[R-G] NPR, New York Times Count Out Anti-War Activists (FAIR Action Alert)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

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
ombudsman at npr.org

New York Times
nytnews at nytimes.com
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 fair at fair.org 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/>