As you know from the news, the Washington anti-Iraq war demonstration was somewhat short of - demonstrators. Instead of tens of thousands, as German news agency dpa had hoped for predicted, only a few thousands showed up. dpa blamed the low turnout "mainly" on the weather, in accordance with the organizer's claims.
Our reader J (update: "J" is R. J. Del Vecchio, USMarine Combat Photographer serving in Viet Nam. More at the end of the posting.) attended a counter-demonstration that numbered in the thousands and possibly in the tens-of-thousands - (great pictures here) a fact grossly underreported in the German media.
Thousands of counter-demonstrators: Not worth covering to most German media... (source)
Checking the headlines, I guess the count runs 100 to 0 in favor of the anti-Iraq war crowd.
J shares this interesting observation with us, which sheds light on the reporting of German Washington correspondents:
I am a Viet Nam veteran, and somewhat active in veterans' activities.
I attended todays protest/counter-demonstration in Washington, DC. As you may know, as many or more Vietnam vets attended as antiwar people, and for the first time, the antiwar people could not dominate the event. I was working as a volunteer photographer for the Gathering of Eagles group. As part of that, I regularly toured the entire area, including the assembly point for the antiwar protesters.
While there, I was approached by a member of the old Vietnam Vets Against the War group, who came up to me and wanted to talk, since he recognized me as a vet and wanted to find out whether I was an ally or not. We had barely started to speak when a TV crew came over to drag him off for an interview. When he came back I asked him how they came to him rather than anyone else, and he mentioned they had interviewed him at other protests and knew him. He also said they were foreign press, so I asked from where. Germany.
Hmm, I decided to try something, so I ran after them found them and said to the lady interviewer "Sind Sie Deutsch?" She, surprised, said yes. So I said "Moechten Sie mit ein ander altem Soldat zu sprechen?" And I told her about speaking German in Viet Nam during the war, when I met the German medical clinic people in An Hoa. (They were later taken prisoner by the VC, and only two of the five survived to return to Germany in '75.) I figured, how could she say no, how often would she ever get a chance to interview an American vet who would speak German to her? They’d love that in Germany.
The German media team in question: The ZDF camera man and journalist couldn't wait to interview an anti-war vet (above), but practically ran away when a German-speaking pro-war vet introduced himself.
But she said that they'd just talked to one of us, and I said, yeah, but I am from a different point of view. She then quickly said "Oh, we have all the interviews we need, I must hurry now", and she turned and walked away fast. I checked with the organizers back at the veterans' area, and she and her team never interviewed anyone there. It seems that interviewing known antiwar veterans and other activists was their goal. I thought you might be interested in this minor event, as one more bit of evidence about German media and America.
As if it was needed...
Note from Ray: The journalist and her editors likely had a clear idea of what they wanted the story to be beforehand: "Massive Anti-War Demonstrations Against Iraq - Bush" They certainly did not want to report any facts, events or opinions that might upset readers' sensibilities or the pre-established story line back home. This sort of cognitive dissonance and outright bias is rampant in German reporting on the United States. While many headlines in English media mentioned both sides, almost none in Germany did - and only a few made mention of the counter-demonstrators - and then only very briefly.
UPDATE: In all fairness, ZDF did briefly mention the counter-demonstration in a report and even showed approximately ten seconds of an interview with a counter-demonstrator. But, as expected, the rest of the three minute segment was dedicated to a highly one sided report that claims the majority of the American people want the troops home from Iraq without explaining the highly complex breakdown of those numbers. In fact, only a very small minority wants the troops home now - something like 20% - others want the troops home in a year, etc., something ZDF totally misses. Ultimately, all Americans want the troops home at some point - the real question is under what circumstances - an issue most German media miss. The nuance and complexity behind the truth are obscured by the political leanings of the journalists. The headlines are utterly predictable and biased - as they have been for most of the Iraq conflict: Iraq = Bush = Bad. It really doesn't get too much more complex than that in most German media.
Click the link below to read J's entire account of the day...
Defending the Wall
Well, it’s over now, the assembly areas for the Gathering of Eagles is an empty hillside of churned mud, the antiwar protest field is less muddy but just as empty. It was a long day, but a good one.
