The Washington Times is my favorite newspaper so I was very disappointed with their reporting about the anti-war and counter-protest rallies that occurred this past Saturday in Washington, D.C. I spent the day there on the ground, as part of the latter group, and the Times’ reports did neither side justice.
Mary Calvert’s photographs were excellent yet the Times’ editor missed so many opportunities to show the fringe groups and numerous freaks within that crowd that I was reminded of a New York newspaper with the same last name. Mark Hemingway at the National Review Online pointed out a few of the loonies and Age of Hooper filmed many of them. While the editor chose to include one photo with Mr. Death in the background, there was none of the many desecrations of the American flag. One man even marched down Pennsylvania Avenue wearing one wrapped around his right foot so that he repeatedly stepped on it; the ‘hate America first’ crowd was there in force.
Her editor correctly stated within the captions for 8 of the 12 photos that U.S. Capitol Police arrested anti-war protesters at the Capitol (2 of the remaining 4 showed that). Yet only those who crossed the police security line were arrested while the several thousand who “died” on the lawn only worked on their tans. The caption for photo 5 reads, “Counter protesters on the left, taunt anti war protesters…” It is true that a good number of counter-protesters “taunted” yet the Washington Times failed to show the many anti-war marchers pointedly walking close to edges of the wide avenue, verbally and visually in the faces of the counter-protesters, every step of the way.
Natasha Altamirano’s written report was balanced yet her report failed to mention that Code Pink was also a main organizer of the anti-war protest or that many Gold and Blue Star family members came out to counter-protest them. None of the college students was quoted as to why they were there or asked for facts to support their points of view. And the Times failed to challenge reports elsewhere that more than 50 uniformed Iraq War vets led the anti-war protest. I was also at the Capitol and spotted perhaps a dozen Iraq War vets wearing complete or near complete uniforms. Some protesters wore military style trousers or shorts like those commercially purchase anywhere; shopping at K-Mart is not proof of past military service.
The story behind the story of Saturday’s anti-war march is our education system has in large part failed our nation’s children. The bulk of the marchers were college students. Each of the students carrying an A.N.S.W.E.R. sign that I spoke with was roundly uninformed. All seemed to know that A.N.S.W.E.R. promotes communism yet none of them knew of the many millions Stalin murdered within his own nation. Each characterized the Cold War as a merely political disagreement. Not one of them knew that most of October 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq was about confronting terrorism. To them, it was all about WMD. I have since read in blogs where some students received extra credit for marching; they should have been offered extra credit for reading about communism, the Cold War, and the Iraq War resolution instead.
Overall, the Washington Times failed its readers about both sides of Saturday’s protest.