I don't personally care about the planned Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall scheduled for August 28, 2010. August 28th, for anyone unfamiliar with its symbolic meaning is the date that MLK, a man much demonized in his time by conservatives, gave his "I have a dream" speech.
I won't be there. But I fear the media will be, in droves. It's a pure canard to call what he will do there "news." However, if I were a public relations agent for him I couldn't be more pleased by this Washington Post has a story yesterday.
Eleven days prior to what will be at best carnie entertainment for "Real Americans" they are already hyping the "controversy" over who owns 8/28. We need to start now to let them know we won't be watching. But first, what did the WaPo do to which I take such offense?
Beck's 8/28 rally speech is unlikely to stir the same emotions or employ the same magnificent rhetoric as Martin Luther King. This is the man, after all, who called for people to leave their churches if they stood for social justice, a cause for which King gave his life. Nonetheless, The Washington Post is already hyping the event for Mr. Beck and their selling point is the "controversy."
WaPo's story is a classic "let's gin up a controversy" and "Black v. White" article for which the Post is becoming well known. It makes the African Americans cited in the article sound like bitter, angry, jealous people and manages to paint Beck, if not a saint, as a man who is more sinned against than sinning in this instance. It is, in short, an article designed to push the buttons of white Americans regarding black people and the eponymous "race card" that they supposedly over-play. Here are some examples of what I mean:
"There will be absolutely no politics involved," he said. "This rally will honor the troops, unite the American people under the principles of integrity and truth, and make a pledge to restore honor within ourselves and our country."
Civil rights leaders have denounced Beck's plans, questioning his motives for choosing the date and place, which they said are historically symbolic of the country's civil rights movement.
Responding to the criticism on his show June 28, Beck said he believes it was "divine providence" that the rally was scheduled on the anniversary of the King speech. He said he had initially planned the event for Sept. 12 and then realized it was a Sunday. "I'm not going to ask anyone to work on the Sabbath," he said. He rescheduled the rally for Aug. 28 because it was the best day for the schedules of the people involved, he said.
"It was not my intention to select 8-28 because of the Martin Luther King tie. It is the day he made that speech. I had no idea until I announced it and I walked offstage and my researchers said, New York Times has already just published that this is [the same day as the King speech] -- and I said, 'Oh, jeez.' " [...]
Beck's choice of day and place for the rally "is insulting, is what it is," Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said in an interview Monday. "August 28 is something special. It is a day that means something in American history because it was the demonstration in the United States in support of civil rights." [...]
[Rev. Al] Sharpton, who has planned a march that day to commemorate King's legacy, says Beck's rally contradicts King's legacy.
"For Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin to have a march, they have the right to do so. Many of us suspect they are using the symbolism of that day in a way that does not reflect what the day is about," Sharpton said. "At no point will we interchange. We will not desecrate the march and what King stood for."
Regretably, in my opinion, Beck is already winning this war. This story will be covered by every network and every news outlet extensively, no matter how many people do or do not show up, unlike the anti-war rally I attended in 2005 in which 300,000 people attended, a rally which went largely unreported and unseen on the TV news shows. And the regardless of the manner in which Beck's rally is described or those of the counter-marchers, I have no doubt that the images our media will show will reinforce stereotypes about African Americans in the eyes of many whites.
Many whites will buy into the snake oil Beck is selling and will see in the images of blacks marching as counter-protesters, regardless of their intended purpose, as interlopers on a day that Beck supporters will believe is their day, not a day for remembering MLK (except as their revisionist view of history permits). The TV images will show, at least to their eyes, angry and dangerous black and liberal interlopers who are ungrateful and "hate our freedoms" for daring to counter-protest Beck's event.
It would be best if this publicity stunt by Beck and Fox News were relegated to that single channel and its audience of true believers who feel that only they are the Real Americans. However, I do not believe that will be the case. The other networks will be all over this story, and the fact that there will be civil rights organizations holding rallies on the same day will only add to the chance that they will portray this as a Black v. White controversy.
Media reporters will hound members of Congress and administration officials and even President Obama to comment on the "rally" and the "significance of the day" and whether they believe that those who are holding counter-marches and events are justified. Images of Beck and Sharpton will be shown on split screen, and both will be interviewed about the other.
In short, this FOX News created non-event will become a media circus. The cable news shows will give Beck far more attention than he and his allegedly God-given plan deserve. And their 24/7 coverage will allow Beck to portray himself as the victim of a liberal media bias regardless of how he is actually portrayed.
