Meanwhile, way downstate from you in Carbondale, the Southern Illinoisan print edition featured a very prominent two-page spread on the SIL No Kings protest. It's an all-too-rare example of local media putting resources into doing it right these days. And it illustrates your point that making the protests widespread and local was a smart move on the part of the national organizers.
All of those good reasons for competition for the news is because all of that chaos, confusion, assassination and attempted assassinations of senators, Trump getting our country deeper into debt and threatening other countries, possibly getting us into a war in the Middle East - THOSE are the reasons we are protesting. WE REJECT TRUMP AND EVERYTHING HE STANDS FOR. So...that is why the news media should cover the PROTESTS - the most important thing.
CORPORATE media. Accent on corporate. As my union organizing friends tell me, this was not centrally organized. It’s a movement. Much more powerful. The target is primarily local politicians; community state and federal. After all, the only country wide election (more or less) is the president, and he is focused on subjugation, not leadership. As mayor ed Koch of New York jokingly quipped when folks called into his radio show to lament after losing his reelection, “the people voted, and the people must be punished.” Trump popularity at 36% is the lowest in history (down there with Nixon). So we are now slated for revenge…
One of the severe problems with sensationalistic journalling, you become so addicted to conflict and ratings that you become board with civil discourse and peaceful engagement.
Thank you, Mark, for another thoughtful insight. The media seems increasingly lacking in any attention span. Is this a reflection on this populace? I, also, took note of the media coverage of the day. And, even the night before when Israel chose to escalate a war with Iran. Any coverage on this tragedy? Nothing… just another day in the life of the Middle East, it seems. We certainly don’t want to interrupt any scheduled sporting event for breaking news. So, just what does this say about priorities, selfish gratification, indifference, or dare I say ignorance? What the people of this country do, especially as represented by the media, whether we like it or not, does matter to the rest of the world. There is Hope in that other sources of media coverage, especially the foreign press, are doing a much better job of covering these challenging times. And, I’ve noticed a superior job in covering the worlds protest of all things “T___p”. I hope the press here catches up, organizes its priorities for the sake of this Democracy, and insists on Fact-based reporting. Less sound and visual bites (10 seconds!) that all too easily break to a commercial. And less lazy reporting that merely copies a YouTube (for example) image for a “story”. What once was a 30-60 minute news source has now dwindled to MAYBE 12 minutes of any worthy news.
My “attention-span” will only tolerate so much of this insult.
In Alameda, we also had a diversity of ages. We purposely had a pre-rally event with chalk and bubbles and signmaking, and I think that brought the families in. It was great to see!
Mark's headline is EXACTLY true. "There was a lot of news on the weekend"!?? Oh yeah? When was the last time 4-5 *MILLION* people protested the actions of the federal government, in hundreds of cities and towns, across 50 states?? Get a grip. Sounds like you're part of the problem, John.
Thank you for calling this out today. I have watched the Today Show most of my life and keep it on for about 15 minutes in the morning to get an idea of how mainstream media is reporting. It is my litmus test so to speak. Some days are better than others. Today was upsetting. Like you said, they highlighted the negative occurrences more than the positive and only showed big cities. It is more impactful to show the smaller towns and red districts in my opinion. We already know the big cities will turn out. With the parade, they of course did not show or mention the sparse crowd and showed one snippet of DJT's speech that sounded "positive". Ironically, I was in St. Paul, MN this weekend for a funeral and was staying at a close friend's house. We compared the local news coverage to Fox - the difference in reporting was maddening. Fox was off-topic and started talking about issues with extreme left leaning violence from years ago. This is why the pervasiveness of this movement is critical. If we can't break through those silos, we need most everyone else on board.
Alas, our national mainstream media are owned by corporations whose primary interest is in padding their bottom lines at the expense of their responsibilities to real journalism and truth-telling.
I seems that sex, sin,and violence sells. Any thing decent like a peaceful protest with no flips just is not newsworthy. I suppose if the protest broke out in a major brawl and the city was afire the major media outlets would be covering it for weeks. It appears some of the major news media have capitulated to Trumps threats. I suppose ratings matter quite a bit It was nice to see the parade of humiliation. More tanks showed than viewers. Pete, Donald and Melania looked very upset. Marco Rubio say there yawning away. It was so quiet you could hear the creaking wheels and tracks of the tanks. 5 Million to 2 hundred thousand or thereabouts is a win. Front page news.
Thank you for your important newsletter, Mark, which is SO true---and the major media consistently underestimate crowd sizes as well. I also think that your point about local news is an important one. Our "legacy media" like the Chicago Tribune, my own local paper, is owned by corporations who only care about the bottom line. Local news like the Sun-Times and public television program Chicago Tonight have been cut back, along with PBS and WBEZ, and might be eliminated with the attack on public radio/television. So hyper local news is what I read: Block Club Chicago, Axios, etc; Newsletters, such as yours on substack, are also very valuable: Stop the Presses, Hopium Chronicles; the Contrarian; Heather Cox Richardson, Adam Kinzinger. I admit, I still get the NY Times, Washington Post, the Guardian UK. But it's overwhelming, I of course can't read it all, as opposed to back in the day, when I remember Walter Cronkite and 3 stations only! (Yep, I'm a senior.)
I believe the national and mainstream media were afraid to cover the protests. Journalism used to be a public service. Now it's a competition to see who can get the story straight, even if the facts are incorrect. It's about ROI. The media no longer has a fiduciary responsibility to the public.
Meanwhile, way downstate from you in Carbondale, the Southern Illinoisan print edition featured a very prominent two-page spread on the SIL No Kings protest. It's an all-too-rare example of local media putting resources into doing it right these days. And it illustrates your point that making the protests widespread and local was a smart move on the part of the national organizers.
