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NY Times Buries Massive Conservative D.C. Rally, Hails Smaller Liberal Protests
Newsbusters ^ | 9/14/2009 | Clay Waters

Posted on 09/14/2009 3:46:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

There was a huge protest against Obama's big-government plans at the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, but one was hard-pressed to find evidence of it on the New York Times home page Sunday morning: A small headline tucked under the Political subhead.

The print edition wasn't much more forthcoming. Although the Washington D.C. Fire Dept. estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people attended the 9/12 protest, and many estimates are higher, the Times made do with one medium-sized story buried on page A37 of the Sunday paper, "Thousands Attend Broad Protest of Government," teasing it on the front page in a below-the-fold photo from the march. A much smaller Obama rally got better placement, and so had a previous ACORN-led left-wing protest numbering...40 people.

Reporter Jeff Zeleny painted protesters as "angry" and "profane" and that the rally contained "no shortage of vitriol," as if there were never raised voices and obscene signage at left-wing anti-war rallies:

A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against President Obama since he took office, a culmination of a summer-long season of protests that began with opposition to a health care overhaul and grew into a broader dissatisfaction with government.

On a cloudy and cool day, the demonstrators came from all corners of the country, waving American flags and handwritten signs explaining the root of their frustrations. Their anger stretched well beyond the health care legislation moving through Congress, with shouts of support for gun rights, lower taxes and a smaller government.

But as they sang verse after verse of patriotic hymns like "God Bless America," sharp words of profane and political criticism were aimed at Mr. Obama and Congress.

....

The atmosphere was rowdy at times, with signs and images casting Mr. Obama in a demeaning light. One sign called him the "parasite in chief." Others likened him to Hitler. Several people held up preprinted signs saying, "Bury Obama Care with Kennedy," a reference to the Massachusetts senator whose body passed by the Capitol two weeks earlier to be memorialized.

Other signs did not focus on Mr. Obama, but rather on the government at large, promoting gun rights, tallying the national deficit and deploring illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Check out this backhanded compliment:

Still, many demonstrators expressed their views without a hint of rage. They said the size of the crowd illustrated that their views were shared by a broader audience.

Zeleny found some unnamed "Republican officials" to fret over a backlash, and downplayed the significance of those who turned out:

Mr. DeMint and a few Republican legislators were the only party leaders on hand for the demonstration. Republican officials said privately that they were pleased by the turnout but wary of the anger directed at all politicians. And most of those who turned out were not likely to have been Obama voters anyway.

Did the Times ever suggest anti-war demonstrators "were not like to have been Bush voters anyway"?

While there was no shortage of vitriol among protesters, there was also an air of festivity. A band of protesters in colonial gear wended through the crowd, led by a bell ringer in a tricorn hat calling for revolution. A folk singer belting out a protest ballad on a guitar brought cheers.

Obama's health-care speech on Saturday actually got slightly better placement. It landed on page A35 under a similar headline, "Thousands Rally in Minnesota Behind Obama's Call for Health Care Overhaul," although the attendance at the Target Center in Minneapolis was reliably estimated at around 15,000, making it at least four times smaller than the D.C. rally. Obama and his fans also got more positive coverage from reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg:

Thousands of roaring supporters turned out Saturday to rally behind President Obama's call to overhaul the nation's health care system, packing a basketball arena here as Mr. Obama warned that nearly half of all Americans under 65 could lose their insurance at some point during the next decade....On a day when demonstrators crammed onto the west lawn of the Capitol to protest what they regard as Mr. Obama's brand of big government, including his health plan, the images of screaming, cheering Obama supporters here provided a welcome visual counterpoint for the White House. The White House estimated that 15,000 people attended the rally here; the applause was thunderous when the president bounded onto the stage, shirtsleeves rolled up, as he revived an old campaign rallying cry: "Are you fired up?"

