[Peace-discuss] transcripts of P4P TV coverage

[Randall Cotton]

WAND had no coverage as best I can tell.
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WICD had a pretty short piece. They led off showing the pro-war side. I
missed recording the first few seconds, but here's what I got...

[anchor with running protest footage and a momentarily superimposed graphic
"Pro-America & Anti-War Rallies"] ...protestors in Champaign on North
Prospect Avenue. They took to the streets with flags and signs to support
our troops and our government's decisions. And, of course, along the same
road, as we see every Saturday, anti-war protestors. All in all both groups
attracted about 200 people and there were no reports of trouble.
[end]

[pro-war footage included prominent close-ups of "Support our Troops" and
American Flags]
[anti-war footage included prominent close-ups of the conga drummer and his
"Pancakes not War" sign, a fairly long shot of "Get a Clue America! Invasion
will only breed MORE Terrorists" and a shot of our group of Muslim women]

pro-war footage: about 6.5 seconds (incomplete)
anti-war footage: about 14 seconds

again, keep in mind I missed recording the first portion of the coverage.
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WAND had a longer piece:

[anchorman] Well, as the President continues to drum up support for war with
Iraq, the debate hit the streets in Champaign today.

[graphic shown saying  "Showdown with Saddam" and "War of Words"]

[anchorwoman] Anti-war protestors have staged several demonstrations along
Prospect Avenue lately. Today, they were joined by demonstrators supporting
US troops. Photojournalist Mike Shaheen shows us the "war of words".

[footage of pro-war protestors]

[footage of Mark Thompson, credited by name in a graphic identifying him as
"pro-troops" and precisely framed to include the "Slot and Wing" logo on his
shirt, part of his "Slot and Wing Hobby" store in the background  ( you
could see "D WING") and a flag mounted on his store waving in the background
right next to him in the footage - the waving flag, in particular, was
undeniably intentional]

...a lot of people believe in our country, they believe in the fact that
we're up against the wall...

[footage of anti-war protestors - specifically the conga-drum player (who
was wearing the easily visible "Pancakes not War" sign)]

[footage of Ricky, credited by name in graphic identifying him as
"anti-war"]
...we agreed to, uh, keep a little separation and space between the
groups...

[footage of pro-war protestors with prominent "Free Iraq" signs]
Free Iraq! .... Free Iraq!

[footage of Ricky] they can do their thing, we'll keep doing our thing

[footage of our group of demonstrating Muslim women cheering with a short
close-up of "We're not with stupid" sign]

[footage of Ricky]  ...we were doing our part to make sure that there was no
conflict [cut to short shot of 5 police officers standing together,
observing the demonstration] and they spoke with them and they're doing
their part...

[footage of anti-war protestors, specifically the accordion player]

[footage of Mark Thompson with same precision framing as before] We're not
here to bash anti-war protestors. That's not the issue at all. They have to
understand they're lucky to be here - to be able to do what they're doing.
[cut to video of the biggest crane-hoisted flag, filling the entire screen,
which runs to the end of the piece] That's a freedom that they attained
through the blood of an awful lot of our men and women...
[end]

total segment length: 1m 9s

anti-war footage: about 22s
pro-war footage: about 25s

In my opinion, though the actual footage division was fairly even, the piece
was carefully crafted to cast a favorable spotlight on the pro-war side,
while offering little substance on the anti-war side.

Big surprise =8-P
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For what it's worth, just after 3PM (probably close to peak for both groups,
I would guess), I ran the complete circuit on both sides of the street and
counted:

285 anti-war folks
55   pro-war folks

There may have been some anti-war protestors by the pond in front of Lowe's,
though, that I would have missed. I'm told there were some there, but I
never even thought to look.

R