[Dryerase] Citizen-Times finally notices global protests -sort of

[Asheville Global Report]

Citizen-Times finally notices global protests -sort of
By Nicholas Holt
Asheville, North Carolina, Oct. 16 (AGR)— On Sun., Oct. 13, The Asheville 
Citizen-Times (AC-T) ran a short article on page A-3 titled “5,000 march in 
Paris against Iraq invasion.”
An article, accompanied by a photo, elaborated slightly on the headline, 
explaining a few of the reasons “5,000 people took part in the protest, 
organized by human rights groups, trade unions, and leftist political 
parties” to urge France to use its power in the United Nations Security 
Council to block US moves towards war with Iraq.
The article also noted that “Smaller demonstrations were staged in some 30 
cities across France” but that “Though the protests were the biggest in 
France so far, turnout was low compared to the 150,000 people who marched 
through central London two weeks ago urging the United States and Britain 
not to invade Iraq.”
This article would be the first time anyone who relies on Gannett’s AC-T 
for world news would have seen any reference to the by then more than 
two-weeks-old London protests.
This move on the part of the AC-T has the dual effect of 1.) depriving the 
commercial newspaper’s readership of timely information on events of global 
significance and 2.) creates the illusion for the casual world news reader 
that the AC-T is in fact providing accurate and thorough coverage of world 
events, in this case, as relates to the nature of international opposition 
to President Bush’s war on Iraq.
In fact, between Sept. 28 (the date of the London protests) and Oct. 13, 
the AC-T reported only on an unspecified number of protesters who 
“outnumbered Bush supporters” in Denver, Colorado (9/28, front page) and 
“More than a hundred activists” who marched in Asheville (9/29, front page).
This would leave the reader ignorant of more than a million protesters who 
gathered across the world — and in the US — to voice their opposition to 
the war.
The previously ignored London marchers, whose gathering constituted the 
largest United Kingdom anti-war rally in at least three decades, were not 
only reported on tardily, but had their numbers shorted, as organizers’ 
(and Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV’s) estimates put the total number of 
participants closer to 400,000 — a figure much higher and of much greater 
news-worthiness than the AC-T’s belated total of 150,000.
The AC-T also neglected to mention 1.5 million people who marched in cities 
across Italy and thousands more in Australia.
And those Denver protesters – who numbered between 2,000 and 4,000 – were 
joined across the US by between at least 10,000 in New York, 5,000 in 
Portland, OR, 8,000 in San Francisco, 3,000 in Los Angeles, and hundreds 
more in other cities.
The AC-T did not find these worthy of column space.
However, in the issues of the AC-T published in the interim between the 
Sept. 28 protests and their reference on Oct. 13, there was enough space to 
publish stories on “Mayor swears in husband as police chief” in Southgate, 
MI (10/1, A-5), “Swine get to sit out this greased pig race” in Henderson 
County (10/5, frontpage), “Alabama state quarter to depict Helen Keller” 
(10/8. A-5), and “Man changes name to ‘I Am who I am’”(10/9, A-5).
The readers of the AC-T – who hopefully branch out in their materials — 
must infer the meaning of such omissions (and inclusions) on their own.