In fact, the Times' coverage of the huge anti-government rally in the nation's capital was on the same level as the favorable coverage of an ACORN-organized left-wing "bus tour" of homes of American International Group executives back in March, a piece of Astroturf so blatant even the Times admitted the media outnumbered the protesters. Yet while 40 left-wing protesters in Connecticut were worth a 724-word Times story back in March, an estimated 70,000 anti-Obama protesters in D.C. garnered a 932-word story on Saturday. A slight anomaly?

There was nothing on the Times's "Caucus" blog from the actual march, although the blog did preview it Saturday morning with a pessimistic estimate of the crowd size ("as many as 30,000 demonstrators are expected"), in a post marked with suspicion of the protest's origin and motives. That post also granted top billing to Obama's speech.

Another telling contrast: The coverage of Saturday's march (and the previous Tea Party protests) with the fawning coverage of the pro-illegal immigration protests of 2006, when amnesty for illegals was on the agenda. The Times didn't find much "vitriol" at the massive rallies in support of illegal immigration. Here's Robert McFadden in the April 10, 2006 Times, describing the largest of the nationwide rallies in Dallas:

The Dallas protesters were young and old. Some were families pushing baby strollers. Some walked with canes, others rolled along in wheelchairs. There were members of unions, churches, civil rights organizations and business groups, but many were strangers to one another. Some spoke passionately about their desire to be Americans, to vote and to hold a job without fear.

—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 912project; healthcare; newsblackout; newyorktimes; nyt; protest; teaparty
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1 posted on 09/14/2009 3:46:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Quote marks or italics are your friend.


2 posted on 09/14/2009 3:50:44 PM PDT by torchthemummy (Sam opens bar late: "If the Post Office ran its business like yours...never mind." - Cliff Clavin)
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To: SeekAndFind

I was one of the nearly ten thousand tax day tea partiers in New Lenox, Illinois on Monday. You’d hardly know anything happened that morning from the local press. Ignore us at your own peril.


3 posted on 09/14/2009 3:51:17 PM PDT by Max Flatow
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To: torchthemummy

They er scared


4 posted on 09/14/2009 3:52:00 PM PDT by reefdiver (So how's that HOPE & CHANGE working out for ya ?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Our enemies are in denial. That makes them easy to defeat.


5 posted on 09/14/2009 3:53:25 PM PDT by sourcery (Party like it's 1776!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Has anyone here verified the Washington Fire Department estimate? I am wondering if that is being misrepresented as I was there and no one could possibly be that blind. Something is up with that.


6 posted on 09/14/2009 3:54:30 PM PDT by Wpin (I do not regret my admiration for W)
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To: SeekAndFind

Times management deliberately destroyed its franchise as the “paper of record”. They felt advancing their friends’ fascistic ambitions was more important.


7 posted on 09/14/2009 3:55:24 PM PDT by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: SeekAndFind

The estimate of 70,000 is a VERY lowball number. The DC Park Police have always lowballed the numbers on the right to life marches, and we’re seeing the same thing here from the fire department. After all, they are left-wing union officials, they are very liberal, and they get their gravy from the Democrats in congress.


8 posted on 09/14/2009 3:56:39 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: SeekAndFind
As predicted.

BTW......”parasite in chief” .....very good!

9 posted on 09/14/2009 3:57:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: Cicero

But in the end they ignore it to their hurt.


10 posted on 09/14/2009 3:58:09 PM PDT by Biggirl (Called To Be Patriots!:)=^..^==^..^==^..^==^..^=)
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To: SeekAndFind
So? Waste bandwidth discussing the NY Slimes and what it says? It's always a forgone conclusion and no longer has any real national impact....so why waste time.

Particularly since this morning, in a thread, we learned that time is already disappearing and the only hope left is to nix all dark matter and energy.

11 posted on 09/14/2009 3:58:30 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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To: SeekAndFind
What I want to know is:

Which is greater, attendance at the DC Tea party, or the circulation of the NYT?

