# Why is the peace demonstration getting so much publicity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 18, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531 "2003-01-18T20:42:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/101 "2003-01-21T21:50:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*Or, just maybe, since they actually _believe_ in the American principle of free speech, they saw no point in “stopping” someone whose point of view differed from theirs. > > [/size] \*\* but wouldn’t it be a reflection on the group as a whole if it got more play in the media? It would seem as though a leader wouldn’t want them coming across as a bunch of crackpots and therefore would ask the parties to tone it down. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/102 "2003-01-21T21:53:27Z")
“leader” What leader? We don’t need no stinking Leader! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/103 "2003-01-21T22:02:09Z")
Boo, America is not imperial Rome. No one has appointed G.W. Dictator to see us through this terror-crisis. That being the case, if citizens want to give Bush shit about his inept handling of things, he has to take it. That’s the way we do things in this country. If you want to change that, consider sponsoring a constitutional ammendment that would allow the president dictatorial powers in time of crisis. Sad to say, those nasty liberals would probably object to that too. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/104 "2003-01-21T22:47:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo \* > \*\*Harmless old ladies, middle-American Republicans, and well-dressed students, and not someone like Reesa Rosenberg, were the folks shown on television or quoted in the newspaper." > \*\* Well, that’s a reverse of what the media does with gay-pride parades. But, any sort of protest is going to get people being provocative, like Ms. Rosenberg. The provocative people are the ones who go to every protest and rally. The story lies in the fact that there are harmless old ladies, middle-American Republicans and well-dressed students there. That’s what shows the extent of the concern about Bush’s Iraq policy. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/105 "2003-01-22T01:37:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo \* > how come they got so much attention? They were all relatively small. they seemed to be a bunch of 60’s hippywannabees. Here’s an inside look from a non-liberal media source: Wow, **Boo** , I am glad you cleared that up for us. I mean, who could possibly believe anything you see on CNN, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and the rest of the (corporate) media when we have an unbiased source like the Daniel Flynn of the National Review (and author of the, no doubt, very objective book “Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation’s Greatness”) to provide us with a nice objective look at the march?!? Just let us know what Rush and Michael Reagan have to say and we’ll have the perfect balanced presentation! ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/106 "2003-01-22T11:28:39Z")
Go for the eyes **Boo** , go for the eyes! ---
**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/107 "2003-01-22T13:59:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jshore \* > \*\*Wow, **Boo** , I am glad you cleared that up for us. I mean, who could possibly believe anything you see on CNN, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and the rest of the (corporate) media when we have an unbiased source like the Daniel Flynn of the National Review (and author of the, no doubt, very objective book “Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation’s Greatness”) to provide us with a nice objective look at the march?!? > > Just let us know what Rush and Michael Reagan have to say and we’ll have the perfect balanced presentation! \*\* to get unbiased news, you have to read all sources…liberal and conservative and then make your own opinion. If you don’t, then you are just a tool…an ignorant one at that. ---
**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/108 "2003-01-22T14:09:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Squink \* > \*\*Boo, America is not imperial Rome. No one has appointed G.W. Dictator to see us through this terror-crisis. That being the case, if citizens want to give Bush shit about his inept handling of things, he has to take it. That’s the way we do things in this country. If you want to change that, consider sponsoring a constitutional ammendment that would allow the president dictatorial powers in time of crisis. Sad to say, those nasty liberals would probably object to that too. \*\* I thought the legislature voted to give him the power to use military force in Iraq? Were they just kidding? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/109 "2003-01-22T16:03:08Z")
Congress gave Bush permission to attack, not permission to tell everyone in the country to shut up and soldier. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/110 "2003-01-22T16:09:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo \* > **but wouldn’t it be a reflection on the group as a whole if it got more play in the media? It would seem as though a leader wouldn’t want them coming across as a bunch of crackpots and therefore would ask the parties to tone it down.** OK, we have 200,000 to 300,000 people at a demonstration, representing hundreds of groups as well as individuals who don’t belong to any group but want to protest the war. Which would be the more effective use of the crowd’s time? Getting speakers up front and stirring up a spirited march, or creating a “PC police” to try and eject groups with whom the organizing group doesn’t agree? Additionally, given the fact that the types of groups ranged from liberal Democrats to religious objectors to socialists to God knows who else, the only result obtained from kicking out or hushing up every group you disagree with would be a demonstration by the handful of members that comprise your group’s contingent. I certainly don’t think North Korea’s right to nukes should be defended - but if a group that does think so is against a war in Iraq, all well and good. Welcome to the march. This isn’t the time to exclude based on differences of political opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/111 "2003-01-22T16:31:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Squink \* > \*\*Congress gave Bush permission to attack, not permission to tell everyone in the country to shut up and soldier. \*\* who did he tell to “shut up and soldier?” ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/112 "2003-01-22T16:42:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Olentzero \* > \*\*Which would be the more effective use of the crowd’s time? Getting speakers up front and stirring up a spirited march, or creating a “PC police” to try and eject groups with whom the organizing group doesn’t agree?.. > > I certainly don’t think North Korea’s right to nukes should be defended - but if a group that does think so is against a war in Iraq, all well and good. Welcome to the march. This isn’t the time to exclude based on differences of political opinion. \*\* This is a plausible POV, but I have a couple of problems with it.[ol][li]The group you disagree with didn’t just participate in last weekend’s march; [they organized it](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25043-2003Jan21.html).