MEDIA WATCH

Fox hunting trumps peace activism at Post & NY Times

Sept. 30— Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London to protest military action against Iraq, rallying in what the London Independent called “one of the biggest peace demonstrations seen in a generation.” Yet neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times saw fit to run a full article about the protests, instead burying passing mentions of the story in articles about other subjects.

In contrast, both papers showed real interest in another recent London march of comparable size — last week’s protest against a proposed ban on fox-hunting. The Washington Post ran a 1,331-word story about the fox-hunting protest on the front page of its Style section (9/23/02), while the New York Times ran a short Reuters piece on page A4 (9/23/02), which it followed up with an op-ed exploring the class politics of the hunt (9/24/02). A Times story on Prince Charles’ involvement in politics (9/26/02) also made reference to the pro-fox-hunting protest.

Estimates of the crowd size at the peace march vary. The Independent (9/29/02) reported both the police estimate of 150,000 protesters and the organizers’ early estimate of 350,000; similarly, the London Times cited the police estimate alongside a later organizers’ estimate of 400,000 (9/30/02). A London Observer columnist (9/29/02) who attended the march dismissed the police figures as politically motivated, writing: “The Stop the War coalition last night claimed the total was more than 350,000; the police reluctantly moved up from ‘four men with beards and a small dog’ to 150,000, and the truth was, if anything, even higher than either.”

According to British press reports, the peace march was notable not just for its size, but for how broad-based it was. Organized by the Stop the War coalition and the Muslim Association of Britain, the demonstration was focused on two main slogans, “Don’t Attack Iraq” and “Freedom for Palestine” (Guardian, 9/30/02). The Observer (9/29/02) reported solidarity between the causes, describing “an undeniable unity of purpose” in a diverse crowd that included everyone from Muslim activists in keffiyahs to “Hampstead ladies with their granddaughters in prams.”

According to the Independent (9/29/02), “the sheer numbers who turned out to express vociferous opposition to military action in Iraq… meant there was no way they could be dismissed as ‘the usual suspects’ of the hard left.”

Despite all that, the entirety of the New York Times’ coverage of the peace march was nestled at the end of one sentence in an article titled “Blair Is Confident of Tough UN Line on Iraqi Weapons” (9/30/02). Many Labour Party MPs, said the Times, “were encouraged by the turnout of 150,000 protesters who staged an antiwar march in London on Saturday.”

The Washington Post managed one reference more, but seemed to have seriously under-counted the crowd. The Post article “Iraq Rejects Inspection Revisions” (9/29/02) mentioned “thousands” of protesters in London, and an article the next day about European opposition to US unilateralism referred to “tens of thousands” of demonstrators.

Britain is the only European country backing the Bush administration’s war plans, so the size and composition of the London peace march — not to mention the arguments articulated there — have particular relevance to the international debate over Iraq. The pro-fox-hunting march, which also addressed broader issues of urban/rural tension in England, was newsworthy enough, but much more local in focus. Given the looming prospect of a war that could kill thousands of people and throw an entire region into turmoil, it’s disturbing that the New York Times and the Washington Post gave the two events such disparate treatment.

Source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

Professors unite against ‘Campus Watch’ web site

In an effort to counter what they label as a McCarthyesque hunt by a pro-Israel think tank, about 100 professors from across the country have asked to be added to a web site that singled out eight professors because of their views on Palestine and Islam.

The web site lists “dossiers” for the eight university professors and teachers, including a graduate student instructor from US Berkeley, and portrays them as preaching dangerous rhetoric to students. The site also calls them “hostile” to the United States.

Run by Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia think tank, the site also asks for people to snitch on Middle East lectures, classes, and demonstrations. Many professors have expressed concern about the site, calling it an intimidation tactic. Professors nationwide have offered their names to the blacklist in hopes of rendering it powerless.

The professors who have asked to be included on the web site may be put on a new list under a label of people who associate themselves with “suicide bombings and militants,” said Daniel Pipes, president of Middle East Forum. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Palestinian journalist shot dead in Ramallah

Reporters Without Borders on Sept. 25 condemned the killing of a Palestinian journalist, apparently by an Israeli army sniper, saying it appeared to be a “serious violation” of international rules about protection of civilians in wartime. Voice of Palestine journalist and presenter Issam Hamza Tillawi was shot in the back of the head as he was reporting on a Palestinian demonstration in Ramallah during the night of Sept. 21-22.

In a letter to Israeli defense minister Benymin Ben Eliezer, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Menard accused Israeli army troops of benefiting from almost total immunity in cases such as this. He deplored the death of Tillawi, who was the third journalist in less than seven months to be killed in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Since Sept. 2000, Reporters Without borders has counted 46 cases of journalists who have been wounded by gunfire, nearly all from Israeli sources. Several, mostly Palestinians, were seriously wounded, even though some were clearly identifiable as journalists (as was Tillawi) and were standing apart from clashes when hit. With very few exceptions, no serious inquiry into the incidents has been made or punishment meted out to those responsible. (Reporters Without Borders)

Australia: police seek to shut down WTO protest sites

New South Wales (NSW) Police Minister Michael Costa has asked the federal government to shut down web sites opposing the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Sydney.

Costa said Sept. 24 that he was deeply concerned about the web sites, which he claimed provided information to violently disrupt the WTO Trade Ministers meeting in November.He said the web sites told people to arm themselves with baseball bats, slingshots, firecrackers, gas masks and marbles.

The sites targeted for shutdown include Melbourne Indymedia, the Melbourne based no2wto network site, and the Sydney based no2wto network site.

Melbourne Indymedia has accused the Police Minister of attempting to “spin” the WTO event, focusing media attention on a conflict between police and protesters rather than protesters’ legitimate concerns about the WTO. The site’s editorial collective asserts that the majority of its content about the WTO, all of which is submitted by the web site’s audience, consists of a detailed critique of the WTO and its effects, not a call for aggression against police. (Melbourne Indymedia, Sydney Morning Herald)