Network journalists who were quick to see racists, haters and extremists [1]
amongst the "tea party" protesters were oblivious on Saturday to
communists in the "climate justice" march in Copenhagen whose cause
they trumpeted - even as the video they showed included brief shots of
marchers waving red flags displaying the Soviet Union's hammer and
sickle.
"The streets were filled today with tens of thousands of protesters
from around the world, demanding action to stop global warming," NBC
Nightly News anchor Lester Holt announced before Anne Thompson
marveled: "An extraordinary sight in front of Denmark's parliament
building: 35,000 protesters filling the square, stepping off on a slow
march with an urgent plea: Save the planet."
On the CBS Evening News, anchor Jeff Glor touted how "around the
world tonight, protesters are creating heat over climate change. In
Copenhagen, where UN talks on global warming are under way, police
estimate 40,000 activists marched, mostly peacefully, to demand an
agreement that produces real change." Reporter Sheila MacVicar began:
"From India to Australia, from China to Copenhagen, tens of thousands
of demonstrators took to the streets."
Neither Thompson nor MacVicar mentioned the communist participation
obvious from the video that producers ran with their narration, though
a Financial Times article [2]
included the less-appealing parts of the coalition: "The protesters
were a mix of environmental campaigners, church groups and ordinary
Danes, many with children, as well as anarchists and communists."
In a post for the Santa Barbara Independent [3],
Ethan Stewart noted: "From Communist groups and Greenpeace to radical
vegetarians and a pro-Iranian crew, there were not many activist sub
groups without representation in the march."
Holt introduced the Saturday, December 12 NBC Nightly News story:
Now to Copenhagen. The streets were filled today with tens of thousands of protesters from around the world, demanding action to stop global warming. Their demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but still hundreds were arrested. Our report tonight from chief environmental affairs correspondent Anne Thompson in Copenhagen.
From the top of Thompson's report:
An extraordinary sight in front of Denmark's parliament building: 35,000 protesters filling the square, stepping off on a slow march with an urgent plea: Save the planet. The four-mile trek to the site of the climate talks was part street theater, part political theater....The marchers have a simple message for the delegates. Stop talking and start acting. [A Danish man] pushed his 10-month-old son, worried about his future and the future of those elsewhere in the world.
MAN: I definitely want them to, to make an agreement that's fair also in the third-world countries.
THOMPSON: That's what the marchers call climate justice. They want rich countries to help poor countries already dealing with the affects of disappearing natural resources by creating $100 billion fund. But at the negotiating table, rich countries are only talking about a quick-start $10 billion fund....
From the CBS Evening News, Jeff Glor set up MacVicar:
Around the world tonight, protesters are creating heat over climate change. In Copenhagen, where UN talks on global warming are under way, police estimate 40,000 activists marched, mostly peacefully, to demand an agreement that produces real change. Here is Sheila MacVicar.
MacVicar:
From India to Australia, from China to Copenhagen, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets. Their point, to drive home demands for binding global agreement on climate change as negotiators, scientists and activists head into the final week of the climate conference. Today, former presidents, top models and a retired arch bishop lent their voices in support of an agreement, any agreement....
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center