Nervous. Nervous. It has been a nervous week in St. Paul. The 4500 delegates have gone home, along with the national media. The barriers are being removed. More than 800 people have been arrested overall, including some 17 journalists and innocent bystanders.
“You’re always going to have demonstrators,” said Maria Cino, who has been to every Republican National Convention since the early 1980s. “Most of the delegates inside the convention didn’t even know what was going on outside.”
Most of the national television media did not either.
The lack of coverage of the four hour clash during the last night on the streets of St. Paul, not broadcast to the nation, was a story? Were there not enough protesters to justify a real story? Is it about the numbers?
Were their televised stories true or not? Comparing 1968 to 2008 and the coverage then, were there not enough numbers? Were there not enough protestors? Were there not enough broadcasters? In Iraq, were there not enough troops? Had not enough Americans died? Had the cost of the war not made this an issue? Was it just about ratings? Were these television people true journalists. Was it about commercial time and sponsors?
What had changed in the the creeds of the news division of the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company? What had changed in 40 years? These were national television stations, under the authority of the FCC. And if they did not care, why should the American public? Why should anyone tune in?
Was the creed of CBS News, ABC News, NBC News about revealing the truth and transparency? Where was the Public Broadcasting System? Where was C-span?
Conventions could be seen as a national retreat, to reflect on identities. Instead the platforms of the two parties are not focused on. Who care about creeds, if there are any creeds left?
There was a tension between the known and the unknown. I for one was nervous when the reporting was muted. Of blackouts. Or when there was no reporting.
On Thursday evening at sunset, a volley of 24 shots was heard in the vicinity of the capital building as authorities battle demonstrators, with at least 2 helicopters in the distance, with 2 more audible overhead. All this, audible by me.
The last 4 shots appeared to have been closer to the Cathedral of St. Paul, which had concluded by 20:18. There was no live coverage of the goings on. Bushville, where at least 100 of these demonstrators are staying in tents, was about 7 blocks from where all this was happening. None of this was picked up by the traditional television media as a national story.
Is there a sense now about political conventions, in Washington, in New York, of just going through the motions? That this was just an exhibition game? That conventions were just a commercial? How did a news division of CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, go about presenting stories? Were George Stephanopoulos, Jeff Greenfield put into roles as cheerleaders rather than reporters or analysts? With the paid narrative inside, are they instructed to ignore protestors like they were fans who had tried to enter the playing field? The Republican National Convention was just a halftime show of a football broadcast in prime time? Was this just a mid-summer’s night dream called an all-star game of political leaders, with little or no meaning? As cheerleaders created all-stars who would renew the licenses to broadcast for another four years?
I think the websites of the protesters this week raised a valid question about what the “S” stood for in CBS. Was it the “system?” There was a story here. It was missed. Where was journalistic integrity this week in St. Paul? Why were there young anarchists who had lived through the most affluent times in all of history?
Behold the tension between the known and the unknown. Behold a detection of totality if not Totalitarianism. And the reporting was so muted.
The convention was over. I now am gonna read both Bob Woodward’s new book as well as Naomi Wolf’s book, The End of America, which takes a historical look at the rise of fascism and, according to Wikipedia, outlines the 10 steps necessary for a state to take control of individuals’ lives:
- Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
- Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
- Develop a paramilitary force not answerable to citizens.
- Set up an internal surveillance system.
- Harass citizen groups.
- Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
- Target key individuals.
- Control the press.
- Treat all political dissent as traitorous.
- Suspend the rule of law.
Bob Woodward’s new book indicates that President Bush conceded: “This war has created a lot of really harsh emotion, out of which comes a lot of harsh rhetoric. One of my failures has been to change the tone in Washington.”
The quote that best summarized who these people were that came to town is: “Most of the delegates inside the convention didn’t even know what was going on outside.” I going to also be checking the tone on my telephone.