Friday, January 29, 2010

Balanced reporting

CNN gets it right...

barely


"It does appear to me, as I look at these signs, that ....uuuhhhh...which side is represented the most? Do we know?...We want to make sure that we report it fairly and squarely..."


Just at the moment when the March started from the Mall, my camera batteries crapped out. I was standing on the Hill close to the Capital Building, and thought I could just make it back to the hotel for the spares, so I made a dash. I was almost in time to get close to the front, but missed the first stages of the March.




JH and I spent two hours in front of the Supreme Court taking pictures of the countless thousands of people streaming past and when we were finally too tired to keep it up, we started walking back down the Hill. We were walking against the tide of humanity for an hour before we managed to get the hundred yards or so back to New Jersey Avenue where the hotel was, and when we finally turned away to cut across the park, there was still an hour or so's worth of people coming up the hill from the Mall.

I had been quite interested in talking to some of the counter-protesters and was hoping to get some of their comments recorded, so I was looking for them. Couldn't find them in the crowd though.

But of course, we already know that there were no




young


women


there


at


all.


Nope...


not


a


one.

Maybe Mizz. Gesaman meant there are no young women on the other side of the issue.

I'd well believe it.

“The organizers are getting older, and it’s more difficult for them to walk a long distance,” says Stanley Radzilowski, an officer in the planning unit for the Washington, D.C., police department. A majority of the participants are in their 60s and were the original pioneers either for or against the case, he says.

So this raises the question: where are the young, vibrant women supporting their pro-life or pro-choice positions? Likely, they’re at home. “Young women are still concerned about these issues, but they’re not trained to go out and protest,” says Kristy Maddux, assistant professor at the University of Maryland, who specializes in historical feminism.

6 comments:

Zach said...

Oh, come on now. Who are you going to believe, Newsweek or your own lying eyes?

I could do almost the same photoessay scavaging from my young friend's FaceBook photos ... I guess they don't live in the same universe as Newsweek.


peace,

BillyHW said...

Yup, we want to report this accurately, so just give us a second as we look out the window and squint our eyes...yes, indeed it looks like it *is* raining. Could we get a reporter on the ground to actually stand outside and see if he gets wet? Just for the sake of fairness?

John said...

As far as my morning L.A.Times, the LB Press Telegram, the local tv news, and my desultory radio news listening could determine, not only were young women absent but no one else showed up either.

The whole thing didn't happen.

Didn't exist.

You must've imagined it.

Otherwise the Times would've had a huge front page spread.

Sure they would.

Cheers,

-John-

Dan Auer said...

Looks like nobody but a few senior citizens attended

Dan Auer said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8knMYK-IX4U

Michael said...

Hi Hilary,

Here is an awesome clip of the March from the Franciscans of the Immaculate in HD format. Your observations are confirmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw5HMp9FrYY