One of the things that has been very apparent lately, especially when it comes to issues regarding people of color, is press coverage. When the APPO was protesting in Oaxaca, very few mainstream papers covered it aside from the few days of violence in November. Few papers have covered the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines or the protests that helped to get Shaquanda Cotton out of TYC.
The reason for this is pretty simple: The big papers only cover things that they know will draw interest. Stuff like the Abu Ghraib scandal? That’s easy; the anti-war movement is pretty entrenched in U.S. society, and Iraq is big news. Stuff like the protests against ICE raids across the country? Since the established media and political pundits are mostly anti-immigration, pro-immigrant action goes ignored.
Political action that is mainly unknown or doesn’t toe the established party line goes mainly unreported unless there’s a proven demand. Smaller papers that could establish that demand are mainly limited to covering local issues with their own staff and whatever runs on the AP wire for everything else.
The thing is, though, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are plenty of ways to get important issues into the mainstream press; they just need proof that there will be reader interest.
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