Protesting the War in Iraq: Freedom of Speech, Yes ... But No Right to Be Heard
Guy T. Sturino
September 25, 2005
Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people showed up in Washington, D.C. yesterday, to protest the war in Iraq. There were people who traveled from as far as Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and Vermont. These folks made the trip, many at considerable expense. These demonstrators came: not to be heard shouting, but to be counted marching; not to be seen as individuals, but to be seen as one of many -- a dramatic example of the growing anti-war sentiment in the country. Being there was important enough to interrupt their lives, spend their money, and endure the travel just to be counted.
Many, if not most, are still there today. They don’t know yet that the Fourth Estate has passed judgement and found their efforts unworthy of being seen, or maybe just too uncomfortable to deal with. They don’t know yet that their concerted personal effort was overshadowed by such earth shattering events such as the rescue of a dog from a hurricane. They don’t know that although their freedom of speech was unimpaired, their right to be heard has been crushed by the corporate owned media. With the exception of CSPAN, there was no TV coverage of the event. But, that isn’t all.
A review of the front pages of one hundred ninety-five U.S. newspapers, this morning shows that sixteen of them, a whopping 8.2%, thought that a protest against the Iraq war by about 200,000 Americans from across the nation was worth noting on the front page. Of those sixteen, nine ran articles written by their own staff and the rest picked up AP or other news outlet accounts. The sixteen newspapers represented only nine of the fifty states.
Personally, since last year’s election, I have been privately protesting most of the corporate media. I don’t watch FOX, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC or CBS except on very rare occasions. My protest continues today with the addition of one of the shows which had been an exception to my rule. Last night, when we got home after spending an hour on the Metro followed by a four-hour drive, my wife turned on the TV to find out what they had to say about the day. My remaining used-to-be-favorite commentator was saying that about a hundred thousand protested in DC and that all hundred thousand had called in to ask why they hadn’t been covered. Then he said, they’ll just have to understand that Rita was the news of the day and as such it was just too bad that the events coincided. What’s really too bad is that at that moment I lost my last ounce of trust, faith, desire to believe, call it what you will, in any corporate or state run media. Actually, after all of this, there is no way to tell if the government controls the press or if it’s the other way around, but in any case the people just don’t seem to matter anymore.
Monday should be a very interesting day. Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people will find out Monday morning that they get to talk, that’s their freedom of speech, but they don’t necessarily get to be heard, that’s decided and controlled by the media. They will wake to find that have been totally dissed by the people they needed most. They will wake to find that their efforts have been dismissed, disregarded and dispensed with by a media which treated them with disdain. Soon, I expect that the media may find the protests much closer to home.
Many, if not most, are still there today. They don’t know yet that the Fourth Estate has passed judgement and found their efforts unworthy of being seen, or maybe just too uncomfortable to deal with. They don’t know yet that their concerted personal effort was overshadowed by such earth shattering events such as the rescue of a dog from a hurricane. They don’t know that although their freedom of speech was unimpaired, their right to be heard has been crushed by the corporate owned media. With the exception of CSPAN, there was no TV coverage of the event. But, that isn’t all.
A review of the front pages of one hundred ninety-five U.S. newspapers, this morning shows that sixteen of them, a whopping 8.2%, thought that a protest against the Iraq war by about 200,000 Americans from across the nation was worth noting on the front page. Of those sixteen, nine ran articles written by their own staff and the rest picked up AP or other news outlet accounts. The sixteen newspapers represented only nine of the fifty states.
Personally, since last year’s election, I have been privately protesting most of the corporate media. I don’t watch FOX, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC or CBS except on very rare occasions. My protest continues today with the addition of one of the shows which had been an exception to my rule. Last night, when we got home after spending an hour on the Metro followed by a four-hour drive, my wife turned on the TV to find out what they had to say about the day. My remaining used-to-be-favorite commentator was saying that about a hundred thousand protested in DC and that all hundred thousand had called in to ask why they hadn’t been covered. Then he said, they’ll just have to understand that Rita was the news of the day and as such it was just too bad that the events coincided. What’s really too bad is that at that moment I lost my last ounce of trust, faith, desire to believe, call it what you will, in any corporate or state run media. Actually, after all of this, there is no way to tell if the government controls the press or if it’s the other way around, but in any case the people just don’t seem to matter anymore.
Monday should be a very interesting day. Somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people will find out Monday morning that they get to talk, that’s their freedom of speech, but they don’t necessarily get to be heard, that’s decided and controlled by the media. They will wake to find that have been totally dissed by the people they needed most. They will wake to find that their efforts have been dismissed, disregarded and dispensed with by a media which treated them with disdain. Soon, I expect that the media may find the protests much closer to home.
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