Dave Lindorff: MSM Covers (Up) Antiwar Protests

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Dave Lindorff discusses his article Covering (Up) Antiwar Protest in US Media:

“Twenty years on, the US news media, as is their habit with America’s wars, published stories looking back at that war and its history (FAIR.org, 3/22/23), most of them treading lightly around the rank illegality of the US attack, a war crime that was not approved by the UN Security Council, and was not a response to any imminent Iraqi threat to the US, as required by the UN Charter.

“Oddly, none of those national media organizations’ editors saw as relevant or remotely newsworthy a groundbreaking protest rally and march outside the White House of at least 2,500–3,000 people on Saturday, March 18, 2023, called by a coalition of over 200 peace and anti-militarism organizations to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion.”

When I asked why the media covered 1960s antiwar protests but not today’s, Lindorff replied:

“It’s not totally true that they covered these things in the 60’s and 70’s. They tried to ignore things. Mostly what they did, though, since the protests were much larger then and it was pretty hard to pretend they didn’t happen, was lowball the counts. We used to say, ‘multiply it (the official count) by two and it’s probably accurate.’ And they’d always attribute it to the police, who would lowball it too. And we didn’t have things like drone photos of the marches that made it easy to discount (the official counts).

“And they would focus on things other than the issues of the protests: Examples of violence, disputes with police…always changing the message. So it wasn’t perfect. But they couldn’t completely ignore them.

“I remember one of the mass protests against the war in New York’s Central Park. I went there when I was in high school, it was my first demonstration. There must have been at least 300,000 or 400,000 people in the rally. And then we marched to the UN and filled the street across from the UN on First Avenue. It was huge! With lots of good speakers. And the media didn’t do anything on the march. They just ran a photograph on an inside page showing some of the demonstrators, with a little caption. And that was it!

“So that kind of thing went on. But still, they did report on it. It did happen.

“But (the protest) on March 18th (2023) got zero coverage…”

Later in the interview we exchange contrasting perspectives on the emerging multipolar world, Chinese fascism (Dave’s term), COVID issues, and RFK Jr.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kevinbarrett.substack.com