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Lyn Nofziger: An Appreciation
March 29, 2006 | 0 comments
Another Perspective
The Media ‘Protests’ Too Much
Egypt’s protesters enjoy coverage never extended to, say, Tea Partiers.
Just as Obama said to a minister that deciding whether life begins at conception is “above my pay grade,” I would not dare to predict the results of whatever has happened let alone what the United States should have done in reaction to the so-called “protests” in the Middle East and Africa right now: it’s above my pay grade.
But I do know “protest” when I see it and for the most part, our American media and chattering class is all too willing to declare just about anything it deems worthy as “protest” and anyone in the streets as a “protester.”
Now when I was but a teenager growing up in Washington D.C. in the late sixties and early seventies, our city was the epicenter of “protests,” mostly for (black) civil rights and against the Vietnam undeclared war.
From the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam in November, 1969 to “May Day,” in 1971, as a typical teenager at the time, I joined in what were termed as “protests.” Now the former was a peaceful protest: peaceful to the point of boredom and any effort by breakaway “protesters” to incite violence was booed down by the vast majority of the marchers. The latter was not a “protest”; it was a call to “civil disobedience” if not outright violence. The former had very, very few arrests: the latter resulted in thousands of arrests, some justified, some not.
My “arrest” at May Day was not: I was among the many stragglers who found themselves simply walking on the streets of Washington (I was walking home through Georgetown to my family’s home in Cleveland Park) who were summarily picked up by U.S. Park Police and the Metropolitan Washington Police Department’s notorious “CDU” (Civil Disobedience Unit) and taken near RFK Stadium. I had only been there to cheer on Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer at Redskins games.
Although many of my “comrades” at May Day participated in violence or civil disobedience (such as attempting to block roads and bridges), I did nothing illegal except perhaps maybe smoke pot and listen to the Jefferson Airplane on The Mall. I was doing absolutely nothing disorderly walking on Wisconsin Avenue in May of 1971 when a paddy wagon pulled up, two U.S. Park Police jumped out, opened up the doors and threw my longhaired butt in the back with about a dozen other people. We all swapped stories and they were all the same: all we had been doing was walking on the streets of D.C. All of us changed our names to “John Doe”.
Now people get arrested all the time, most often intentionally, at so-called “protests” in the United States: from Members of Congress at the South African embassy, to pro-lifers, to gay members of the U.S. military, some of whom recently chained themselves to the White House fence. But it is most often reported if not depicted by the media that those people were arrested for “protesting” this or that: that is not true.
There are no laws that I know of that make it a crime to simply protest: there are laws that make it a crime to trespass, chain yourself to government property, impede traffic, or assemble in an unlawful manner.
How ironic is it that the media proudly reports that President Obama — ever the eternal community organizer — is speaking out on behalf of those in Egypt and elsewhere who are “protesting,” even if some may not just be protesting but inciting or participating in violence (much of the televised coverage I have seen has shown both the police and the “protesters” engaging in violence), yet the same media depicts the past year of Tea Party protests as some kind of anarchist, ruthless, violence-inspiring gathering of uniformed thugs. How much did the media focus in on one or two people who showed up packing at a Tea Party rally and, gasp, those horrible, racist signs that depicted the President in an unflattering manner?
To the best of my knowledge, there were no arrests for violence nor any actual gunfire at any Tea Party rallies, the areas where the rallies took place were left spotless versus the piles of trash and garbage left after Obama’s inauguration and Ed Schultz’s MSNBC Rules Rally.
The one Tea Party rally I observed in person (I am neither a Tea Party member nor necessarily a supporter) was populated by middle-aged folks who for the most part looked like tourists from Kansas wanting to know where the Vietnam Memorial or a water fountain were able to be located. Contrast that with the annual World Bank/IMF “protesters” who show up in Washington and elsewhere with masks, work gloves, lawyers and chains, ready to rock and roll with the police.
Whether or not the “protests” that have taken place in Egypt will satisfy the bloodthirsty American media’s litmus test for legendary violence and brutality (the now proverbial Tiananmen Square slaughter) is anybody’s guess: to some, the existing government’s reaction to the “protests” already has and will far surpass Commie China’s response. I just know that what is going on now has far surpassed “protest”: it has become armed rebellion. The real question is who will be providing the means toward armed revolution and for what purpose: will it be the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran’s secret police, or a truly democratic, peace-loving group of patriots.
Remember: Iran’s Islamic revolution started out with kidnapping and “protests” and ended up with a tyrannical, Islamic based government. Will whatever replaces these toppled governments be much better and will they in turn allow future “protests” the media will embrace?
