Three weeks ago, the media were flooding Egypt with reporters and film crews. Their corporate jets were streaming into Cairo airport to cover the protests in Tahrir Square. This was certainly appropriate as the struggles of people to assert their Human Rights is always newsworthy. Large protests also offer networks lots of dramatic images, and images are what fuels so much of the media's interest in a particular story.
This struggle is about more than just workers' rights in Wisconsin. How this turns out will affect the rights and livelihoods of people all across this nation. It is a pivotal moment, like the PATCO strike under Reagan, which will have resounding effects on the Labor Movement and workers' rights in general.
Today and yesterday saw tens of thousands of our fellow citizens take to the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, to stand up for their Human Rights, and the rights of their fellow citizens.
These protests have gotten some coverage, but nothing like the round-the-clock exposure given to the Cairo protesters. We see short clips on MSNBC and CNN, but much of it is the same footage repeated again and again. It doesn't at all capture the drama that I've read about in descriptions of the protests that I've read here and elsewhere in posts from people actually on the ground in Madison.
Someone described the intense cheering that accompanied the arrival of hundreds of uniformed firefighters (whose union is exempt from this bill, along with the police) who marched into the street outside the Statehouse, in support of their union brothers and sisters. Another depicted the electricity when uniformed policemen started raising their fists and shouting for the bill to be killed.
Why is none of this on our TV screens. Why so little coverage of the hundreds, perhaps thousands inside the Capitol, many of whom have occupied the building for the last three days and nights, sleeping on the floor at night?
Why the double standard? Are the rights of Egyptians more worthy than those of Americans? Is this corporate censorship? I don't usually make those kind of charges, but i am utterly at a loss as to explain how I am seeing more cell phone video from Bahrain, than I am from Madison.
I should mention that Rachel Maddow gave the story some attention last night. And Ed Schultz has done a great job these past few days, in terms of giving the story some really serious exposure.
But where the fuck are everybody else. Why aren't there more lead reporters on the ground? Madison is not that hard to get to - especially if you have a Gulfstream.