Thread: Ignored but not silenced

Ignored but not silenced

By Ralph R. Reiland Monday, September 21, 2009
About the writer

Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University and a local restaurateur. He can be reached at via e-mail.




On the morning after, there wasn't much surprise in the lobby of our D.C. hotel about the coverage in The New York Times about the previous day's taxpayer march on Washington. Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the third-ranking Republican leader in the U.S. House, described the massive rally as "the largest gathering of conservatives in American history."

The Times ran a photo of the march on Page 1, below the fold, but no article. Readers were instructed to go to Page 37 for the coverage.

Two other stories were deemed more important for The Times' front page that day. One, "Awakening Brooklyn for Ramadan, with a Big Drum, at 4 A.M.," was about a Pakistani immigrant, Mohammad Boota, who beats his drum in the middle of the night on the sidewalks, a tradition that's designed to rouse sleepers, explains The Times, "so they can eat a meal before the day's fasting begins."

It seems not to have occurred to Boota that alarm clocks would do the trick, ringing all across Brooklyn on the nightstands of his fellow worshippers. With just the adoption of that small bit of Western technology, the late-night bar crowd, with heads already banging, could avoid being jolted out of bed by an added dose of banging from the street the minute their heads hit their pillows.

"Everywhere they complain," Boota is quoted as saying. "People go, 'What the hell? What you doing, man?' They never know it's Ramadan."

A photo of Boota making his predawn racket on the sidewalk is about twice as large as The Times' photo of the protest rally.

The other front-page story that beat out coverage of the march -- "In Wisconsin, Hopeful Signs For Factories" -- reports that a Rockwell factory in Mequon "reinstated a shift, hiring a dozen workers." A sign, I suppose, that Obamanomics is working its magic.

I went to Page 37 to read The Times' coverage of the rally, and nothing was there except a story about a New York politician looking for illegals on a duck farm and an article about how an uninsured woman got an E. coli infection from a hamburger and now owes $400 a month in medical bills ("Without Health Care, and Just a Hamburger From Financial Ruin").

I eventually found The Times' article on the protest on Page 33, directly facing an article on Page 32 about President's Obama's brief stop at the Target Center in Minneapolis on the same day. The headlines described events of rough equivalency.

The headline about Obama's speech at the partly-empty Target facility: "Thousands Rally in Minnesota Behind Obama's Call for Health Care Overhaul."

The Times' headline about the Washington rally's overflowing crowd, estimated at "as many as one million people" by London's Daily Mail: "Thousands Attend Broad Protest of Government."

Reporting that Obama was "addressing a crowd numbering only a fraction of the total that turned out on the streets of Washington -- 15,000 health-reform supporters at the Target Center in Minneapolis, a venue that can hold over 25,000," Investor's Business Daily asked this question: "When Americans have to turn to the foreign press for truthful reports of the size of popular protests in Washington, it's time to wonder: Are we dominated by 'state-run media'?"

There wasn't much wondering among the marchers about the mainstream media's bias. Raising reasonable issues all summer at tea parties and town halls, they'd been ignored or labeled as "Nazis," "un-American," "Brown Shirts," "an angry mob," "evil-mongers" -- or, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "Astroturfers."

This time around, in vast and growing numbers, they carried homemade placards with slogans such as "Can You Hear Us Now?", "Hey Nancy, Ever See Astroturf Grow This Fast?", "Axis of Evil: NBC, CBS, ABC."

They weren't alone. A Pew Research survey, released the following day, showed that only 29 percent of Americans believe that news organizations generally get their facts right, a two-decade low.

My favorite placards: "The Primitives are Pissed!", "Where Will Canadians Go If We Socialize Health Care?", "Keep Pushing Us -- See What Happens!", "Czars, NYET!", "We Came Unarmed -- This Time!"

And these -- all good economics: "My Life's Work Is Not the Government's Slush Fund", "Atlas Has Shrugged", "Spread My Work Ethic, Not My Wealth", "John Galt Was Right" and "Help Me Obama! They Want Me to Work and Stuff."

www.pittsburghlive.com

That's why the newspapers and mainstream media are losing Americans by droves............we want the truth.

Originally Posted by ELE

That's why the newspapers and mainstream media are losing Americans by droves............we want the truth.

I wonder what will be the reaction of the Fringe Media when, one day, they wake up to find that those "Astroturf Tea Baggers" have put them out of business? Do ya think they'll here us then?

Even here in Oregon, I see no reason to have The Oregonian, the main paper. They are no different, in fact with the local Tea Parties, they grossly understated the numbers and made it sound like we were a bunch of bigots and loonies gathering for no apparent reason.

Yes, the old media, now the fringe, will lose their footing and go out, wake up and want their bail-out.

This time around, in vast and growing numbers, they carried homemade placards with slogans such as "Can You Hear Us Now?", "Hey Nancy, Ever See Astroturf Grow This Fast?", "Axis of Evil: NBC, CBS, ABC."

WE ARE AS MAD AS HELL AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!