Letter to the Editor View all comments (31) | Leave a comment
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Stephanie| 2.1.11 @ 6:43AM
Even FOX gave barely a mention of the million strong Tea Party march in DC on 9/12/09
Now, if this crowd was protesting Bush or another republican president there would have been wall to wall coverage. I seem to remember lots of spots on the muslim lead Million man march that was not a million.
Alan Brooks| 2.1.11 @ 2:44PM
Good news, IMO, is now if nothing else it is all coming out into the open, everyone can see past that which if offered for public consumption: people look out for the perceived national interest in most nations regardless of the costs, even the costs to themselves.
'Millions for defense not one cent for tribute' does not work in the transformed world of WMDs; and it isn't millions for defense anymore, it is trillions for defense; there are hidden costs of war & defense, the two go together, that push the costs into the inestimable, not merely financial costs, either.
It goes without saying not all Americans are jingoists, but far too many are, and though this isn't a blog on the Vietnam War, one cannot discuss American foreign policy without touching on Vietnam and the larger Cold War. Believe it or not, some jingoists say they don't think the Cold War even ended, though without the Warsaw Pact it is extremely hard to see how THE Cold War still exists. The Vietnam War had a negative effect on America, to say the least. I told some Europeans so, but they couldn't grasp it, Europe was rebuilt after WWII, but America has continued tolerably well after Vietnam War without being rebuilt. Considering the negative effects of the Vietnam War, America is extremely resilient.
Still, the Cold War taken as a whole had a corruptive effect that should not be overlooked, on domestic government in general; on intelligence agencies in particular.
Unfortunately, activists in the wake of Watergate frittered away much time with phantoms such as the JFK assassination, and other fads.
Now that the possibility of a WMD war with the Soviet Union is virtually nonexistent, the possibility of a Mideast war is the greatest threat, and the situation has become exacerbated to such an extent one doesn't know what to think. It looks Revelation/Hal Lindsey-bad at this time. Right off, one might say the Arab & Shiite nations have to treat women better. And the West, frankly, only really cares about petroleum. The West sees the Mideast as a region where petroleum is extracted, processed, and marketed. Perceived Western national interests in the Mideast tower above all else.
Rightwing Americans in particular have a habit of commodifying virtually everything, and reacting profoundly, violently, when their way of life is criticized-- they take such criticism as criticism of themselves personally; which is unbecoming of a nation that considers itself the 'greatest nation' on earth.
Both sides, the West and the Arab nations, take extreme postures.
Whenever I criticize America and its foreign policies, no matter how valid the criticism, the reaction from jingoists is:
"How ungrateful to criticize this greatest of nations."
Mild criticism is sometimes viewed as worse than severe criticism because it is seen as insidious sedition. Of greater concern IMO is how the world is often viewed as a laboratory, and its residents as lab rats to be manipulated. This is relatable to the Mideast since Americans commodify religion, including Islam. Whatever their flaws-- and there are many-- might be, Islamics aren't ignorant of what the West is like, they know we view Arabs & Shiites as commercial integers, ciphers to be maneuvered according to the West's cyclic foreign policies and its ongoing high demand for petroleum.
America has the best agriculture that ever existed; but there is a tendency in the US to treat the world as factory-farm, to even treat others as pork bellies on conveyor belts. Now, there is no way to discuss such even with religious (!) jingoists, they consider it ungrateful insubordination:
"You can eat all you want and have no right to complain about the greatest nation in the world", they say. All conversations I've had with libertarians eventually reduce to the "grocery" dismissal; "you can purchase GROCERIES in the market..."
Do things, they say, even if doing things means a statist doing something expedient that libertarians don't like to, say, decrease the price of groceries. What is literally incredible is how Rightists in general think raising their voices is going to intimidate us into accepting their positions, they don't realize it lowers our opinion of them if not their opinions. So we can't even communicate with such people-- let alone change the situation at this time.
Jeamar37| 2.1.11 @ 7:24PM
Perhaps the self-righteous tone of your long-winded, didactic message is the reason you find it difficult to "communicate" with "such people."
Appleby| 2.1.11 @ 7:05AM
Nobody at all reported on the March for Life in Washington DC two weeks ago.
Nobody.
Alan Brooks| 2.1.11 @ 2:52PM
because RTLifers are wingnuts.
Magnum| 2.1.11 @ 4:15PM
Amen
I Survived Arlen Specter| 2.1.11 @ 7:38PM
Michael Smerconish, is that really you?
Stephanie| 2.1.11 @ 8:23AM
Appleby, I thought I saw something on the RTL march on FOX. I could be wrong, but I thought I did.
Alan Brooks| 2.1.11 @ 3:55PM
Remember, the author brought up 'Nam and the Jefferson Airplane. so that opens it up:
LBJ, a Democrat, thoroughly bungled the Vietnam War. we can blame the war on the Democrats, but then perhaps the war was wrong, or at least the brass was guilty for going along with LBJ. They were telling him what he wanted to hear.
