If 300,000 people rally, and the news ignores it, does it really have an impact?

March 14, 2006

Did you hear about the nearly half-million people who rallied late last week against a Republican immigration bill in one of the nation’s largest cities? Funny, neither did I. (thanks to reader A.S. for the tip)

Crowds marched through [Chicago] on Friday to rally against HR 4437 — The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.

Supporters of the bill before Congress say it beefs up border protection. But thousands of people in Chicago’s Latino community call the pending bill a blatant violation of rights.

As CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports, the protesters — of Polish, Irish, Latino, Chinese and many other nationalities — gathered at Union Park, at Ashland Avenue and Lake Street, and marched to the Loop. From the air, it appeared to be an endless sea of demonstrators, flooding the streets to protest the recently-passed house bill, which would make it a crime to hire or even help undocumented immigrants.

At the end of the day, organizers say it was more than half a million protesters. Police estimated the crowd at 300,000.

I read quite a bit, and as far as I can tell, nearly all of the major news outlets failed to report on any of this. Why?

This rally not only included hundreds of thousands of diverse supporters, it also generated support from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D), Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), and members of Congress.

“Whether their names are Gutierrez or Lozano, Lipinski or Blagojevich; it doesn’t matter,” said Gov. Rod Blagojevich. “This is a country build by immigrants.”

Mayor Richard M. Daley said: “This is a fight that includes every American. Those who are here undocumented, we’re not going to make criminals out of them. That is not what America has ever stood for and will not stand for.”

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez told the crowd that immigrants are here to stay, and pledged to work to block the bill.

And yet, this seems to have come and gone with practically no national media coverage. What does a protest have to do to get some attention? If between 300,000 and 500,000 people showed up to protest the immigration bill in DC, that’d probably raise a few eyebrows, but in this case, many of these folks couldn’t make the trip. Then again Chicago isn’t exactly an out-of-the-way rural town; news outlets tend to have bureaus there.

Look at this picture. This one, too. It looks like the kind of rally that might generate a story or two in the major dailies, doesn’t it?

Hey there CB – are you aware that you are late for the morning 12-minute hate??? Hmmmm??? There are people who are watching you, you know.

Down the memory hole and awaaaaaaaay we go!!

  • I overheard a little about this from some right-wing radio commentator before I tuned out. I think his point was the numbers were probably exagerated.

    Sad.

  • Just goes to show how sickly our media are in this country. On life support with very weeak vitals. Or maybe in a vegetative state. Maybe Frist can do some diagnosis.

  • If the media were truly controlled by liberals, the evidence would be that this story made mainstream news everywhere in the US.
    It did not.
    Only more proof that we cannot trust the corporate – controlled media.
    The Redcoats are coming!! The Redcoats are coming!!

  • I don’t think it was ignored, totally. USA Today and the Chicago Tribune ran articles about it.

    As it turns out, USA Today just ran the AP article on its website, but it does not appear to have run in the print edition. The Tribune certainly covered it — this was a major deal in Chicago itself — but where were other other major dailies (WaPo, NYT, LAT, USAT)?

  • I saw something about this on TV for a sec, I think, but nowhere else. I didn’t hear anything else about it anywhere, though. Truly, you’d think it would generate a bunch of front-page stories.

    Pretty big protest.

  • Well, I think it just goes to show that if there is no violence (which there wasn’t) or anything else to sensationalize, then the MSM doesn’t care to show it.

    We now take you back to our unending coverage of the Natalie Holloway disappearance.

  • I can see why they would downplay this. The country is getting more unsettled by the day and huge events like this might start giving people ideas.

  • Well, I think it just goes to show that if there is no violence (which there wasn’t) or anything else to sensationalize, then the MSM doesn’t care to show it.

    Quite right. Imagine if the protest had, for whatever reason, turned violent. Maybe a scuffle with a counter-protestor from the Minuteman Project or something. Would that have generated some coverage? I tend to beileve it would.

  • While channel-surfing, I heard the march referred to in a snide way. I think the commenter said something like –How did those 75,000 people take the day off with no benefits, etc.?

    It’s becoming frightening. I think the political actions have to start being directed AT the media. Maybe a sit-in or outright take-over a network. Maybe then they’ll remember to report actual news of the people again.

  • Sagacity (#13), I don’t think the media would change if a gang of Ninjas took over the NY headquarters of ABC, CBS and NBC and machine-gunned everybody there while the cameras rolled. Sure, it would get headlines (and whatever they call the equivalent on TV), but in a few days the same bubble-heads would be back showing off their hairdos and dental work, making special effort to cover house fires and murders of people most of us have never heard of. The same corporate suits would be selling the same ads, and that’s really all that matters anymore.

  • And folks wonder why they never hear about the Dem’s agenda in the media. What liberal bloggers have to realize is that they are the only outlet for many stories, and are the best place to spread the progressive Democratic message.

  • I agreee it should have been covered better, but why did they do it in Chicago?

    Aso I like this:

    “Mayor Richard M. Daley said: “This is a fight that includes every American. Those who are here undocumented, we’re not going to make criminals out of them.”

    Um. Mr Daley? Illegal immigrants ARE criminals. Technically.

  • Perhaps if they’d been naked…..

    Then the conservative commentators could have good talking points against those liberal pinko amoral whatevers.

    But if there aren’t any talking points for conservatives, how can it be news?

  • Sounds to me like someone missed a good opportunity to pack a buncha schoolbusses for a trip to the border…

    I mow my own damn grass.

  • C’mon, You expect us all to believe this, when it well documented that most Americans are for HR4437!!

    They want this illegal immigration mess to be cleaned Up!!

    We are sick and tired of paying for undocumented (illegal) immigrants: welfare, medical insurance, etc..etc..

    THEY ARE ILLEGALS!! REPEAT: ILLEGALS!!

    All of us came here legally???

    YOU SHOULD TOO!!

  • It’s so horrible that it’s so difficult to get the media to discuss our liberal agenda.

    Of course, it’s probably best that the national media didn’t cover this parade. Why, they might have mentioned that those marching were illegal aliens and their supporters instead of legal immigrants. As a liberal, I fully support the rights of anyone who wants to to just come here and settle. Especially if they think this is their rightful land. That just makes it even better!

    And, they might have mentioned that at least one of the groups is funded by their government.

    Why, they might have even discussed how dangerous it is to have millions of people in your country who have no allegiance to your country beginning to agitate for rights to which they aren’t entitled.

    Thankfully, the local news on this was quite good! They sent out their “ethnic reporters” who covered the march in the good way instead of putting their country first.

    If the national media had covered this, they might have even covered how Blago and Gutierrez are corrupt in that they’re trying to profit off illegal activity.

    So, it’s probably good this didn’t get national coverage.

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