|
|
A
coalition of individuals and |
Salaam |
Peace |
Shalom |
|
|
Coalition for Peace with Justice
Letter to UNC Daily Tar Heel [to CPWJ Letters page] [ to CPWJ home page] February 18, 2003In your report of the February 15 peace rally in Raleigh, you state: "Joey Stansbury, a 1994 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, said news of the anti-war rally persuaded an impromptu group to travel to Raleigh to represent the silent majority who support U.S. troops and the president." This information seems incorrect. The very morning of the protest, WUNC radio announced the peace rally and, strangely, in the same breath, a counter- demonstration called by a group named "Free Republic". It's the same organization that was in Washington (DC) on January 18, 2003. Just like in Raleigh last Saturday where fewer than 100 "patriots" showed up, the Free Republic mobilization in January was pitiful (fewer than 50 angry people facing 200,000 anti-war protesters). To know more about this organization, you can go to its Web site: www.freerepublic.com. This address was written on some signs of the Washington counter-protesters. I don't see anything impromptu in the action of militants mobilizing under such an umbrella. Since the anti-war protest in Raleigh had been announced weeks in advance, it's hard to believe that the Free Republic activists didn't have time to prepare their own counter-rally. Given the way you covered this anti-war protest in Raleigh, - by focusing on an incident secondary to the main rally; - by giving almost equal footage to the 50 "patriots" vs. the 8,000 anti-war demonstrators (just see your title); - by quoting numbers given exclusively by the police department (5,000 to 6,000) and no alternative sources like Indymedia (see for example: http://www.nc.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/2437.php); - by choosing a single photo that does not represent what happened that day and that was taken from the side of the Free Republic clique (most of the anti-war crowd was in fact on the other side of the Capitol, unaware of what was happening on Salisbury Street); - by not naming and quoting the main speakers on the stage; - by downplaying the tremendous success of the mobilization around the world (you give a figure of 6 million when many other sources, like AFP, indicate 8 to 11.5 million), I respectfully suggest that you apply for a job at the "Old Grey Lady", the infamous New York Times. From publications like the DTH and the NYT, we are still "expecting the world." It just hasn't happened yet. François Costes |
