Thursday, September 20, 2007

Protests and the Media

I'm noticing that the media is paying a lot of attention to the Jena protests today, and that's good. But I wonder why this protest is getting so much more attention than Saturday's anti-war protest, which the media scarcely noticed (and always included the "pro-war" protest). I'm sure that a major reason for this is that racism is a much safer issue for the media. While there are racist groups in America, they aren't as powerful, well-funded or loud as the pro-war groups. The media aren't as likely to be attacked as "liberal" when reporting on racism as they are when reporting on the war. Or is this just a sign that the civil rights movement is better organized than the anti-war movement?
The Jena case is important, but so is the daily death and destruction in Iraq. America needs a news media with the courage to report both.

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