``..It was not until after Kent State, five years later, that I saw anything like the assembly of protestors I witnessed yesterday (SF anti-war rally)...
...But it's not important to the media. Why?'' Barlow
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My theory is the major national media are censoring themselves because: 1) their afraid of a rightwing hate mail campaign, 2) afraid their major advertisers will get a similar hate mail campaign, 3) afraid of vague reprisals from the WH, 4) their top editors and publishers are part of the same rightwing, 5) they believe their own polls that show most of the US public supports Bush and a war, 6) they are profoundly stupid and utterly chicken-shit, 7) there are few if any independents left, so they all follow each other--a herd mentality.
There are regional reasons too. This weekend the SF Giants were playing against Anaheim in the World Series---where hate for southern California trumps just about anything but hate for Texas and Bush (same thing).
I didn't go since I was at work, but the above report sounds like what I heard. And it was reported on local tv stations as the biggest anti-war rally since the Vietnam era. But I've notice that local tv news often leads with slightly more liberal takes on stories than their national networks do. Most of the regional political figures are more liberal than the rest of the state, there is more union awareness in general here, and so forth and so on.
If and when the Bush administration comes to this area they hide in military bases and never make public appearances. Nobody wants to see them or hear from them anyway. Getting a political endorsement from Bush is the kiss of death around here. Fuck'm.
Chuck Grimes