It started for me last night, when I went to visit one of the principal motels for the GOE movement, a Holiday Inn in Ballston, just outside DC. A friend and I walked in the door and were struck immediately with the sight of a couple dozen men in various kinds of clothing and insignia that marked them as Viet Nam veterans. I saw the name badge of one, a name given to me by a vet who runs a great blog, said hi, and was greeted warmly as a brother. The next few hours we spent meeting more vets, from Florida to California and every place inbetween, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, some older, some younger, some in good health, some in bad, but all rejoicing to be there, and determined to keep the memorials safe and show support for the troops. We were again, a band of brothers. That feeling alone was worth the trip.
The first major meeting was a discussion held by a vet who is also a retired cop, with crowd control experience, and who had been in liaison with the Park Police. He explained how carefully they were preparing to keep things safe, that they were our best friends, and that we needed to cooperate with them to the max. And that above all, we were not to let ourselves be goaded into any sort of violence, even if seriously provoked, since that was exactly what the radicals would like. People were to be designated as marshals, with special identifying shirts, and it would be their job to buffer the rest of us from attacks, and to demonstrate the discipline we have as lawful counter-demonstrators. He reminded everyone that there would be both very sincere and nonviolent demonstrators whom we should not confront, and even regular tourists to whom we should be as courteous and helpful as possible.
The message came through loud and clear, and was accepted fairly well by everyone. (Even those angrier among us who would have welcomed a chance to let an abusive radical find out firsthand what the consequences can be of provoking those who have served the country they love.) It was said again and again by people that after all, we fought for their right to free speech and political expression, whether we like what they say or not. After all, it is who we are.
The next morning we got on the DC Metro at one of the outlying stations, on the first train of the day, and no sooner did we enter the car than we saw half the people on it were veterans. The sharing in conversation was great, and we were all building enthusiasm for the day to come.
When we got off the Metro, we were several blocks from the Memorial, and as we exited the station, there was another group of vets assembling on the corner. We started together down to the assembly point, and on the way, joined with three other groups of vets and supporters. This was before 8AM, and it was quite chilly, with a nice breeze to help suck the heat from your body.
At the assembly point they were already building a large garden of US flags, and hundreds of people were already there. I got registered with the coordinators to take photos, and was paired with a vet who was to use a video camera to record things while I took regular pictures.
By then the police presence was obvious, numerous officers standing around, motorcycles and police cars parked nearby, and booths had been set up at one end of The Wall for metal detectors, and one-way traffic past The Wall was required so everyone had to get checked before getting near it. There were also officers at a couple of places along the walk, and many vets making their way along as well, so I felt reassured that the chances of any vandalism had become vanishingly small.
My partner and I then made our first pass through moonbat territory, but hardly anyone was there. They were setting up enormous 12 foot speakers , and various displays of different protest groups, but clearly the main mass of their people had not begun to arrive. We did note large stockpiles of very nicely preprinted signs, condemning the war and call for impeachment of the President, ready to be handed out. Clearly these people are well funded and very well organized.
We roamed some more, to the Lincoln Monument, always impressive, and the sizable group of vets there. Many wore the colors of various groups such as Rolling Thunder, US War Vets, Patriot Guard, Nam Knights, Legion Riders, and dozens of others. Others were, like myself and my partner, just wearing fairly normal clothing with just a badge or two identifying us in some way or another as Vietvets, our brand of service or particular unit, and/or some motto relating to the war or our time there. There was also a smattering of Gulf War and Iraqi vets in the crowd. There were vets in good health, and others looking older, many with canes now, and some in wheelchairs. A lot of graying and grizzled men, clasping hands and sometimes embracing when they met others, often shivering in the crisp cold air, but shaking it off and smiling to see each other.