[/li][quote] International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is a front group for the communist Workers World Party. The Workers World Party is, literally, a Stalinist organization. It rose out of a split within the old Socialist Workers Party over the Soviet Union’s 1956 invasion of Hungary – the breakaway Workers World Party was all for the invasion. International ANSWER today unquestioningly supports any despotic regime that lays any claim to socialism, or simply to anti-Americanism. It supported the butchers of Beijing after the slaughter of Tiananmen Square. It supports Saddam Hussein and his Baathist torture-state. It supports the last official Stalinist state, North Korea, in the mass starvation of its citizens. It supported Slobodan Milosevic after the massacre at Srebrenica. It supports the mullahs of Iran, and the narco-gangsters of Colombia and the bus-bombers of Hamas. [/quote] [_]By participating, you are supporting not only peace but all these other issues. Note that certain groups had to pay in order to participate.[_]If the radical nature of ANSWER becomes well-known, it will tarnish the entire peace movement.Even if the true background of ANSWER does not get exposed through the main-stream media, I can assure that Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are having a field day with it.[/ol] ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/113 "2003-01-22T16:54:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo \* > to get unbiased news, you have to read all sources…liberal and conservative and then make your own opinion. If you don’t, then you are just a tool…an ignorant one at that. Great **Boo**. So, could you fill us in on what libera sources (like, say, _The Nation_ and _The American Prospect_) had to say about the demonstrations? Or, are we just supposed to assume that the corporate media are “liberal” sources because conservatives like to say so despite obvious evidence to the contrary? ---
**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/114 "2003-01-22T17:05:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jshore \* > \*\*Great **Boo**. So, could you fill us in on what libera sources (like, say, _The Nation_ and _The American Prospect_) had to say about the demonstrations? > > Or, are we just supposed to assume that the corporate media are “liberal” sources because conservatives like to say so despite obvious evidence to the contrary? \*\* so you think the main stream media is not liberal?:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ace_of_Swords)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/115 "2003-01-22T17:10:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo \* > \*\*so you think the main stream media is not liberal?:rolleyes: \*\* You think the corporate media isn’t pro-corporate? I’d watch those rolleyes, buddy, you seem just about as sharp as a colostomy bag, but without it’s charm. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ace_of_Swords)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/116 "2003-01-22T17:12:11Z")
Oops, crossed forums there. I retracts my inappropriate insults. But the corporate media is definitely, well, pro-corporate. ---
**Author:** ![Boo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Boo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/117 "2003-01-22T17:12:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Ace of Swords \* > \*\*You think the corporate media isn’t pro-corporate? I’d watch those rolleyes, buddy, you seem just about as sharp as a colostomy bag, but without it’s charm. \*\* Yep…they were so pro-enron it made me sick. Nice insult…that’s a good way to debate people… ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/118 "2003-01-22T17:16:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by december \* > \*\*This is a plausible POV, but I have a couple of problems with it. > > The group you disagree with didn’t just participate in last weekend’s march; they organized it.\*\* I’m well aware of that, and well aware of what ANSWER is. They organized the October 26th demonstration, too. > [@](#): > > **By participating, you are supporting not only peace but all these other issues.** Bullshit. If ANSWER had actually come out and said “You have to agree with everything we stand for or we won’t let you into the march”, then you might have a point. They didn’t. Their sole organizing point was an anti-war stance, which meant that groups and individuals who wouldn’t otherwise have touched ANSWER with a ten-foot pole came out to demonstrate. > [@](#): > > \*\* Note that certain groups had to pay in order to participate.\*\* Firstly, have you got cites for that? I didn’t see any in the editorial you linked to. Secondly, if some groups _did_, more than likely it was those groups that wanted a speaker on the stage. Either way, it doesn’t mean those groups were in complete agreement with and in complete support of every last plank of ANSWER’s platform. Or perhaps Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are closet ANSWER members? > [@](#): > > **If the radical nature of ANSWER becomes well-known, it will tarnish the entire peace movement.** Take a look at this [article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12152-2003Jan18.html) in the Washington Post. Enlarge the photo that accompanies it, or go to the photo gallery below it and click on image 2. If you look at the sign on the right-hand side of the image, you’ll see it says pretty clearly “Socialist Worker” and (perhaps not as clearly) “International Socialist Organization” at the bottom. There were some 1,000 signs similar to that in the contingent (I should know, since I stapled scores of 'em). It seems to me anyone who saw the march or the photos of it afterward has already got a pretty good idea of the radical character of some of the groups in attendance. And it didn’t seem to tarnish the peace movement - people were buying them pretty fast. (Yes, we sold them; the ISO doesn’t get bankrolled by anything but dues and funds raised however its members can. Including selling placards at demonstrations we attend.) > [@](#): > > **Even if the true background of ANSWER does not get exposed through the main-stream media, I can assure that Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are having a field day with it.** And therefore what? People who care what Rush Limbaugh thinks on the issue aren’t generally the ones the anti-war movement is trying to reach. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/119 "2003-01-22T17:45:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo \* > so you think the main stream media is not liberal?:rolleyes: We’ve had this argument many times on the SDMB. To see the other side of the argument, go to [www.fair.org](http://www.fair.org). Be sure to click on the Iraq link and see how the recent history on Iraq has been rewritten. You can also try typing “Project Censored” into google. ---
**Author:** ![errata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/839c29/32.png) [@errata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/errata)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531/120 "2003-01-22T19:33:12Z")
If’n you don’t wanna kill’em, by God you must be supportin’ 'em. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-peace-demonstration-getting-so-much-publicity/149531.md?page=7)