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Announcement :: Media |
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ACTION ALERT: NPR, New York Times Count Out Anti-War Activists |
Current rating: 0 |
by FAIR
(No verified email address) |
29 Oct 2002
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National Public Radio and the New York Times arrived at the same conclusion about the anti-war rally in Washington, DC this weekend: The turnout was disappointing. But neither report matched reality. |
October 28, 2002
National Public Radio and the New York Times arrived at the same conclusion about the anti-war rally in Washington, DC this weekend: The turnout was disappointing. But neither report matched reality.
The Times account on October 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 October 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 antiwar 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.
ACTION: Contact NPR and the New York Times and ask them why they did not provide more substantive reports about the anti-war demonstrations in Washington, DC on October 26.
CONTACT:
National Public Radio
Ombudsman
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
ombudsman (at) npr.org
New York Times
nytnews (at) nytimes.com
Toll free comment line: 1-888-NYT-NEWS
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair (at) fair.org with your correspondence. |
See also:
http://fair.org/
http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/8165/index.php
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A Correction From NPR |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2002
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Tonight's (Wed., Oct. 30) All Things Considered newscast on NPR offered a correction about the obviously erroneous estimates of the crowd size initially broadcast by NPR. |
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ACTIVISM UPDATE: Times, NPR Change Their Take On DC Protests |
by FAIR via ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
30 Oct 2002
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October 30, 2002
Three days after its first report on the D.C. antiwar protests, readers of the New York Times were treated to a much different account of the same event. On October 30, the Times reported that the October 26 protests "drew 100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by organizers', forming a two-mile wall of marchers around the White House. The turnout startled even organizers, who had taken out permits for 20,000 marchers."
This directly contradicted the Times' October 27 report, which noted that the "thousands" of demonstrators were "fewer people... than organizers had said they hoped for." The October 30 Times report also included much more information about similar protests around the country, and featured quotes from various antiwar activists.
The second Times story may have been a reaction to the overwhelming response to FAIR's October 28 Action Alert critical of the paper's downplaying of the protest. FAIR has received more than 1,100 copies of individual letters sent to the Times or to NPR, whose coverage was also cited in the action alert-- one of the largest volumes of mail ever generated by a FAIR action alert. The newspaper trade magazine Editor & Publisher (10/30/02) suggested that the October 30 piece was a "make-up article" that may have been written "in response to many organized protest letters sent to the Times since the paper's weak, and inaccurate, initial article about the march on Sunday."
The paper has not yet issued an editor's note or correction explaining the different reports, though senior editor Bill Borders sent an apologetic message to many of the people who wrote to the paper.
"I am sorry we disappointed you," he said. "Accurately measuring the size of a crowd of demonstrators is nearly impossible and often, as in this case, there are no reliable objective estimates." Borders defended the Times' overall coverage of the Iraq debate, and thanked activists for contacting the paper: "We appreciate your writing us and welcome your careful scrutiny. It helps us to do a better job."
National Public Radio, another target of FAIR's action alert, has also offered a correction of its misleading coverage of the D.C. protest. The following message is now posted on NPR's website:
On Saturday, October 26, in a story on the protest in Washington, D.C. against a U.S. war with Iraq, we erroneously reported on All Things Considered that the size of the crowd was "fewer than 10,000." While Park Service employees gave no official estimate, it is clear that the crowd was substantially larger than that. On Sunday, October 27, we reported on Weekend Edition that the crowd estimated by protest organizers was 100,000. We apologize for the error.
FAIR thanks all of the activists who wrote to the New York Times and NPR about their coverage of the D.C. protests. Those who did write or call might consider sending a follow-up note to the outlets to encourage serious, ongoing coverage of the growing antiwar movement.
To read the New York Times' new report on the protests, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/30/national/30PROT.html
(Registration required)
To read the initial NPR story with the correction, go to: http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/transcripts/2002/oct/021026.brand.html
To read FAIR's October 28 action alert on protest coverage, go to:
http://www.fair.org/activism/npr-nyt-protests.html
NOTE: FAIR mistakenly referred to NPR's October 26 report as being part of the show Weekend Edition. That report actually aired on All Things Considered, while the report the following day aired on Weekend Edition. |