In the following hours the crowds grew, and eventually the main line between the protesters and the vets was drawn, right at a point on one side of the Lincoln Memorial, where a street divides the memorial area from the field where the antiwar people had set up the HQ (loudspeakers and all). Vets lined up on the memorial side, displaying many American flags, POW/MIA flags, and some banners as well. On the other side were many of the printed antiwar signs, but also a mixture of many others, some homemade, some also nicely printed, like the several I saw of Che Guevara, There was a PLO flag, a few “Truth for 9/11” signs (you know, the CIA/Mossad/Martians flew the planes into the towers), a poster calling for Christians to be Christian and renounce war, and some really nice vintage signs, like that oldie-but-goodie “Make Love, Not War”.
The yelling across the street (police were on the median telling people to on their own sides, the vet side had marshals in orange shirts as well) got loud and nasty, and some of the protesters would come across the street to provoke the vets. I watched and photographed one guy deliberately carry his large homemade protest sign in a walk across the entire length of the vet side, inches away from them, taunting them, clearly looking to have someone throw a punch or grab his sign, but the marshals were telling everyone to stay cool, and the protester finally reached the end of the line and had to cross back over to his side. Several more protesters moved over towards the vet side, yelling and screaming, only a few vets moved into the street to yell back, and finally the police pushed the protesters back to their side and told them to stay there. I never saw any of the vets give any trouble at all to the police, and it became clear later that this was noticed.
Eventually the police called in reinforcements, eleven mounted officers formed a line at the end of the corridor between the two groups, and riot police put barriers all the way down the whole front of the antiwar side. But the barriers were shorter on the vet side, and every officer on the ground between the two curbs was facing the antiwar side, It was not hard to see who they thought were the real troublemakers.
The chants of USA-USA-USA at times could be heard from the vets, but much of the time the giant speakers on the other side drowned out everything. I was occasionally walking through that side (had a pullover windbreaker on over my jacket so they didn’t see my VN ribbon or USMC emblem), and it actually hurt my ears to walk past those speakers. People wanted to give me the Socialist newspaper ($1 donation), and other anti-government publications, but I stayed busy taking pictures of the life-size red doll of a devil with Bush’s head on the shoulders, and the assorted radical cause banners displayed in several places. There were Quakers there, Moslem activists, old VVAW guys, a motley collection of people and causes only united by their being in opposition to our government. Some of them reasonably sincere and courteous, but many harshly aggressive.
Meanwhile, there was more sense of having gone through a time machine back to 1970, as the loudspeakers played the old songs, like “War- - What Is It Good For”, and people actually had “Hell No, I Won’t Go” buttons on. Original issue buttons, not reproductions, on people who must have dusted them off from their souvenir drawer to wear them again.
At one point a VVAW guy came up to me and wanted to talk, he recognized me as a vet and wanted to see where I was coming from. We had barely started to speak when a TV crew came over to drag him off for an interview. When he came back I asked him how they came to him rather than anyone else, and he mentioned they had interviewed him at other protests and knew him. He also said they were foreign press, so I asked from where. Germany.
Hmm, I decided to try something, so I ran after them found them and said to the lady interviewer “Sind Sie Deutsch?” She, surprised, said yes. So I said “Moechten Sie mit einander altem Soldat sprechen?” (Would you like to speak with another old soldier?) I figured, how could she say no, how often would she ever get a chance to interview an American vet who would speak German to her? They’d love that in Germany.
But she said that they ‘d just talked to one of us, and I said, yeah, but I am from a different point of view. She then quickly said “Oh, we have all the interviews we need, I must hurry now”, and she turned and walked away fast.
I say again… what media bias? In my trips through protest areas, I saw at least 6-8 interviewers with TV cameras talking to people. I was told only two made it to the GOE area, Fox being one of them. Perhaps there’s some meaning there.
The late morning went on, the crowds got thicker, the GOE hillside filled up and the many feet turned the soft ground into a monster mud pit in places. There were some good presentations, good music, and that feeling of unity and warmth that made up for the cold breeze. (Well, almost!)
Guard groups of vets formed at the two entrances to the GOE site, and no one with an antiwar banner was allowed in. There were minor scuffles when some protest types tried to push in, usually their signs were trashed and they found themselves facing a solid wall of bodies that would not let them pass. And they went away, yelling nasty things. I saw one young woman slide past the first rank of guards, then start screaming at everyone, get barred from further travel inward by a line of men, and when she kept up her yelling, the police came in, she abused them, and wound up on the ground outside the gate. (A lot of smiling and chuckling at that point.) But no vet touched her.
