Posted on 01/22/2003 5:32:36 PM PST by PJ-Comix
Network coverage of the average, normal Americans, grandparents, honor students, soccer moms, Republicans, Black and white, Democrat and Republican, young and old, versus the reality of the angry, America-hating demonstrators which the networks ignored but which a writer for National Review Online was unable to avoid in the crowd.
He saw Bush is the Real Terrorist signs and discovered many were convinced Bush knew in advance of the 9-11 attacks. It was like when Hitler burned down the Reichstag, more than one remarked. The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld plan, one claimed, is to build a worldwide planetary death machine.
In a piece posted on Monday, Daniel J. Flynn, author of Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness, recounted what he encountered at Saturday's march in DC: While a small number of families, political moderates, and senior citizens salted the ranks of Saturday's march, a much-larger contingent escaped the notice of most journalists. Waving inflammatory signs, wearing scary costumes, and partaking in street theatre, the anti-American extremists who dominated the event were hard to miss. Yet, they were somehow overlooked in most of the press accounts of the protest.
Below I've excerpted the clauses and sentences with quotes of what protesters said to Flynn and what he saw and then that is contrasted with the soundbites aired by the networks.
> From Flynn's article:
-- Reesa Rosenberg, a Muslim from New Jersey, came to the nation's capital bearing a sign that read 'Bush Is the Real Terrorist.' 'When it comes down to it, it's all for oil and global domination,' she believes. 'It's almost like Hitler.' Rosenberg contends that people in the U.S. government had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. 'Another thing about 9/11 -- the United States is like a stuck-up little bitch. They just do and take all of what they please. I mean, 9/11 was terrible, but it was the first terrorist attack on this country. It's like, 'oh, no!' Somebody broke the United States' nail, now the whole earth is going to blow up.'"
-- Bush 'definitely knew in advance,' remarked John Bostrom, who traveled to the march from Staten Island. 'It was like when Hitler burned down the Reichstag.' Why would the Bush administration refuse to act on its prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks? 'What they want to do, basically, is build a worldwide planetary death machine that's technology driven, computer run, and hooked up to satellites that cover every square inch of the globe, and allows them to target and eliminate anything they want to wherever they want to,' maintained Bostrom. 'This is their plan. It's black and white. That's what they've been calling for. That's their strategy and they're obsessed by it.'"
-- "'I saw 9/11 as the Reichstag,' maintained Chris King. 'I'll compare it to what Cassius did to Spartacus back in Rome. I'll compare it to the Lusitania, to the Maine. I'll do it, every single time.' The bearded Vermonter suspects 9/11 'was allowed to happen.'"
-- Placards read: 'USA Is #1 Terrorist,' 'Bush Is a Terrorist,' 'The NYPD Are Terrorists Too,' and 'Get the Terrorists Out of the White House.'"
-- And as for Ms. Rosenberg, the Garden State Muslim who believes the U.S. government let 9/11 occur, she summed up the real theme of the 'antiwar' protest by proclaiming that America should be viewed as 'very scary and threatening' by the rest of the world.
For Flynn's piece in full, The Anti-Warriors: On the streets with the protesters, go to:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-flynn012003.asp
Now, compare that reality to how the networks portrayed, as culled from the January 20 and 21 CyberAlerts, the Washington, DC protesters:
-- MSNBC's Jeannie Ohm: They came from different parts of the country, but all armed with the same message.
Man in crowd: The message is that the United States, the people of the United States are not ready to go to war.
Woman in crowd: Lets take care of our schools, lets take care of health care, lets take care of the issues in this country.
Ohm: As the military buildup continues in the Persian Gulf, a growing number of people are speaking out against a war with Iraq: Students, grandparents, businessmen, politicians, teachers, actors and activists, standing shoulder to shoulder in protest.
-- CNN's Kathleen Koch spotlighted one attendee: Seventy-six-year-old Ava Cutler was a Jewish teenager in Budapest, Hungary when her country was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1944....Cutler isn't a member of any protest group. She decided to come on her own, catch a ride with a busload of young people, all to stop another war, to stop more suffering.
-- ABC's Lisa Sylvester: Braving frigid temperatures, they traveled across the country -- black and white, Democrat and Republican, young and old. Their worries are varied.
Saladin Muhammed, anti-war demonstrator, in the crowd: There would be a disproportionate number of people of color that would have to engage in this war.
More Sylvester: Charley Richardson and his wife worry about their son, a Marine in the Persian Gulf.
Charley Richardson, in DC crowd: Every morning when we wake up we think about him, we think about where he is, we think about how much we love him.
-- ABC's Geoff Morrell profiled the Blakes, who traveled all night to the DC protest. Shes an honor student, hes a medical doctor, Morrell explained, who fear President Bush is rushing to war with Iraq, so they rode a bus all night from Asheville, North Carolina. On board were businessmen, soccer moms and military veterans -- all members of the same church.
Morrell beefed up Dr. Blakes credentials: Dan Blake supported the 1991 Gulf War, but says this President hasnt convinced him Saddam Hussein is a threat to the U.S. or its allies.
Blake: I would like to see a smoking gun that makes me think well, my family, my country, my community is in danger now.
ABC's Bill Blakemore, previewing the upcoming march on Friday night, from New York: Never mind the cold, they're going to protest. Democrats and Republicans. Many middle-aged. From all walks of life. And some students. Nancy and Steve Boyda are Republicans, he's a Vietnam veteran.
Steve Boyda, Vietnam Veteran, on bus to DC: As an American, as a voter, as a participant on this side of the fence, I want to hold our leaders accountable to showing us why we make these kinds of decisions.
Blakemore: There's a variety of worries.
Woman on bus: These people have no control over what their government does and we're about to go kill them and there is nothing they can do about it.
Another woman: We want to say, we love our country very dearly, we love it so much, that we don't want our country to make a horrible mistake.
-- CBS's Joie Chen at the DC march: "Telluride, Colorado sent its peace offering: 1200 of the town's 2000 residents signed it."
Woman in the crowd in DC: "They want our message heard."
Chen: "Others came from Columbus, Mississippi."
Woman in DC crowd: "You know, I just don't think I could sacrifice my son for ideals."
Chen: "From Pittsburgh."
Man in DC crowd: "I don't want to be a citizen of the world's biggest imperialist state."
Chen: "From across the Potomac in Reston, Virginia."
Woman in crowd: "I did vote for Bush and if I could withdraw my vote, I would withdraw my vote."
Chen celebrated: "Young, old, veterans and veteran activists united in the effort to stop the war before it starts. What may have kept the protest from growing larger, the weather. It was the capital's coldest morning of the year...
For full rundowns of all those stories with the very selective soundbites chosen to make the protesters seem as appealing as possible, see the January 20 and 21 CyberAlerts:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030120.asp#1
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030120.asp#2
http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030121.asp#1
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