Those who were Commies were wrong; those who were non-Communist protesers were correct to protest LBJ and his frightfully botched war-- a war that has affected us more than WWII.
I am no naif, i know we will never get along, and socialism is pir-in-sky.
But after what happened after Reagan left office I trust you less than I trust the Left. To paraphrase Reagan, 'you have spent YOUR political capital.'
Thimmesch is right on how the Tea Party is nonviolent; however if conscription is reinstated they will become violent, as the hardhats did four decades ago- because they want to defend their interests even if draftees have to do the actual dying.
Clint| 2.1.11 @ 6:38PM
Brooks is a delinquent naif.
I Survived Arlen Specter| 2.1.11 @ 7:39PM
1) Open Mouth.
2) Insert Foot.
3) Get Tingle Up Leg.
4) Grin Like A Loon.
dvb| 2.1.11 @ 10:56AM
If it bleeds it leads.
Media supplies violence and conflict because that gets ratings.
Anthony| 2.1.11 @ 11:02AM
The LSM simply offer up the pabulum as directed by Obozo and the left.
Violent riots by the Muslim Brotherhood good, civil protests by the Tea Party, bad.
Leftist activist judges correct, origional intent judges, teabaggers.
The LSM cannot sink any lower than they have over the past four decades. They are morally and intellectually bankrupt, or, simply put, corrupt.
As Rush puts it, the four corners of deceit need to be cleansed.
Tomas| 2.1.11 @ 12:31PM
This is the story that should be getting above the fold status:
'A senior administration official said Obama has “requested multiple briefings each day and has personally made key decisions.”
“For example, at approximately 4:15 p.m. on Friday, the president dropped into a previously scheduled Principals Committee meeting on a different topic so that he could discuss Egypt with his top foreign policy advisers,” the official said. “At that meeting, the president decided to call President Mubarak and to make a statement to the American people."'
This terrifies me. Obama's "key decisions" constitute "...[calling] President Mubarak and [making] a statement to the American people."???
Above his pay grade. Absolutely. And above his abilities.
Heaven help the world...
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Wayne | 2.1.11 @ 12:41PM
Why did this article read to me like it was anti-tea-party?
Reagan's Ghost | 2.2.11 @ 4:13PM
No, well, actually mommy and I like tea partys here in Bel Air....
Al Adab| 2.1.11 @ 1:47PM
Unlike the peaceful reform minded protesters in Egypt, the TEA Party radicals were extremists trying to bring down the government and fomenting a climate of violence. Haven't you been listening to MSNBC?
Peppermint Tea| 2.1.11 @ 1:47PM
"Will whatever replaces these toppled governments be much better and will they in turn allow future "protests" the media will embrace?"
Answer: No, Never.
R Martin| 2.1.11 @ 3:03PM
"...has far surpassed "protest": it has become armed rebellion. The real question is who will be providing the means toward armed revolution and for what purpose: will it be the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran's secret police, or a truly democratic, peace-loving group of patriots."
If it has indeed become armed rebellion and the real question is who will provide the means to further it, the last group is out by definition and the first two will probably join forces anyway. The question seems moot in a fairly odd article.
WAKE UP| 2.1.11 @ 7:41PM
1. Here’s a clue: ALL the demonstrators in the streets are male.
And another: Obama couldn’t wait to get to Cairo only months after his inauguration.
We’ve not seen even the beginning of where this is going to go yet.
Michael| 2.1.11 @ 9:45PM
Yeah bc Tea Partiers rallying against deficit spending and health care reform is = to Egyptians rising up against an autocratic president who has ruled for three decades. Idiot.
Nate| 2.2.11 @ 10:07AM
Agreed. That so many people conflate the two is troubling to say the least.
FREE tea| 2.1.11 @ 10:28PM
"The U.S. has one more task before its own long
engineered collapse is consumated and the Globalists bring in RED China and 'eugenics
realism' ---and that's to bring in (i.e. standardize,
culturally neutralize and franchise-slum) the
recalcitrant Middle East."
-Alan Watt
Cutting Through the Matrix
(available online)
With each passing day the trouble in the Middle
East is appearing more and more manipulated.
While Murbarak is certainly a tyrant and a
front, NOTE ---he fiercely rejected demands
from the Globalists (i.e. UN WHO, Rockefeller/Gates
funded eugenics fronts etc.) to have MASS
sterilizations, forced abortions and compulsory
innoculations (i.e. stealth eugenics).
Interesting to see that the figures 'emerging from
the chaos' to 'guide' the genuine opposition are
virtually to a man ---UN and Soros men...
-------------Echoes of the Tea Party's
co-opting surely...
Reagan's Ghost | 2.2.11 @ 4:11PM
Well, at least they did not question my facts.
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