When parade time approached, a procession of protesters came by the GOE area, between ranks of vets on either side, and it was again flashback time, Yes, I kid you not, they sang “Give Peace A Chance”. A bunch of them were the Code Pink ladies, in seriously ridiculous pink outfits, and old enough that I realized they were probably singing that song because they’d sung it before, back about 1970 or so, and were reliving the glory days of the old protests.
In the end, their parade went off towards the Pentagon, and most vets relaxed and the day wore down, and by 2 PM people were heading for the Metro or their cars.
My best guess was that there were roughly equal numbers on both sides, maybe 4-5000 each. No one came near a monument with a spray can, no vet was ever rebuked by the police, and the antiwar people were clearly taken back to find themselves for once not in command of the situation, not able to dominate the whole event, and with a strong and unyielding presence of people who disagree with them while not trying to prevent them from exercising their rights. This was not a win for them, though they will certainly try to claim it as one.
This was a win for all of us who honor the Memorial, who don’t’ agree that antiwar extremism should prevail, who do believe in giving as much support as possible to our people in harm’s way on our behalf. I am enormously grateful to all those who worked hard to set this up, and get it organized and coordinated. I am so damn happy and proud to have stood again in the ranks of those who love and defend this country that it’s hard to express it properly. It was a great, great day.
To all those who participated in any way, I can only say I was honored to be there with you, thanks a thousand times, and Welcome Home. Brother. Now and always.
Update: Information about the author, in his own words: R. J. Del Vecchio, initials only, unusual though that may be. I was USMarine Combat Photographer serving in Viet Nam during all of 1968. I am an activist in veteran activities and co-author of the booklet "Whitewash/Blackwash: Myths of the Viet Nam War", I am an officer of a Vietnam Veterans group in Raleigh, and also a Director of a charity that helps disabled ARVN vets still living in poverty and discrimination in Viet Nam, and have been there twice in the last 15 months to deliver help to them.
This type of press behavior is, of course, found not only in Germany, but everywhere, and it is the most harmful to America when practiced by the American Press. We have reports of it every day. Just yesterday, for example, I can think of two instances off the top of my head: (1) nearly all positive news concerning Iraq and the Surge was relegated to the back pages of the MSM (inegative news makes front page); (2) The mayor of a small midwestern town in which about 100 illegal Mexican men working in Meat Packing were recently rounded up, breaking up families (e.g. mother and children, legal citizens, fathers, illegal), complained that no newspaper was interested in interviewing him if he did not say something to the effect that "this was tearing our town apart", whereas he did want to emphasize and report on how townsfolk were working together to heal and help these broken families financially and legally.
I think American MSM bias (which recent polls have conclusively shown is well understood by our citizenry) is more harmful to America than, say, German bias. A substantial number of Americans recognize bias and are deserting the MSM in droves ( 'liberal, lefty' newspapers and TV stations are losing customers at a steady rate).
The interesting questions are: How do the two countries compare in (1)style and degree of bias, (2) its effect on corresponding citizenry, (3) ability to be counteracted by Internet, (4)Dominance by leftist academics, (5) Dominance by in-group politicians.
An association of medienkritic type blogs should be created, gotten to by forming rings of them. Rings for each country. Rings which include easy translation facilites. This is already being done to some degree.It should be purposefully strengthened.
Posted by: Sagredo | March 18, 2007 at 03:20 PM
It looks like tagesschau.de tried:
Diskussionen zwischen Befürwortern und Gegnern
Judith McGovern wechselt auf die Seite der Kriegsbefürworter, sie will reden, argumentieren. Sie hat Tränen in den Augen. Vor genau 40 Jahren war sie schon einmal hier: "Ich bin für die Vietnam-Soldaten marschiert, um sie nach Hause zu bringen. Jetzt für unsere Soldaten im Irak."
