third Year |
by paul wood
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Mar 2005
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The paper, notable for its conservative editorial line and support for the ware, completely ignored the fact that hundreds of local residents chose to brave a windy cold afternoon to raise their voice against the moral and political evils of preemptive war.
You completely ignore that
I wrote an article for the News-Gazette which ran several days BEFORE the event. I felt it was more useful to writer about the demonstration before, so that people can know to attend, rather than after |
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New-Gazette=Local News? |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Mar 2005
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Paul,
While it is true that your article did appear before the event and it is appreciated, I think that the lack of coverage of the event itself raises significant questions about the News-Gazette's stated new emphasis on local news.
What is the average reader to think with an article in advance of the rally and no coverage of it? That no one showed up? By default, that just falls into the category of the same spin that the anniversary of the war has received in most of the media -- that despite polls indicating widespread lack of support of Bush's policy in Iraq -- that few Americans, especially locally, really care about whether the war continues or the cost it has on everyone involved. And that is simply not true.
This is in no way to disrespect the reporting of many good reporters at the News-Gazette. But the managerial decisions there on what gets covered -- and not covered -- in the news are still suspect given their stated goals. |
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Re: Hundreds Protest in Downtown Champaign as War in Iraq Enters Third Year |
by paul wood
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Mar 2005
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ML, thanks for your response. We should have had a photographer at the demonstration, and that's my sin by omission, not any deliberate action by higher-ups. If I had not forgotten to make the photo assignment, we would have had someone there, and the photo would have been printed |
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Thanks for the Explanation |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Mar 2005
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Paul,
Thanks for the explanation. Over here at the IMC, we had a number of people who attended, but only photos had been published by Sunday morning, so I felt obliged to write a story myself -- or we wouldn't have this story up now.
We did have some IMC Radio people covering the protest, so I'm sure there'll be something on IMC Radio News on WEFT about the protest at 5:30 this afternoon. Plus, I know IMC Print people were there, so there will likely by something on Saturday's events in the April Public i.
It's good to see the press in general doing what members of it can to keep each other sharp. That's the way the press is supposed to function in a democracy. When it fails, as most of us associated with the IMC feels it has since 9/11, then we end up in stupid wars like the one in Iraq -- and worse. Let's hope the beginnings of what seems more and more like a one-party state at the national level does not squelch out a critical and vital-to-democracy free press. |
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Miscovering Anti-War Protests (Again) |
by Danny Schechter
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
21 Mar 2005
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At the end of this week's edition of ABC's This Week, in a discussion that felt like the discussion the week before and the week before that, it was noted that the Hill seems strangely silent in protesting the war.
In fact, as an Inter Press Service report noted, "No leading politician from the opposition Democratic Party participated in the anti-war protests, nor made any speeches at the rallies The event was organized by a nationwide coalition representing an array of grassroots community peace and social justice groups."
Not surprisingly, the absence of members of the political elite in the streets was mirrored by the paucity of coverage in the elite press which is not particularly partial to covering grass roots activism. The NY Times focused on one small civil disobedience protest at military recruiting office in Times Square, just down the street from the Times office, A protest at the Times itself may have made real news.
There were more Antiwar actions in more cities than ever but that proliferation of protest or the presence of military families seemed to not too newsworthy. A media that routinely plays down the size of all protests in this case seemed to be obsessed with nothing more than their size, as in the protests were "smaller than ever." What were they saying?
While the US press is still showcasing Administration claims that democracy is on the march in Iraq, international news agencies reported that many of Iraq's voters turned out to oppose the US occupation, not embrace it as the White House implies. (See Iraq expert, Professor Juan Cole's refutation on this point at JuanCole.com)
While the NY Times reports on a Marine General's claim that the insurgency is sputtering out, no insurgents are interviewed nor are their claims reported. Its totally one-sided. Yes, there are websites carrying reports from their side claiming far more attacks than are reported here.
While the Pentagon still gets the first word in the US, media, Arab media covers what US independent journalists are reporting.
Example. Al Jazeera reported on Saturday:
"All is quiet in Falluja, or at least that is how it seems, given that the mainstream media has largely forgotten about the Iraqi city. But independent journalists are risking life and limb to bring out a very different story.
"The picture they are painting is of US soldiers killing whole families, including children, attacks on hospitals and doctors, the use of napalm-like weapons and sections of the city destroyed.
"One of the few reporters who has reached Falluja is American Dahr Jamail of the Inter Press Service. He interviewed a doctor who had filmed the testimony of a 16-year-old girl.
"She stayed for three days with the bodies of her family who were killed in their home. When the soldiers entered she was in her home with her father, mother, 12 year-old brother and two sisters.
"She watched the soldiers enter and shoot her mother and father directly, without saying anything. They beat her two sisters, then shot them in the head. After this her brother was enraged and ran at the soldiers while shouting at them, so they shot him dead," Jamail relates."
I recently met and was impressed with Jamail's bravery as he recounted this and other stories at the World Tribunal on Iraq in Rome. He recently wrote, advising that CNN's Aaron Brown Show invited him on. I urged him to do it. He then advised that they never got back to him
Even as voices such as Jamail's are marginalized in the mainstream media and war criticism is downplayed, a mainstream media monitoring organization felt compelled to do a study to prove there isn't an ANTI-WAR bias in the media.
Editor & Publisher reported: "And it determined that Fox News Channel was the most one-sided of all major news outlets. In fact, the idea that Americans are engaged in "partisan" news consumption isn't supported by the research. With the exception of Republicans who prefer Fox News, most media use mirrors the general population, the study found.
The Washington-based project examined more than 2,000 stories on the war in Iraq and found that 25% of the stories were negative and 20% were positive. “The majority of stories were just news," said the project’s director, Tom Rosenstiel.
"The Project for Excellence in Journalism is affiliated with the Columbia University School of Journalism. The study was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts."
"Just News?"
And just what is that? Reporting that tilts towards Administration framing; news that excludes information about civilian casualties. News that avoids allegations of war crimes. News that never speaks with insurgents or explains their outlook.
"Just News" is as often another form of propaganda dressed up in the garb of objectivity.
Recently, Madison Wisconsin's Capitol Times opined, "if we had a better press, we'd have a better president.'
It might be just as accurate to say that if we had a better press we might not have had this war at all. What puzzles me: why doesn't the antiwar movement get that point and decide, at long last, to do something about it.
Then we might have JUST news, not just news or just us news. JUST news in the spirit of justice, not just recycled conventional wisdom,
News Dissector Danny Schechter is blogger in chief at Mediachannel.org. His film on the media coverage of the war WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) is just out on DVD. See www.wmdthefilm.com
© 2005 MediaChannel.org
http://Mediachannel.org |
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Re: Hundreds Protest in Downtown Champaign as War in Iraq Enters Third Year |
by Wayne D. Pickette
waynedougpick (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
22 Mar 2005
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There is no such thing as FREE PRESS in one party political system, and everybody, who lived and/or lives in such political situation, knows it perfectly. This is one of the basic rules of political science. I am sure also that all media representatives in this thread of comments know it or guess it. |
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IMC Radio Coverage |
by Dave B
radio (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
22 Mar 2005
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You can listen to Roaa al-Heeti and Sudiata Cha-Jua speak at this international protest that marked the day the 2nd Iraq War began. Visit http://radio.ucimc.org |
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