Like most large demonstrations, the political spectacle of August 29 had a life of its own. Spirits soared and people were dedicated despite the crowding and the heat, the snail’s pace of the march, and despite being surrounded by armed police and infiltrated by undercover cops, despite being denied access to many of the streets of midtown, despite being denied a permit to assemble and rally in the park (the city claimed to be worried about the grass)—despite it all— the half million participants knew they were involved in a celebratory spectacle and that in some small way, they were contributing to the likely end of the Bush dynasty.

For the rest of the world, the character of the demonstration and the demonstrators was the image projected by the news media. It is an irony of American political life that the outcome of political actions is often defined by the news media. Even when progressives and radicals create the spectacles, it is the corporate news media who decide what gets reported and how it is portrayed.

This report focuses on how three elite newspapers —The New York Times, Washington Post, and USA TODAY—treated the demonstration. To this trio we added our local paper, The [Baltimore] Sun, once considered among the elite. We look at their photo displays and placement, how many column inches they gave to the events, and how they choose to present the issues.

USA TODAY

USA TODAY presented a front page melange barely worthy of a first year design student—five photos and part of one chart, all above the fold. Below the fold was a really bad photo of demonstrators, one-and-one-half column inches. The caption referred readers to page 5. The front-page feature centered above the fold was a photo of Vice President and Mrs. Cheyney with their grandchildren.The events were tied together journalistically, “Vice President Cheyney arrived at Ellis Island for the four-day GOP gala which begins today, just as demonstrators marched past Madison Square Garden under the wary eyes of a huge security presence.” In the fourth paragraph of the Cheyney story, the reporters write “The protest was believed to be the largest ever at a U.S. political convention.” But apparently not as important as the Cheyney’s arrival.

Page 5 was topped by a great panoramic photo spread across all six columns and graphically showing the diversity of the signs and posters carried by the participants. The story covered approximately 27 column inches although one-third of the coverage was a side bar on 44 protestors who drove 14 hours from Kalamazoo, Michigan. The main story was standard journalism consisting of multiple quotes across a range of opinions.

Washington Post

Centered above the fold, the Post began its coverage with an outstanding photo of the march focused particularly on the hundreds of flag-draped “coffins” carried by the protestors to dramatize the large numbers of people killed in the Iraq war. The story was headlined “200,000 in N.Y. Protest Bush.” The story covering 24 column inches was continued on page six.It touched most all bases and was a model of reporting. The reporters, Powell and Russakoff, captured the spirit of the crowd writing, “The marchers were by turns humorous, angry and somber.”

A separate feature story appeared in the Post’s “Style” section under the snide headline “The Great Yawn.” It was a mish-mash of paragraphs focusing, more or less, on Central Park. The article seemed less designed to tell a story than to display the reporter’s cleverness in constructing put-downs.

The Sun

The Sun, clearly ambivalent about running this story, placed an outstanding Associated Press photo on the fold. The headline declared “100,000 protesters march”—the lowest figure of any of the newspapers. There were four column inches given the story on page one and three-and- one half questionable inches on page four along with a nondescript photo of the protesters. (The questionable inches refer to quotes by Mayor Bloomberg and film producer Michael Moore which took up space but added nothing to the story.) In fact, three-fourths of the text focused on the G.O.P. convention and there was nothing in the article that would lead you to believe that the Sun reporter had left her desk. The story did accompany a seating chart of the convention hall and an artsy photo of a lone woman cleaning the seats.

New York Times

Headlined “Anti-Bush Rally Greets Republicans in New York,” along with an above the fold 24 column inch photo, the Times exercised its power in its home town with 155 inches of text and 209 inches of photos. It provided the estimate of 500,000 marchers.

The lead story (9 column inches on the front page with 54 inches in its convention supplement, page six) was the most detailed of any of the stories reviewed here. Page one also featured a “news analysis” piece that wove together the threads of many of the stories and events of the protest. Also covering page six were nine mid-range photos of protesters with a small quote captioned below their pictures. It was one of those rare reports treating protesters as people. Another innovative presentation was a chart running across the bottom of the page displaying how much of the 2.2 mile march route was filled with protesters at 15-minute intervals from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. It was enough to inspire even the most jaded sociologist.

Page one of the supplement, continuing on page four, was a 75 column inch story, plus photos, on police organizing and their tactics.

There were two stories of long-distance travelers, one about 11 men who rented a van and drove in from Austin, Texas, as well as the requisite story of older marchers and families protesting together. And, of course, there was a story about Central Park.

What does all this mean?

First, let’s review the coverage. The Times presented five times more copy than either the Post or USA TODAY. The Sun’s coverage was virtually a travesty of responsible journalism. They could hardly be credited with covering the events. Although the Post and USA TODAY were almost identical in the amount of space for text and pictures allocated, the Post presented a far more comprehensive and understanding piece. Further, the basic absence of a front-page coverage by USA TODAY could be misleading to the browser and seems quite puzzling unless you presume that it was a deliberate masking of the event which was otherwise too big to ignore completely.

The Baltimore Sun’s performance was very much in keeping with its standard coverage of the peace movement and political protests over the years. What it did in its story, and have done in the past, is to provide “disinformation.” That is, they present a smattering of information, fragmented and superficial, providing the illusion of knowledge when it actually frames thinking in a manner that leads the reader off in the wrong direction.

Lessons for the alternative media

The corporate news media serves to validate people’s perceptions of the world. They control the production and distribution of most of the news media. That is why it is so critical for us as advocacy journalists both to analyze what the establishment press depicts and to present an alternative perspective. We need to constantly remind The Sun and others that we know what a substandard job they are doing, but that we can recognize their work when it is good.

The advocacy journalist has to learn, in turn, that writing a fair and balanced story is not easy. It is a compound of art and skill, empathy and knowledge. The great conceit of editors –if not outright error–is the belief that any good general assignment reporter can write about anything. They can’t, and nothing will substitute for knowledge over the long run.

In contrast, many advocacy journalists have not mastered the skills and too often trip over their own conceit–the belief that anyone with good intentions who can put words on a page or images on tape can produce a good story. The alternative press needs to study the corporate media, and be its student and its critic at the same time.

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