Der 60-jährige Tim redet mit ihr. Er ist Vietnam-Veteran, jetzt Befürworter des Irak-Krieges. Er sagt: "Als ihr gegen Vietnam protestiert habt, da war ich als Soldat dort. Ich habe mich betrogen gefühlt: Mein amerikanisches Volk versetzt mir einen Dolchstoß in den Rücken." Den US-Soldaten im Irak gehe es heute auch so, meint Tim. Judith und Tim können ihre Kluft nicht überwinden. Nicht hier, nicht jetzt, wenn Tausende Sprechchöre rufen und sich selbst als Patrioten sehen: Die einen, weil sie kämpfen, die anderen, weil sie die Soldaten nach Hause holen wollen.
http://www.tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID6523604_NAV_REF1,00.html
Posted by: Atlantiksegler | March 18, 2007 at 04:57 PM
Hi, there is an article in Spiegel about Melissa Busekros, the healthy German homeschooled teen forced into a Nuremberg Psychiatric clinic with a diagnosis of "School Phobia".
Spiegel seems to think that forced psychiatry used to stop someone who disagrees with a German law (homeschooling is illegal in Germany) is a great idea and the only weirdos who have a probelm with it are the religious homeschooling right in America.
I have written the authors with a list of all the famous celebs who have homeschooled including Lindsey Lohan and Will Smith. I doubt they will answer me.
I look forward to your analysis of the Melissa Busekros case and the article in Spiegel.
I tried to call a German embassy again on Friday to complain about the human rights violations against Melissa and they practically hung up on me.
http://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/ausland/0,1518,471683,00.html
Posted by: FreeMelissa | March 18, 2007 at 07:32 PM
I have written the authors with a list of all the famous celebs who have homeschooled including Lindsey Lohan
Sweetie, you need to come up with better arguments. Lohan has been institutionalized more often than Melissa will ever be.
J, excellent work! Loved it.....
Posted by: Pamela | March 18, 2007 at 07:52 PM
I've linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2007/03/re-blogburst-gathering-of-eagles-30000.html
Posted by: Consul-At-Arms | March 18, 2007 at 07:58 PM
Pamela and all, I have just begun writing a satire about Americans entitled "A week without Americans".
Since many brains are better than one, I would love to have you contribute some of your thoughts how the world would be like if those evil Yanks were pulled from this earth. :)
I would love to hear from you. Once finished, if Ray D would approve I will post the finished product here.
Just a quick example:
A week without Americans
Where did the Americans go?
From “Der Spiegel”
All Americans have vanished overnight from the face of the Earth. We do remember them but all we can say is that it must be an American conspiracy. We all know that almost all Inventions were made by Germans and a few Europeans. We have found that most Inventions have vanished and we believe the Americans stole them and took everything to their new location. What about the advances in Science and Medicine we have unearthed? Nothing is left. There is not even any literature supporting and describing those advances, they just vanished. What are we to do? Our lives are in turmoil, we can’t survive without these modern advances the Americans stole from us. WE PROTEST!!!!,Citizens, go on strike and demonstrate your displeasure.
While the our Government still can’t explain this phenomenon, our foreign Minister advises everyone to stay away from the continent until we are sure that no death rays or vanishing rays will harm our morally superior and energetic citizens .
More to come…..
Waiters go on strike all over Europe.
Waiters all over Europe are going on strike demanding new laws to protect their incomes (tips) in the wake of the disappearing Americans. A quote from Gerhard UN Grateful, “All the great tipping Americans are gone, therefore we demand a new law mandating 20% tips from all patrons. We do have to survive”.
Now is the time to appease our foreign brothers.
Germany has urged the European Union to make overtures to Russia and all Muslim nations to cooperate and live peacefully without violence. The parliament is considering a unilateral disarmament to show the rest of the world that we don’t have any plans to engage in any type of warfare. The EU will propose opening their borders to any citizen of any country. Upon arrival they will be provided with free housing, furniture, and a generous monthly allowance to make them welcome. For Russians and people from Islamic nations this allowance will be doubled as a sign of good faith. All we need is to sign a mutual non-aggression treaty.
Posted by: americanbychoice | March 18, 2007 at 08:30 PM
I have seen some of the you tube videos. Simply amazing.
One German offered a comment "Dumme, dumme Leute".
I won't comment on it though.
