Wednesday, May 25, 2011

6,000+ people rally at the Michigan Capitol, Detroit newspapers write exactly zero words about it


by: eclectablog/blogging for Michigan/eclectablog.com












Saturday, over 6,000 people, mostly teachers and their supporters, rallied on the lawn of the Michigan State Capitol building to protest Governor Rick Snyder's cuts to education, used to fund an 86% tax cut for corporations.
This is what it looked like:
  
The major media outlets in Michigan seem to think it is not "news".
On Sunday, the day after the rally, the Lansing State Journal's webpage had an article three page scrolls down. Their headline was the East Lansing art festival.
The Detroit News did not have an article about it on their website's front page. In fact, they did not appear to have an article about the rally at all. Their big news: Bob Seger, aging has-been rocker, had his last show at the Palace in Detroit (which isn't in Detroit.)
The Detroit Free Press did not have a front page article on their website, either. They did have an article about the Rapture that didn't occur and how "many in Michigan believe world will end one day". I couldn't find reference to the rally anywhere on their website. Maybe they missed the article in their own newspaper that talked about the scheduled rally...?
Finally, I purchased a copy of the Sunday paper put out jointly by the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. Not a single word about the rally was printed.
The two biggest newspapers in Michigan did not report a single word about a rally with over 6,000 people in attendance on the front lawn of the Capitol building. They did, however, have a picture of some tea partyers from Wisconsin on the Opinion page.
Tea partyers show up in a cluster of 15 people and a dozen reporters are there to cover it. Union members, in a stunning display of unity, show up by the thousands and the two largest newspapers in Michigan don't cover it. It is astonishing that event this large and this important went completely ignored by the News and Free Press.
We are being miserably failed by our media and our society is the worse for it. "Liberal media"? Please.

Motor City Liberal Comments: This has been the trend since gubernatorial race, Snyder was allowed to skate on vague answers to questions, he wasn't asked to give specific details on any given policy position and when Virg Bernero tried to make his record as CEO of Gateway known to voters the media pretty much act like Snyder's record at Gateway didn't exist. I'm all for Snyder being recalled but one of my reasons I believe this will come up short is the media isn't reporting on anything. Like in eclectablog's post the media isn't reporting on anything even 6,000 people showing up to protest. The only media outside Eclectablog and other bloggers that's been reporting what's going on with Snyder and the Republican controlled state house has been national progressive shows.

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