National media yawn when millions protest peacefully

Journalists gravitate toward conflict, but civilized engagement matters too.

One of the largest protests in American history occurred over the weekend, and it was overwhelmingly peaceful. The national news media covered the “No Kings” rallies and marches dutifully, but not particularly loudly. The protests were mostly useful to the media as visuals – big crowds, clever signs, cute costumes.

By one estimate, about 5 million showed up to Saturday’s protests, a big jump from the 3 million tally at the April 5 “Hands Off” demonstrations. After that resistance event against the Trump regime, the New York Times ran a photo below the fold on the front page; this time, the photo climbed above the fold. Which is some type of progress, I suppose.

Nonetheless, the overall national coverage was underwhelming, considering the scope and significance of the event.

There were some good reasons why, including competition from other breaking news. A right-wing extremist’s assassination of the former speaker of the Minnesota House understandably eclipsed the “No Kings” protests as the biggest political story of the day. In addition, there was the increasingly dangerous Iran-Israel conflict and Donald Trump’s own public event – a military parade on his birthday.

What was disappointing to me was how quickly the “No Kings” protest story went away. By Sunday, it was barely mentioned on the homepages of many major news websites. Where were the “follow” stories about what 2,000 protests in 50 states might mean for Trump's public support and whether the resistance is gaining traction? What about a story on the non-confrontational tactics of the protest organizers? Maybe those are coming soon, but I haven’t seen them yet.

While this past weekend’s protests maintained an overall peaceful vibe, there were a few exceptions: A man drove a car into a “No Kings” crowd in Virginia, and police used tear gas against alleged “outside agitators” at the end of an otherwise positive Los Angeles demonstration.

That Los Angeles clash got media attention – a reminder that news coverage often tacks toward the negative. It’s a journalism fact that good news is often no news. You don’t see headlines reading, “Millions Not Mugged.”

But peacefulness should be newsworthy amid our bitter political divisions, and this past weekend’s coverage reminds us of the challenge that the resistance faces in getting its message out. The national media are operating on a sliding scale: the more peaceful the anti-Trump movement is, the less coverage it gets. Which means the only time it gets major coverage is when that coverage is negative.

This is not only unfair to democracy defenders but is also a boon to a would-be dictator and his propagandists, who dishonestly refer to protesters as “rioters” and want the public to think any form of dissent is a threat to public safety.

One of the causes of our current crisis is lack of engagement. So it should be celebrated when 5 million people come out to express their political views in a civilized manner. It would be nice if major news organizations shared that view, but corporate media seem to have other priorities.

The local emphasis of the anti-Trump protests – not just a few events in major cities but protests in many small towns too – seems like a smart strategy. When people on their way to the supermarket see their neighbors protesting, it makes an impact. It’s harder to demonize people when they come across as perfectly normal members of your community.

And the widespread footprint of the protests allows the anti-Trump movement to become highly visible even without strong news coverage on the national level. Local news outlets have generally covered the protests aggressively. Studies show that local news is considered more credible than national news, so these local reports have an outsized impact.

Which leads us to a familiar conclusion: We’re going to have to defeat fascism without much help from the national mainstream media.

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