Sunday rants

What’s the difference between hundreds of thousands of people marching through London last weekend, and hundreds of thousands of people marching through London yesterday? Well, apart from the participants’ wealth and waxed jackets, the main difference that’s struck me is the media coverage. Last weekend’s Countryside Alliance march was given advance publicity by all the mainstream media, and was the favourably-reported top story in every national newspaper and TV and radio bulletin. Yesterday’s anti-war protest, also attended by hundreds of thousands of people, has received almost no coverage.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do my bit by attending yesterday’s demo (although I have signed the Stop the War Coalition’s anti-war petition), so last night I popped over to find areport on the BBC’s web site. It wasn’t exactly prominent, buried well below the likes of a story on Princess Anne’s dog. Contrast:

Protesters stage anti-war rally… Tens of thousands of people have taken part in a protest against military action in Iraq.

with:

Huge turnout for countryside march… Around 400,000 people from across the country have marched through central London to highlight the needs of rural communities. Crowds were so big it took people queuing at the start of the official route more than six hours to filter through…

and draw your own conclusions. Maybe it’s nothing, but there does seem to be a subtle difference in tone.

So I figured perhaps it was a bit early for the BBC, being a Saturday an’ all, and instead went of to the forums at Urban 75 to read some first-hand accounts.

This morning I turned on the news on BBC Radio Five Live, eager to hear more about the UK’s largest ever peace protest; as the presenters went through the main news stories, I was staggered to discover it didn’t even warrant a mention. Apparently several hundred thousand people demonstrating against Blair’s backing of Bush’s plans for war isn’t actually as important as golf’s Ryder Cup… The Sunday Telegraph didn’t even mention the demo either, although thankfully there has been some decent reporting, such as the good piece in the Sunday Herald, and the pinko-slanted IndyMedia UK.

OK, maybe the news editors would argue that last weekend was a ‘quiet news day’, hence the Countryside Alliance march being the top story, whereas yesterday there were other ‘big’ stories. Fair enough, but surely the anti-war march was roughly as important as the Major-Currie 1980s lurve ’scandal’ (just how long would one have to spend in solitary confinement to find either of them remtely attractive?), or Jeff Archer’s continued arrogance (hmmm, maybe he could be the guinea pig in an experiment to answer that last question)?

In a week that’s seen the BBC get worked up about its impartiality, this really does suggest a very real pro-establishment bias in the mainstream media. When a peaceful protest of this size attracts hardly any coverage, it’s not surprising that certain people feel that more ‘direct’ action is the only way to attract attention — had one drunken arsehole smashed a McDonalds window, then you can bet the papers would be full of ‘Pro-Saddam Anarchists Riot Destroys Children’s Restaurant’ stories.

Makes me wonder what other news gets buried…

Channel 4 News (easily the best news programme on TV in my opinion) showed two short films tonight, one pro-war on Iraq, and the other anti (both videos are available on the Channel 4 site, albeit in horrible Real format). The pro-war piece by journalist Amir Taheri, whilst not enough to change my opinion, was a bit more persuasive than the usual hawkish bollcks. He took the line that Saddam Hussein was a monster of the West’s making (for example, during the 1980s, the US gave Iraq 21 different strains of Anthrax alone!), and therefore we have a responsibility to the people of Iraq to remove him. Can’t really fault that — trouble is, America’s interest isn’t founded on an altruistic desire to help the people of Iraq. It’s about oil, politics, economics and Israel, to name but a few.

I’m still slowly working my way through the other blogs mentioned in the Guardian’s competition. Via Greenfairy (Guardian Highly Commended) , What sort of God-freak are you? Apparently my religious beliefs make me a Secular Humanist, although rather worryingly I also have about 33% in common with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), 30% with the Scientologists, and 26% in common with the Jehovah’s Witness. (Sadly no mention of Satanism — does reading Harry Potter count for nothing?). Expect me to knock on your front door with my message of salvation any day now…

Also via Greenfairy: make your own Bush speech.

Elsewhere, separated at birth: Dennis Hopper and Peter Gabriel? Given Gabriel’s human rights/freedom work with Amnesty International, it’s somewhat ironic that he’s chosen to get in bed with Microsoft, using their WMA format and scary DRM system for the release of his new album. No idea what the album’s like — he’s done some great stuff in the past — but there’s no way I’m going to purchase work by any artist that uses DRM to restrict what I can do with my computer or audio equipment. When I buy an album, I’m paying for the music, not the shiny disc or collection of ones and zeros.

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