It is sad to me that I felt that something like this was actually newsworthy enough to write a diary about, even if a short one.
Last night, when I was watching the evening news with Brian Williams, which is the one TV news show I still watch fairly regularly, they ran a report by Stephanie Gosk on the protests happening in London at the G-20, which has led to the death of a protester there. In spite of my general affection for Brian Williams' program, given the way news has gone over the past few years, I had little expectation that it would be anything but critical of the protesters, who are usually described in the TM as:
- fewer in number than there actually are, to downplay the power of numbers
- having a clear organizer or leader, to downplay the idea that there could be so much shared sentiment
- being "dirty f**king hippies", so that we can more easily dismiss them and their concerns
- being destructive, so that we feel sympathetic with the police who must use force to stop them
- ranting inarticulately so that it is hard to really understand what they are complaining about
So, as the segment began, I expected these same old patterns to appear.
But then it didn't. First, Gosk expressed surprise at the number of people who had taken to the streets, and though she said that the sheer number and orderliness of the protest suggested it was "well organized", she never tried to name (or create) one specific individual as "leader". As a result, the "organization" is associated with everyone and becomes both more complementary and powerful.
When Gosk then described how the protests turned more violent later in the day, after starting out "good natured and carnival-like," she actually seemed to place at least part (if not all) of the blame with the police. She said: "But the police quickly surrounded the demo into a holding pen, and then the pushing and shoving began." She never provided any reason for the penning of the protesters, but simply that they had been "good natured" up until then.
The report then cuts to Gosk herself, standing in the midst of the crowd--almost looking like a member of the protest herself--describing what the police were doing and saying "They've been charging, they've been beating people on the head" in their efforts. The clear suggestion here seems that the aggressors--and thus those to blame for the violence--are the police.
In the final part of the report, Gosk talks about the Royal Bank of Scotland, which had received a large bailout of its own and was thus a particular focus of anger. She notes with surprise that it was the one bank not boarded up before the protests, to some extent contextualizing (though not condoning, of course) doubly why it was the one building ransacked. But she does not leave the report there, with images of looting protesters, but turns to one demonstrator (again, not in any way identified as a "leader" but as simply one of many voices) to comment. And here is the best part: after she set him up as one of many, and saying that "he didn't like the vandalism, but understood the frustration," he then presents his views (presumably shared by many there) in a very intelligent, articulate, and non-threatening way, thus making it harder for the viewer to dismiss his points. He talks about the damage that RBS has done to working-class people, and wonders why there is no government help for those victims.
Watch the clip for yourself and see what you think. But I have rarely seen such a fair report of protests on major news channels. In contrast, friend of mine tells me that the BBC (which I usually like) has failed to report on the death of one of the protesters entirely. Perhaps it's simply the result of the fact that the protests are not happening in the US, but in any event, Stephanie Gosk and Brian Williams deserve our praise, so that hopefully we will see more such measured reporting.
UPDATE: Link to video (h/t happycamper)