More on the Media (Moron, the Media?)

The press' predictable underestimation of antiwar protest crowds "is not just shoddy journalism but willful disinformation being perpetrated by corporate newspapers that want to curry favor with the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon," writes Wayne Madsen in CounterPunch. Before you write it off as a conspiracy theory, you've gotta wonder. I was one of around 10,000 protesters on October 26 who filled St. Paul's streets from the Cathedral to the Capitol. Our efforts were barely mentioned in the following days news; what they did mention was a crowd almost 1/5th the actual size (the same day nearly 200,000 protested in DC; the New York Times reported the crowd as in the "thousands"). As Madsen writes, the conservative press (like Fox News Sunday who called Saturday's protesters "socialists") and Republicans (who marginalize them as "hippies") is in cahoots too.

Related?

-When a video of George Bush the Elder was played on screen at the American Music Awards, his image was met with "a loud chorus of boos." But, according to witnesses, ABC censors edited out the crowd's reaction when it was broadcast.

- City workers in Minneapolis removed a "No War with Iraq" sign from a private lawn recently, reportedly because the sign was no longer current. "The war started over a year ago," the offending worker allegedly said.