KC Media Watch / Action Alert #7

Dear KC Media Watch Subscribers:

Today, The Kansas City Star faltered at its mission of "Building our community through knowledge" by underreporting and unfairly contextualizing information about the other audience gathered for President Bush's Thursday (Sept. 4) address in Kansas City at Municipal Auditorium. At least 300 (some have estimated up to 400) people of all ages, backgrounds, and interests stood in the hot sun, some from 10:00 a.m. or earlier until close to 1:00 p.m., to express their disapproval of many Bush policies--including the Presidential lies that led us into a deadly quagmire in Iraq. But you wouldn't know that from reading the Star!

Read on for links to the Star's coverage, or if you've already read the stories, skip to the TAKE ACTION suggestions of how to react.

The Star ran three stories related to the Presidential visit:

1. The front page, leading story ("President promises a better economy") included a large, four-column wide photo of Bush speaking at the event, and recapped the content of his speech--focused primarily on the U.S. economy and how, in his opinion, it's being remedied by tax cuts. The continuation of the story on page A4 was accompanied by an eye-catchingly large (nearly 58.5 square inch) photo of ticket holders lining up for the invitation-only speech.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/6699142.htm

2. A story on page 4A, "KC speech gets mixed reaction," included quotations from four business people supportive of Bush's remarks and three protesters who disagreed with his approach to the economy and to war.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/6700718.htm

3. Also on page 4A was an article, "Man arresting for storming motorcade," about the one person (out of 300-400 peaceful protesters, mind you) arrested. The only photo of the protest (a modest 10 square inches) was run as part of this story.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/6700593.htm

TAKE ACTION!

E-mail, call or write the Star and ask why someone who wasn't downtown on Thursday would have no accurate idea of the level and nature of dissent outside Municipal Auditorium. Questions to pose:

--Why did the speech and its invitees merit over 104 square inches of photos (the giant picture of the line of the ticket holders seems plain silly) while the sizeable demonstration was captured by a 2.5 x 4 inch photo--nearly too small to read any of the messages on protest signs? (Signs present included, "Bush lies, soldiers die," "Deceit is deadly," and "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?")

--Why was this one, small photo of a protest of Bush policies run under the headline, "Man arrested for storming motorcade?"

--Why was the "main news" of the protest the arrest of an individual whose behavior was entirely uncharacteristic of the great majority of demonstrators (one person out of 300-400 peaceful protesters)? Why did the actual content of the protest get a mere nine paragraphs in a page worth of coverage (305 words out of 2,173)?

--To its credit, the Star ran a close-up look at the holes in the U.S. case for war ("Evidence, so far, proves elusive," Aug. 10, A1), but doesn't seem interested in reporting the ongoing deep dissent in our local community to a conflict in which 10 U.S. soldiers are injured daily ("Quietly, U.S. toll grows in Iraq," Sept. 3, A1), the number killed since the end of the war now equals the number killed during it (276)--not to mention as many as 7,800 killed Iraqi civilians (www.iraqbodycount.net)--and the country remains in chaos. Set the story straight!

1. Send a letter up to 150 words to letters@kcstar.com or write Kansas City Star, Letters, 1729 Grand Blvd., KCMO 64108. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Or call (816) 234-4497 to leave a 30-second commentary. Leave your name, address and daytime phone number.

2. Contact the Readers' Representative, Yvette Walker, at readerrep@kcstar.com, (816) 234-4487, or fax (816) 234-4940 (8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. weekdays).

3. Drop an e-mail to kcmediawatch@yahoo.com so we'll know how many responded. Feel free to include the text of your e-mails or letters to the Star if you wish.

Thank you!