Local journalism is under siege right now, but they still serve a vital public interest.
All of those good reasons for competition for the news is because all of that chaos, confusion, assassination and attempted assassinations of senators, Trump getting our country deeper into debt and threatening other countries, possibly getting us into a war in the Middle East - THOSE are the reasons we are protesting. WE REJECT TRUMP AND EVERYTHING HE STANDS FOR. So...that is why the news media should cover the PROTESTS - the most important thing.
CORPORATE media. Accent on corporate. As my union organizing friends tell me, this was not centrally organized. It’s a movement. Much more powerful. The target is primarily local politicians; community state and federal. After all, the only country wide election (more or less) is the president, and he is focused on subjugation, not leadership. As mayor ed Koch of New York jokingly quipped when folks called into his radio show to lament after losing his reelection, “the people voted, and the people must be punished.” Trump popularity at 36% is the lowest in history (down there with Nixon). So we are now slated for revenge…
One of the severe problems with sensationalistic journalling, you become so addicted to conflict and ratings that you become board with civil discourse and peaceful engagement.
That sensationalism is why I never watched cable news on any channel.
Thank you, Mark, for another thoughtful insight. The media seems increasingly lacking in any attention span. Is this a reflection on this populace? I, also, took note of the media coverage of the day. And, even the night before when Israel chose to escalate a war with Iran. Any coverage on this tragedy? Nothing… just another day in the life of the Middle East, it seems. We certainly don’t want to interrupt any scheduled sporting event for breaking news. So, just what does this say about priorities, selfish gratification, indifference, or dare I say ignorance? What the people of this country do, especially as represented by the media, whether we like it or not, does matter to the rest of the world. There is Hope in that other sources of media coverage, especially the foreign press, are doing a much better job of covering these challenging times. And, I’ve noticed a superior job in covering the worlds protest of all things “T___p”. I hope the press here catches up, organizes its priorities for the sake of this Democracy, and insists on Fact-based reporting. Less sound and visual bites (10 seconds!) that all too easily break to a commercial. And less lazy reporting that merely copies a YouTube (for example) image for a “story”. What once was a 30-60 minute news source has now dwindled to MAYBE 12 minutes of any worthy news.
My “attention-span” will only tolerate so much of this insult.
Unlike the April protest, the "No Kings" protests all across Marin County included many, many younger people and families. People are waking up!
In Alameda, we also had a diversity of ages. We purposely had a pre-rally event with chalk and bubbles and signmaking, and I think that brought the families in. It was great to see!
Mark's headline is EXACTLY true. "There was a lot of news on the weekend"!?? Oh yeah? When was the last time 4-5 *MILLION* people protested the actions of the federal government, in hundreds of cities and towns, across 50 states?? Get a grip. Sounds like you're part of the problem, John.
Thank you for calling this out today. I have watched the Today Show most of my life and keep it on for about 15 minutes in the morning to get an idea of how mainstream media is reporting. It is my litmus test so to speak. Some days are better than others. Today was upsetting. Like you said, they highlighted the negative occurrences more than the positive and only showed big cities. It is more impactful to show the smaller towns and red districts in my opinion. We already know the big cities will turn out. With the parade, they of course did not show or mention the sparse crowd and showed one snippet of DJT's speech that sounded "positive". Ironically, I was in St. Paul, MN this weekend for a funeral and was staying at a close friend's house. We compared the local news coverage to Fox - the difference in reporting was maddening. Fox was off-topic and started talking about issues with extreme left leaning violence from years ago. This is why the pervasiveness of this movement is critical. If we can't break through those silos, we need most everyone else on board.
Alas, our national mainstream media are owned by corporations whose primary interest is in padding their bottom lines at the expense of their responsibilities to real journalism and truth-telling.
It didn't bleed so it didn't lead! Drives me crazy too...
We are going to have to defeat fascism in spite of the national mainstream media.
I call them the billionaire media.
I seems that sex, sin,and violence sells. Any thing decent like a peaceful protest with no flips just is not newsworthy. I suppose if the protest broke out in a major brawl and the city was afire the major media outlets would be covering it for weeks. It appears some of the major news media have capitulated to Trumps threats. I suppose ratings matter quite a bit It was nice to see the parade of humiliation. More tanks showed than viewers. Pete, Donald and Melania looked very upset. Marco Rubio say there yawning away. It was so quiet you could hear the creaking wheels and tracks of the tanks. 5 Million to 2 hundred thousand or thereabouts is a win. Front page news.
NYT is shameful.
Thank you for your important newsletter, Mark, which is SO true---and the major media consistently underestimate crowd sizes as well. I also think that your point about local news is an important one. Our "legacy media" like the Chicago Tribune, my own local paper, is owned by corporations who only care about the bottom line. Local news like the Sun-Times and public television program Chicago Tonight have been cut back, along with PBS and WBEZ, and might be eliminated with the attack on public radio/television. So hyper local news is what I read: Block Club Chicago, Axios, etc; Newsletters, such as yours on substack, are also very valuable: Stop the Presses, Hopium Chronicles; the Contrarian; Heather Cox Richardson, Adam Kinzinger. I admit, I still get the NY Times, Washington Post, the Guardian UK. But it's overwhelming, I of course can't read it all, as opposed to back in the day, when I remember Walter Cronkite and 3 stations only! (Yep, I'm a senior.)
This was a global protest, certainly not as big as the ones in the USA by any means.
The fact that it was global should have gotten it far more attention.
I believe the national and mainstream media were afraid to cover the protests. Journalism used to be a public service. Now it's a competition to see who can get the story straight, even if the facts are incorrect. It's about ROI. The media no longer has a fiduciary responsibility to the public.