Posted by: americanbychoice | March 18, 2007 at 08:47 PM
americanbychoice, sounds like fun!
I have a 'throwaway' email acct
alder6354@yahoo.com
Posted by: Pamela | March 18, 2007 at 10:06 PM
pamela, after I collect more ideas, I will mail it to you.
Posted by: americanbychoice | March 18, 2007 at 10:21 PM
http://washtimes.com/metro/20070318-124645-4647r_page2.htm
"Police do not give official crowd estimates but said privately that perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched, with the crowd of counterprotesters numbering in the thousands."
A few thousands vs. 10000-20000 - I don't quite understand why the pro-demonstrators should get more attention than they actually have weight in numbers. ZDF is German state TV and as such forced to objectivity.
Posted by: Matz | March 19, 2007 at 01:32 AM
In the ZDF article:
"Auch zahlreiche Gegendemonstranten, die die Irak-Politik von Präsident George W. Bush unterstützen, hatten sich vor dem Lincoln Memorial eingefunden. Kriegsgegner und -befürworter riefen sich gegenseitig ihre jeweiligen Parolen zu. Die Polizei hielt die beiden Gruppen auf Distanz."
In english:
"Also numerous counter demonstrators who support the iraq politics of president G.W.Bush gathered before the Lincoln Memorial. War opponents and supporters shouted their paroles at each other. The police kept the two groups at distance (sorry for the bad english, but english readers should be able to understand that the counterprotests were not omitted at all)
Seriously, what more coverage of pro-war counterdemonstrators at an anti-war demonstration do you expect?
Posted by: Matz | March 19, 2007 at 01:49 AM
@ Matz,
The fact that some German media dedicated half a sentence (and virtually no headline space) to the counter-demonstration is hardly convincing, especially considering the fact that entire articles were written about the counter-demonstrations in US media and many headlines mentioned them as well. Check CNN, ABC, Fox, etc.
No. The preordained headline and story in most German media were - as always: Iraq = Bush = Bad.
Actually, the organizers of the counter-demonstration state that they had 30,000 attendees while the anti-war people actually had fewer. The numbers seem to depend on the source and that source's political slant.
Posted by: RayD | March 19, 2007 at 01:57 AM
---"dpa blamed the low turnout "mainly" on the weather"---
That's really funny. Would that be some of the Global Warming weather we have heard so much about lately? Last week this winter was declared the warmest on record and it was too cold for the peace protestors. Not only that, there is still a few more days of winter left. Do reporters realize that they are on camera when the camera is pointed at them?
Posted by: Charlie | March 19, 2007 at 04:53 AM
"Sweetie, you need to come up with better arguments. Lohan has been institutionalized more often than Melissa will ever be."
Germans love celebrities as much as they hate fundamentalist Christians. I have been trying to point out to the authorities here that not only Christians homeschool.
The German government already agrees that homeschooling produces better results on average than public schools. They have stated, though, that they cannot allow "parallel societies" to develop. Unless those parallel societies are "swingers" or "sex tourists" or "men who have given up on families for the bordello lifestyle" or "Muslims in Kreuzberg"...Really, the only "parallel" society I can see the German government is interested in stamping out is homeschoolers.
Posted by: FreeMelissa | March 19, 2007 at 07:58 AM
I think homeschooling is a double sides sworc here in germany. I basically do agree that it should be anyones right to decide where his children should be teached, but on the other hand I see a clear danger here in germany that certain ethnical groups would abuse this right to further isolate their children from the rest of society. School should also teach children to see both side of the coin and draw their own conclusions.
Unfortunately, when I think back to my school time in germany, this was not really a focus of most of the teachers back then and from what I hear this seems now to be gone almost completely as most teachers try to propagate their political agenda.
Posted by: garydausz | March 19, 2007 at 12:12 PM
@garydausz:
"School should also teach children to see both side of the coin and draw their own conclusions."
