Misleading Media Coverage
TV coverage of today’s No Kings demonstrations in Torrance, elsewhere in Southern California, and across the country offered a clear example of how the mainstream media is failing us.
A free press is critical in a democracy, but the media needs to do a much better job than it has been doing over the past several years.
I attended the demonstration outside Torrance City Hall along with about 10,000 others.
I went home and turned on the TV to see how the demonstrations across the nation were covered, only to be at first disappointed and then angered at the sparse coverage of these events. Instead, it was outsized coverage of the isolated clashes with police in downtown LA late in the afternoon.
I was sadly hypnotized by how bad the coverage on KCBS was, and so did not check out the other stations. I have no reason to think it was much different.
From 4-6 p.m., their coverage was exclusively of the roughly 200 agitators and protesters in a small section of downtown LA who were confronting police and subsequently tear gassed and ordered to disperse. No injuries reported.
That was it. The No Kings demonstrations were mentioned briefly without details. But by applying the “if it bleeds, it leads” mindset to the coverage of the demonstrations, it misrepresented the day’s events and failed to provide viewers with analysis and significant takeaways from today’s events such as:
TURNOUT: Crowds at the Southland demonstrations were massive, bigger than they’ve ⁹qpppbeen in the previous two months. They were people from all walks of life, hardly agitators and certainly not paid. They were mainly left-leaning, but their politics, like their ages, covered a broad spectrum. That means a lot of plumbers, office workers, teachers, and just plain folks, who likely affiliate with no party, were concerned enough to come out and voice their unhappiness. That matters.
The demonstration in Torrance, and from what I can tell uniformly across the Southland, were uniformly peaceful and the mood was almost festive. People said they were heartened to find others who felt the way they did.
LOW-KEY POLICING: There were virtually no law enforcement personnel at the Torrance demonstration despite the large crowd. The handful that were present stayed on the fringe and were treated with respect and courtesy. There were no confrontations. That matters, because it suggests that the heavy-handed tactics employed by the LAPD and President Trump by calling in the National Guard and Marines to LA likely triggered the violence.
FALSE IMPRESSIONS; This twisted coverage, akin to siren chasing, further divides our country. The Right sees the agitators and police going at it and criticizes the left for being violent; liberals see it as inflammatory. The vast majority in the middle are either misled into thinking violence and chaos were the norm at the demonstrations, or frustrated that the media is missing the most significant aspects of the day’s events.
I’m retired now but I’ve been a journalist and media watcher for half a century, and believe the media has done us a tremendous disservice over the past decade.
The common perception is that the media slants its coverage to the left. I think that is wrong. The mainstream media is almost totally owned by large corporations, who have significant holdings in sectors beyond the media. Nearly all of them are major contributors to Trump and other GOP candidates who they feel can help them in media matters and other realms.
The mainstream media failed us the first time Trump ran because it should have made more clear how unqualified Trump was to lead. He was a good story, an outsider who made fun of Hillary Clinton. But shouldn’t most Americans have known that this “rt of the Deal mastermind had in fact bankrupted six different businesses?
It took most of the mainstream more than 3 years of his first Administration to summon the guts to call a lie a lie. Until then it was the president bending the truth, or exaggerating, or playing fast and loose with the truth. Where would we be if, from the start, Trump’s deliberate and relentless lies were labeled just that?
Lomita, CA
Democracy Depends on an Informed Public
By now you’re likely familiar with the scenes unfolding in Los Angeles. As demonstrators took to the streets to protest immigration enforcement raids, they were regularly met with excessive force by the Los Angeles Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.
We know this because journalists were there, on the scene, covering the protests and LAPD’s response. We’ve seen the photos, video, and news stories. But despite laws that specifically protect press rights, journalists have been shoved, detained, shot with rubber bullets, trampled with police horses, and forcibly prevented from doing their jobs. Sometimes these abuses have happened on live television.
So today, representing the L.A. Press Club and the media outlet Status Coup, FAC sued LAPD to protect journalists’ rights under the U.S. Constitution and state law. We’re proud to co-counsel in this case with Carol Sobel and Weston Rowland of the Law Office of Carol Sobel; Susan Seager; the Law Office of Peter Bibring; and the firm of Schonbrun, Seplow, Harris, Hoffman & Zeldes LLP.
Last week, with 24 other organizations, we sent a letter to the LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department reminding them of their obligation to respect press rights under state and federal laws. We noted in the letter: “It is likely that the actions of the LAPD … will already subject them, and local taxpayers, to significant [legal] liability. You cannot change what has already happened but you can take measures to not make the problem worse.”
It appears LAPD did not heed this warning.
We are living in a time of constant upheaval and uncertainty. We need journalists, now more than ever, to be able to do their jobs and report the news. As Carol Sobel, lead counsel for the plaintiffs said when we filed today’s lawsuit: “Our democracy depends on an informed public. When press rights are threatened, it’s the public that suffers.”
Thank you for supporting our work.
David Snyder
Executive Director
First Amendment Coalition
Baby Delivery
President Trump said he wanted more babies in the United States.
The major group that produces the most babies per woman is … Latinas. Even Latinas are not procreating at replacement level.
Trump has a dilemma. Is he going to remove large numbers of Latinos, or is he going to deliver the babies?
Or he could push for things like child care, which, “we gotta have.”
Michael Madrid.
San Pedro
Mass Protests and Union Strikes Make Change
Only mass protests in the streets and ultimately strikes by our unions will win any of these fights.
I applaud all of the activities that you do, and contribute financially, but we are beyond legal redress.
Bourgeois law no longer exists in the US. The sooner we recognize that the sooner we will develop a winning strategy that does not go through the courts.
This is 1930’s Germany and Trump controls the legal system, which is not our venue anyway. IT IS THEIR LEGAL SYSTEM, NOT OURS.
So the thousands of lawsuits that you and others are involved in are basically a waste of time and energy.
Let us learn from successful social struggles, mass protests like the No King’s day and strikes by the unions are our weapons of choice.
Mark L. Friedman