Twin Cities Peace Marchers Say Five Years Too Long of Iraq War's Pain and Suffering

Or as our Republican-owned local media framed it: "Minneapolis Motorists Don't Like to Wait a Few Minutes at an Intersection". . . Huh?

The little news coverage given in the Twin Cities to the five year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War seems to be turning out a bit biased. Notably, with nary a word about the nearly 4,000 U.S. military troops who've died in Iraq, the total cost of the war now estimated to go as high as $3 trillion, nor anything about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and children who've been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion five years ago, the Twin Cities' KSTP (ABC TV affiliate) owned by Republican backer Stanley Hubbard completely twisted their news story by making big points of interviewing motorists that were stopped a few minutes waiting for Saturday's peace marchers to get through an intersection.

If traffic matters so much, why did Hubbard's TV crew fail to interview any of the thousands of motorists who had to stop for hours during rush hour last August 2007 when War President Bush's motorcade closed down whole sections of the freeway as it made its way across the Twin Cities to and from a political fundraiser for Republican Senator Norm Coleman?

No, as they used to say in the FBI, follow the money. Follow the money behind this type of reporting and you'll find KSTP owner Stanley Hubbard has, in the last few years, donated somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 to Republican politicians, including $17,500 to Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. No wonder KSTP twists their coverage of the Iraq War and our marches for peace.

If you have a discerning, critical eye, you will also detect the subtle bias that can be injected even through photography. The one below by Star Tribune photographer Joey McLeister is of the same peace march, at almost the same location, but taken from a different angle, which makes the peace parade look much smaller than the one at top.

So taking away all the media spin, it's perhaps not as clear as the KSTP-TV reporter would have us think as to how this all bodes for the upcoming Republican National Convention here!

Comments

[bhabedank]

I participated in this march in Minneapolis and was proud to have stood in the same group as did Coleen Rowley. The message was clear and the march was well mannered by the participants. The public mostly agrees yet the protesters opinions are ignored and mostly unreported.
Many of us have been protesting for five years and the media refuses to listen to the people. We have brought forth thoughful, well reasoned opinions about this war and we have done so with non-violence. We will continue to bring it to the streets in that way but how long can our patience last? Neither Party listens to us.
This country now finds itself in a critical situation with the economy in freefall which is a direct result of this costly war. Unless the politicians start realizing that the wellbeing of the American people is as important as any other people around the world, there will be hell to pay at home. It maybe sooner than we think.
If we sink into an economic sinkhole there is no telling what will happen. When ordinary people who now seem still comfortable, find themselves losing their homes, their jobs and the way of life we say we are defending, the /#@% will hit the fan and there will be violence like we have never seen in this country. Can't happen here? Then you had better catch up on your history lessons.

[hopeless277]

Ha! Too bad. Those bozos, just like this bozo, don't have JACK to say about it. The Decider doesn't care what the people think. Neither do our representatives. So you better learn to love the occupation or it will be YOU in one of those psyc wards with PTSD. Just think, even now the NSA is going over your photo identifying all those people and putting them on the terrorist watch list. Is this a great country or what???

[bhabedank]

I am at a point where fear of reprisal no longer bothers me. They have taken my photo many times and even figerprinted me. If they want more pictures they are welcome to it. What I was saying in my post was that there will be many more people (and to take pictures of ) and they may not be as nice as me. We will see who gets PTSD.

[msfiskvletterman]

3/18/08
5:54pm
Alexandria, VA

That's a depressing comment.

Somebody please help me get an attorney for my civil rights case, Fisk v. Letterman, et al.

[TXPeaceGuy]

Coleen:
Great post...being from Austin, Tx (the blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup in Texas), peace marches and activists are routinely ignored by the MSM...the local newspaper and TV stations typically take skewed angles of pictures or edit the comments to make the peace action look small in number or the commenter uninformed...my wife is with CodePink - Austin and when interviews are done they are well versed in staying ON MESSAGE...if not, the MSM will take the comments out of context...My wife and I have both been to ENORMOUS rallies in Washington DC (9/05, 1/07 & 9/07) with nary a word or coverage from the national MSM...all I can advise is keep up the pressure on your local congressman and stay in the streets... THANKS for this post...it is IMPORTANT to all of us still involved...