12 posted on 09/14/2009 3:58:42 PM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (RATs, nothing more than bald haired hippies.)
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To: NativeNewYorker
Someone needs to remind the NYT that merely putting a story somewhere in the paper doesn't count. Part of conveying news truthfully is giving it the proper emphasis. And besides, who do they think they're fooling? We have the internet now so we can fact check them.
13 posted on 09/14/2009 4:00:31 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: SeekAndFind
It's time to march on the New York Slimes. Imagine several hundred thousand of us at their front entrance. Think they will notice?

Or, how about ABC,See BS,NBC,NPR and CNN. Precount the crowd, hand them the actual numbers and tell them we won't leave until they tell the truth for a change, or recognize that we actually exist.

And, don't they know that what they are doing will become their own demise?

14 posted on 09/14/2009 4:01:48 PM PDT by PSYCHO-FREEP (Give me LIBERTY or give me an M-24A2!)
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To: SeekAndFind

“New York Times Buries Massive D.C. Consrervative Rally...”

Can’t be. The New York Times is NOT biased.

/S/


15 posted on 09/14/2009 4:02:02 PM PDT by ripley
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To: SeekAndFind

The liberal protests are more significant since its liberals protesting against liberals.


16 posted on 09/14/2009 4:02:34 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: SeekAndFind

America’s left wing fishwraps and ABCNNBCBS are like a dying patient with terminal HIV. Each day they become weaker. Failure to acknowledge what happened in DC on 9/12 will continue to drive away advertisers and the few who still buy their services.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339199/posts

Public Trust in Media Accuracy & Fairness Plunges, Liberal v Conservative Bias Gap at 28 Points
NewsBusters ^ | September 14, 2009 | Brent Baker

Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 6:22:15 AM by Zakeet

“The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys,” a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, embargoed for release at 11 PM EDT Sunday night, discovered.

The survey, of 1,506 adults conducted in late July, found “nearly three-quarters (74%) say news organizations tend to favor one side in dealing with political and social issues,” up 21 points from 53 percent 24 years ago, “while just 18% say they deal fairly with all sides.” The percent who perceive the media as liberal versus conservative remains very lopsided, though the difference has increased by 7 points — from 40 percent vs. 19 percent in 1985 to 50 percent vs. 22 percent now, a 28 point split.

This is an excerpt please go to the FR Link for more info:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2339199/posts


17 posted on 09/14/2009 4:02:51 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Does 0b0z0 have any friends, who aren't traitors, spies, tax cheats and criminals?)
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To: sourcery

95% of Times readers are our enemies.
Better they not know what’s coming their way.


18 posted on 09/14/2009 4:03:29 PM PDT by nascarnation
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To: Yardstick

When the Leftist Commies marched against the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, the NYT was wall to wall, front page, in your face coverage for several days.

Their day is coming sooner than they realize.


19 posted on 09/14/2009 4:04:52 PM PDT by PSYCHO-FREEP (Give me LIBERTY or give me an M-24A2!)
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To: SeekAndFind
I don't know why folks are still surprised by the fact that the msm has gone corrupt and uses its political power to foster liberal democrat agenda. This means they must often lie, exaggerate, omit, create, bury or sanitize their stories. Democrats must look good, Republicans must look bad. That's all there's to it.

Now that we all know this boys and girls, no more posts about how 'shocking', or how "we're taken aback" by this turn of events. It hain't gonna' change, now or ever. There's a new kind of battle being waged against America, it is the battle being loosed by the politicians, their supporters and donors, the media, and anyone else who feels the 'honkies' have more than they should legally be able to own. Meanwhile, we weak-kneed honkies just continue walking around in a fog, regurgitating the same old lines every day. "The msm is corrupt, Obama hates America, Obama wants to take over and redirect how our nation is run, yada, yada, yada. It's all true and most people know that now. So,,, isn't it time for us to drop the 'surprise' response and replace it with a counter tactic, or two or three, or whatever it takes to restore political order, fairness and truth back to their original owners... WE THE PEOPLE. It is what it is, organized corruption helping other wings of organized corruption to win the fight. It is WAR my friends, and for the rats it's been war for a long time now. We conservatives are just finding it out, how pathetic is that?

20 posted on 09/14/2009 4:19:06 PM PDT by jiminycricket000
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