I hope I'm wrong, but after seeing hundreds of thousands of people protesting a war at the National Mall ignored while much, much smaller demonstrations of tea partiers a few years later got the "full monty" treatment from the press corps, I know what our national media prefers to cover, and it has nothing to do with the important issues of the day.
There is little we can do to stop the news media from giving in to their basest desires, but what we can do is protest any national news media that gives significant time to covering this bologna sandwich of an event. We can make a point of turning off our televisions or changing the channel each time some news reporter mentions the "Beck Lollapalooza" and the "controversy" over it, and we can also call those networks and stations and inform them that we did so. I don't care if it's Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow or NPR. Turn them off or watch Baywatch reruns, special comments or Cronkite awards notwithstanding.
We can also tell them we want them to cover real news, like the continuing unemployment crisis threatening so many Americans, the oil in the Gulf, Afghanistan, Gay Marriage, Climate Change, the floods in Pakistan or whatever else will have a real impact on our lives.
Beck's event is not news. It is a manufactured work of propaganda, just as the Tea Party phenomenon was a manufactured work of propaganda. Fox can cover this circus act of its own design, but other networks and news stations should not be giving it legitimacy.
TV News has become purely a business and ratings drive what they turn their cameras upon. Well there is no way you can justify covering Beck's rally except for ratings purposes, so don't give them the ratings if they choose to portray Beck and his rally as news rather than a farce that should be ignored.
And we should let them know in advance that we don't want them devoting resources covering this turd blossom of infotainment. Here is some contact information for various outlets you can and should use now before they gear up to make 8/28 all Beck all the time:
The number for CNN in Atlanta is: 404-827-2600
CNN General Contact Page
Anderson Cooper contacts (may not be current)
FAIR's Media Contact List Includes the following media organizations:
ABC News
147 Columbus Ave., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
General e-mail: netaudr@abc.com
Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com
20/20: 2020@abc.com
CBS News
524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893
Email forms for all CBS news programs
CBS Evening News: evening@cbsnews.com
The Early Show: earlyshow@cbs.com
60 Minutes II: 60m@cbsnews.com
48 Hours: 48hours@cbsnews.com
Face The Nation: ftn@cbsnews.com
CNN
One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1784
Email forms for all CNN news programs
MSNBC/NBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
Phone: (212) 664-4444
Fax: (212) 664-4426
Dateline NBC: dateline@nbcuni.com
Hardball with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com
MSNBC Reports with Joe Scarborough: joe@msnbc.com
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: nightly@nbc.com
NBC News Today: today@nbc.com
PBS
2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington VA 22202
Phone: 703-739-5000
Fax: 703-739-5777
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: newshour@pbs.org
National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001-3753
Phone: 202-513-2000
Fax: 202-513-3329
E-mail: Alicia Shephard, Ombudsman ombudsman@npr.org
Contact email page for all NPR news programs.
[Diarist's Note: FAIR also lists contact info for newspapers and wire services, but television news programs are the most important source of news for most people so I focused on those. However feel free to contact the NY Times, LA Times, The Washington Post, AP, Reuters, etc. if you wish, as FAIR has that contact info also.]
Email for all MSNBC/NBC news programs (Fair link was not up to date - this is the current one)
Obviously this is a voluntary call to action and you can say what you wish if you choose to contact any news organization, but if you like here is the form of a short email statement you can send if you wish which I drafted:
To: [Name of News Organization]
From: [Your Name]
Re: Coverage of Glenn Beck Rally on 8/28
To whom it may concern:
Glenn Beck of Fox News is holding "Restoring Honor" rally, with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin among the scheduled speakers, to be held at on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
At that "event" he has stated he will unveil his "100 year plan for America" to restore the country's "values" and pay tribute to military families.
I can think of nothing less newsworthy than this rally manufactured by a Fox News "personality" and fully supported by that network, one of Mr. Beck's employers. Certainly its significance is minuscule compared to real news such as the global economic crisis, the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill, Climate Change, and the wars in Afghanistan and and Iraq.
Mr. Beck's rally is at best entertainment for people who subscribe to Mr. Beck's political opinions as evidenced daily on his radio and television broadcasts. At worst it will be propaganda and demagoguery. Mr. Beck's rally does not justify coverage as a news event.
Please be advised that should you choose to cover this publicity stunt for Mr. Beck as a news event I will not watch any of your news programs for [choose a length of time you feel comfortable with here. I recommend one week].
There are many other options available to me as a news consumer to obtain information which has value and meaning to my life. I hope you take that into consideration when choosing the amount of coverage you choose to devote to his rally on August 28, 2010.
Thank you all for reading.
Steven D