{"id":1635,"date":"2010-10-04T14:29:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T18:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/10\/04\/the-posts-different-standards-in-covering-political-rallies\/"},"modified":"2010-10-04T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T18:29:57","slug":"the-posts-different-standards-in-covering-political-rallies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/10\/04\/the-posts-different-standards-in-covering-political-rallies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Post’s Different Standards in Covering Political Rallies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disparity between the coverage The Washington Post <\/em>gave to Saturday\u2019s \u201cOne Nation\u201d rally and the Beck rally in August is unmistakable.  One need only click on the link of stories of each to see the difference.  Click on \u201cFull coverage: Beck, Sharpton rallies<\/a>\u201d and the results are:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Sharpton’s ‘Reclaim the Dream’ event brings thousands to honor MLK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Apocalyptic views hinder constructive political debate<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Glenn Beck ‘Restoring Honor’ rally draws thousands<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Al Sharpton’s ‘Reclaim the Dream’ march<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The battles inside the GOP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Beck, Palin tell thousands to ‘restore America’<\/a> (main story)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 The only thing being restored by Beck is prejudice<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Civil rights’ new ‘owner’: Glenn Beck<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Beck: America is turning ‘back to God’<\/a>(video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Palin: ‘We must restore America’<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Sharpton: ‘The dream has not been achieved’<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 King’s legacy debated before Beck march<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 How to have a rally on the Mall<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Where will Glenn Beck rally money go?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Today’s rallies<\/a> (graphic)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 1 rally, 3 channels and many paths<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Glenn Beck rally in context: Events on the Mall<\/a> (photos)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Sharpton: Beck, Palin distorting MLK’s dream<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Preparations for Glenn Beck rally underway<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Tea party guide to D.C.: Racist or overblown?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Dr. Gridlock: See where the rallies are<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Beck sets religious tone for ‘Restoring Honor’ rally<\/a><\/p>\n

For the \u201cOne Nation\u201d rally:<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Tens of thousands attend progressive ‘One Nation Working Together’ rally in Washington<\/a> (main story)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 One Nation on the National Mall<\/a> (photos)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 On the Mall, a counter to conservatives<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Marching for jobs<\/a> (video)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Q&A, Transcript: One Nation rally: Liberal groups gather Saturday in Washington<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Dr. Gridlock: Rally road closures<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Share your rally photos<\/a> (reader provided)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Share your political signs photos<\/a> (reader provided)<\/p>\n

\u00b7 DC rally shows support for struggling Democrats<\/a> (AP story)<\/p>\n

The lead-up to the rallies offers a similar difference.<\/p>\n

In the week before Beck\u2019s \u201cRestoring Honor\u201d march, The Post <\/em>published:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 Three op-eds and <\/p>\n

\u00b7 a 2,342-word story on how the march would be a \u201cmeasure of tea party strength.\u201d  <\/p>\n

\u00b7 On the day of the march, you published a 2,722-word story on the \u201cmeaning of the march.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u00b7 Plus a 795-word story about TV coverage of the march. <\/p>\n

\u00b7 And a 1,331-word story on how to host a march on the Mall, giving further exposure to Mr. Beck\u2019s march.  <\/p>\n

The longer two stories were reported on page A4. <\/p>\n

In the week before Saturday\u2019s \u201cOne Nation\u201d march, The Post published: <\/p>\n

\u00b7 one op-ed in the print edition, <\/p>\n

\u00b7 one 669-word story Thursday and <\/p>\n

\u00b7 a 500-word story on the day of the march (compared to Beck\u2019s 2,722 word story).  <\/p>\n

Bottom line:  more than 7,000 words for the conservative rally (not counting op-eds) and less than 1,200 for the progressive rally.<\/p>\n

(Meanwhile, on Saturday, The Post <\/em>also had a 1,168-word story about how abused Tea Partiers are by their friends and neighbors.)<\/p>\n

On the day after the Beck rally, Post coverage was much more expansive, including a main story that included contributions from nine Post reporters.  Apparently, three covered the One Nation rally.<\/p>\n

This disparity in coverage is ongoing.  Back in April, The Post <\/em>covered two conservative marches in Washington that totaled no more than 2,100 tea-party and gun rights protesters in Washington.  Coverage was by no less than four Post staffers, while a New York City march of about 7,500 progressive protesters garnered 300 words by one reporter.<\/p>\n

In the Post <\/em>ombudsman\u2019s response to me at the time, he said the two rallies by conservatives received greater attention because they were local.<\/p>\n

I believe the Mall is still in D.C.  and that\u2019s still local.<\/p>\n

No \u201cmeaning\u201d of Saturday\u2019s progressive march story or one on a \u201cmeasure of progressive strength\u201d?<\/p>\n

I can remember the paucity of coverage to a 2002 march on Washington against the Iraq War.  Coverage was relegated to the Metro section of The Post.<\/p>\n

My research tools are limited to The Post\u2019s web site and Lexis-Nexis, so I may have missed some stories.  But there seems without doubt that The Post <\/em>has a habit of allocating fewer resources and less coverage to marches by the left than it does by those on the right.  I would not subscribe the differences to the reporters.  Rather, it is editors who seem to have different standards of coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The disparity between the coverage The Washington Post gave to Saturday\u2019s \u201cOne Nation\u201d rally and the Beck rally in August is unmistakable.  One need only click on the link of stories of each to see the difference.  Click on \u201cFull coverage: Beck, Sharpton rallies\u201d and the results are: \u00b7 Sharpton’s ‘Reclaim the Dream’ event brings… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[164,78],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}