U.S. Corporate Media Mostly Ignores Wisconsin Protests

By Citizen Sane

March 2, 2011 –– Union supporters in Madison, Wisconsin have been demonstrating in the streets for weeks and the corporate media continues to virtually ignore these massive protests.

They are almost too big to ignore, but not quite!  On Saturday, February 26, 2011, eye witnesses who were at the demonstrations in Wisconsin reported more than 100,000 people came out on a very cold and snowy day to protest the right-wing union busting plans of Governor Scott Walker.

“Last Saturday’s protest was huge, with estimates of 55,000 or more. But many other reporters I’ve spoken to agree that there are even more today.

The Wisconsin State Journal posted at 12:30 p.m. local time — before the rally began — that the crowd size was almost 70,000 people. I should add that it has only gotten significantly bigger since then.”

From TPM. Thom Hartmann, progressive radio show host, reported that there were more than 120,000 people in the streets on Saturday, the largest demonstration Wisconsin has ever seen.

These people are the real grassroots political activists, not the Koch-funded Tea Baggers.

The police joined the protesters.The firefighters joined the protesters.To listen to right-wing extremists talk about these demonstrations, it was a bunch of college students with nothing better to do. Nope.

Union supporters in Madison, Wisconsin have been demonstrating in the streets for weeks and the corporate media continues to virtually ignore these massive protests.

They are almost too big to ignore, but not quite! On Saturday, February 26, 2011, eye witnesses who were at the demonstrations in Wisconsin reported more than 100,000 people came out on a very cold and snowy day to protest the right-wing union busting plans of Governor Scott Walker.

“Last Saturday’s protest was huge, with estimates of 55,000 or more. But many other reporters I’ve spoken to agree that there are even more today.

The Wisconsin State Journal posted at 12:30 p.m. local time — before the rally began — that the crowd size was almost 70,000 people. It has only gotten significantly bigger since then.”

From TPM.Thom Hartmann, progressive radio show host, reported that there were more than 120,000 people in the streets on Saturday, the largest demonstration Wisconsin has ever seen.

These people are the real grassroots political activists, not the Koch-funded Tea Baggers.

The police joined the protesters.The firefighters joined the protesters.To listen to right-wing extremists talk about these demonstrations, it was a bunch of college students with nothing better to do. Nope.

The corporate media (ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC etc.) might be ignoring these large crowds that put any “Tea Party” rally to shame, but people online have noticed.  Thanks to YouTube, we can see for ourselves the crowds that turned out in one area of Wisconsin on the 26th.

There are literally hundreds of videos of these protests online, but nearly nothing from the corporate national propaganda media.There wasn’t even very much in the local Minneapolis newspaper about the demonstrations.

Interestingly, according to a poll on March 1st, most voters in Wisconsin now say they would not elect Scott Walker as governor of Wisconsin.I think the reason is clear: he fooled people and they resent that.

Gov. Scott Walker Would Not Get Elected Today

If voters in Wisconsin could repeat the 2010 gubernatorial election, the majority would support defeated Democratic nominee Tom Barrett over Republican Scott Walker, according to a report [PDF] by Public Policy Polling. — RawStory

He campaigned as a “moderate” and then revealed only after he took office that he had this anti-union, anti-jobs, anti-employee, and anti-American viewpoint against workers in Wisconsin during the entire campaign.

Walker is no moderate, he’s a fraud and a scammer because his union-destroying plans were kept secret during his campaign. Walker was not honest to the voters of Wisconsin and as a result, they voted for what they thought was a moderate who would support creating jobs.

Instead, Walker is busy talking about firing people, and soon to be firing people for real.  He’s the opposite of a job creator, he’s an unemployment creator.

I hope Wisconsin is able to repeal his election, just as people in Minnesota are able to repeal the mistaken election of Michele Bachmann in the sixth district.

Finally, not only does collective bargaining have nothing to do with state budget deficits, but the Governor created his own deficit by giving out big corporate tax cuts as soon as he took office.

No wonder the corporate media is on his side, refusing to show the strength of these protests.

Just remember thus fraud's resume. Without the cajohanes he'd just be one of us.

On Wisconsin, Readers Want to See More!

Michael Moore speaks to a crowd in Madison, Wis., on March 5th.
Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images  --  March 9, 2011

The question from Bill Gibson echoed other readers' e-mails: Why does there seem to be so much coverage of the Middle East and so little on the protests in Wisconsin?

"There was another rally in Madison on March 5. I saw no item in The Times about it. Michael Moore made a speech. It was quite a rally. Why wasn't it mentioned?" Gibson asked. "Here is a 'local' uprising that may determine just what OUR country will be like."

An e-mail from Rob was similar: "Why are you barely covering this story? This is not just a Wisconsin issue; it's a war on families and the middle class, and your paper, among others, is failing to inform the public."

And Patty wrote: "You report on the unrest of the people in other countries. Why? Because their leaders have impoverished them, and they are fighting back. This country will also go down that road if this constant attack on the middle class continues and the middle class becomes beyond poor.... Americans like to know what is going on in AMERICA!"

The rallies in Wisconsin's capital began Feb. 16, when thousands gathered in Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker's effort to restrict the bargaining process for most public employees. The Times posted a wire service that evening on latimes.com, and the story ran in the following morning's paper.

Since then, The Times has published 22 more news articles; four op-ed columns; and an editorial about the dispute, in which Democratic legislators have fled the state to avoid voting on the anti-union measure.

"We have been doing a lot of coverage in Wisconsin and intend to do much more," said The Times' national editor, Roger Smith.

Regarding filmmaker Michael Moore's speech, Smith said, "At this point in the overall story an individual rally may not clear the bar on news, even with celebrity speakers, if the message is the same one we've been hearing from previous rallies."

Egypt, Libya and Wisconsin all are important stories that will have effects beyond their borders. Readers can expect to see more coverage from Times reporters in the Middle East as well as in the Midwest.

Smith said, "We are watching the situation closely regarding the impasse between the governor and the Democrats in the state Senate and are eager to see what happens next."

-- Deirdre Edgar