FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 112 W. 27th Street New
York, NY 10001
ACTION ALERT:
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.
ACTION: Contact NPR and the New York Times and ask them why they did
not provide more substantive reports about the anti-war
demonstrations in Washington, DC on October 26.
CONTACT:
National Public Radio
Ombudsman
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
New York Times
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Toll free comment line: 1-888-NYT-NEWS
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more
seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
your correspondence.
--
Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
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