NP The "Liberal" Media Exposed at Last

[JBFRAME at aol.com]

NPR, New York Times Count Out Anti-War Activists

October 28, 2002

National Public Radio and the New York Times arrived at the same
conclusion about the anti-war rally in Washington, DC this weekend: The
turnout was disappointing.  But neither report matched reality.

The Times account on October 27 was vague, reporting that "thousands of
protesters marched through Washington's streets," adding that "fewer
people attended than organizers had said they hoped for."  The report,
which was under 500 words, appeared on page 8 of the paper.

On the October 26 broadcast of Weekend Edition, NPR's Nancy Marshall went
even further to disparage the turnout by offering an estimate on the
crowd's size: "It was not as large as the organizers of the protest had
predicted. They had said there would be 100,000 people here. I'd say there
are fewer than 10,000."

While a turnout of less than 10,000 might have been a disappointment,
NPR's estimate is greatly at odds with those of other observers.  The Los
Angeles Times (10/27/02) reported that over 100,000 participated in the
march, while the Washington Post's page A1 story (10/27/02) was headlined
"100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq."  The Post added that
Saturday's march was "an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police
suggested was likely Washington's largest since the Vietnam era."  While
both the Times and NPR reported the apparent disappointment of the
organizers, none were named or quoted directly.  Those who spoke to other
news outlets expressed just the opposite; organizer Mara
Verheyden-Hilliard told the Washington Post the march was "just extremely,
extremely successful."

Perhaps someone at NPR noticed: The next day Weekend Edition anchor Liane
Hansen introduced a report about anti-war demonstrations by saying that
"organizers say 100,000 protesters were gathered."  The New York Times did
not run any follow-up article updating its estimate of the crowd size.

http://www.fair.org/
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