Agree wholeheartedly. Teaching is not to be misconstrued as indoctrination and this is a very, very poor beginning:
Deutsche Schulen erhalten 6000 DVD von Al Gores Umweltfilm. And, in the interest of fairness, this is, if true, just as absurd: Verbot für Umweltfilm in US-Schulbezirk
Posted by: QuagmiredInTheBRD | March 19, 2007 at 01:46 PM
@Matz: "Seriously, what more coverage of pro-war counterdemonstrators at an anti-war demonstration do you expect?"
The fact that the National Park Service estimates that the support side outnumbered the anti-war side by 3 to 1?
The fact of the PURPOSE of the support rally? The fact that during an anti-war rally in January, the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, were defaced with red paint and grafitti, and the Support rally was there to protect our national monuments against defacement? And that the Gathering of Eagles rally was a GENUINE grassroots rally, put together by internet bloggers in a few weeks?
The fact that in SPITE of the fact that the anti-war rally had months to get organized and was PAID FOR by Soros and other super-wealthy leftists, the grassroots people of the Gathering of Eagles put together their OWN rally with their OWN money, and STILL outnumbered the anti-war crowd by 3 to 1?
What... Soros couldn't pay the anti-war creeps enough to stand out in the cold that day?
You DO know that a large chunk of demonstrators almost anywhere are PAID to be where they are waving signs, don't you? If you pay attention, you'll start seeing the same faces appearing at rally after rally. Please note that the German news team whom J mentioned KNEW the guy they interviewed. Where did they see him before?
But the Gathering of Eagles was GENUINE. It was REAL.
And THAT, son, MAKES it news.
Posted by: LC Mamapajamas | March 21, 2007 at 12:48 AM
[You DO know that a large chunk of demonstrators almost anywhere are PAID to be where they are waving signs, don't you? If you pay attention, you'll start seeing the same faces appearing at rally after rally. Please note that the German news team whom J mentioned KNEW the guy they interviewed. Where did they see him before?]
So true. I remember during the Seattle riots how some were practically making a business out of holding a "protest school." How to form a human chain, how to control your body weigh to make it more difficult to be picked up by the arresting officer. Tying a good bandana/make shift gas mask. I know when I lived in L.A., every single alternative newspaper's classified section ALWAYS offered the same $300-500/week job for would-be activists. Go to Craigslist and type in "activist" in the general job search menu and see what comes up in places like L.A., S.F. or N.Y.
And Matz, just because the American media is less vile towards the US than the German doesn't mean the statistics our media offers are necessarily trustworthy, as LC has pointed out.
Posted by: icarus | March 21, 2007 at 05:07 AM
Not to mention that the anti-war demonstrations are quite often organized by International ANSWER (front group for the communist Worker’s World Party) and many of the participants are members of ANSWER, the WWP, the RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party), CODEPINK, the Troops Out Now Coalition (another WWP front group), various anarchist groups, 9/11 conspiracists and a few odd hangers-on. One need only look at their signs (or clothes in the case of the anarchists) to see who is from what group. This information is well-known by the MSM but is never reported. The demonstration last Saturday was a perfect example of this in terms of who was represented and how it was reported (or not reported in the case of the Gathering of Eagles who greatly outnumbered the anti-war crowd).
Posted by: Don Miguel | March 21, 2007 at 11:35 PM
This brought back memories of efforts by a television crew in Berlin of Nov 69 to get an undersized group of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators to march more consistently so that they would look like a larger group. The crew were stringers for ABC, with Hamburg plates on their car, as I recall. (It could have been another H-city, but the thing that interested me was that they were not West Berliners.)
That was when I was still intending to go into journalism after I got out of the Army. Naturally, I wanted to watch these guys work -- I had covered election campaigns, fires, etc. for college radio on our patchwork state network and always watched my professional colleagues for ideas. I was horrified at what I saw, as it was so much like what the critics of tv news were saying.
I experienced a number of heart-warming moments in Germany of that era, was taught a lot by German colleagues, and have run into very few problems on recent journeys back. However, on 2002 I did run into a "new German" who angrily wanted to know why American veterans would have a reunion in Berlin. He had immigrated to Berlin in the early 1990's. That is when I realized how many young people and recent immigrants in Germany are especially at risk when journalists veer from attempts at objectivity.
Posted by: lichterfelde-west bhf | April 14, 2007 at 08:06 AM