How the AP reported today's demonstration

["Jose G. Perez" <jg_perez@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[It is always interesting to compare early versions of wire copy with the
latest versions, for they show what the reporter originally expected, and
what impact what actually took place had on the report. This is one of those
cases where the difference is striking.]

[This is the 7th Ld-writetru of this story, moved at 5:17 PM Eastern.]

*  *  *

Marchers in Washington, elsewhere protest plans for war against
Iraq

By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters
circled the White House on Saturday after Jesse Jackson and other
speakers denounced the Bush administration's Iraq policies and
demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace.
   The protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations from Augusta,
Maine, to San Francisco and abroad from Rome and Berlin to Tokyo to
San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City. In Washington and many of
the other demonstrations, protesters added complaints about U.S.
policy toward the Palestinians.
   "We must not be diverted. In two years we've lost 2 million
jobs, unemployment is up, stock market down, poverty up," Jackson
told a spirited crowd in Washington. "It's time for a change. It's
time to vote on Nov. 5 for hope. We need a regime change in this
country."
   Congress has authorized the use of military force to achieve the
administration policy of "regime change" in Iraq.
   "If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral
authority," Jackson told the chanting, cheering throng spread out
on green lawns near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
   A sign showed Bush's face at the end of two bright red bombs
with the caption: "Drop Bush, not bombs."
   The protest brought out the elderly, young parents with babies
in strollers, even a man dressed as Uncle Sam wearing dreadlocks
and another Uncle Sam, on stilts, with an elongated Pinocchio nose.
   Protest organizers claimed up to 200,000 people had answered the
call to challenge President Bush's determination to force out Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein. Because the U.S. Park Police no longer
issues crowd estimates, the size of the crowd could not be
verified. As the march began, participants stretched for at least
five city blocks.
   On a nearby street corner, a handful of Iraqi-Americans staged a
counterdemonstration. Aziz al-Taee, spokesman for the
Iraqi-American Council, said, "I think America is doing just fine.
... We think every day Saddam stays in power, he kills more
Iraqis."
   New Englanders ventured out in snow, sleet and rain to join
demonstrations in Maine and Vermont. Across the nation a couple
thousand showed up at the Colorado capitol in downtown Denver, and
demonstrators marched at San Francisco.
   The thousands who gathered in cities across Europe, Asia and
beyond also displayed vocal opposition to the U.S. policy toward
Iraq and demanded reversal of Bush's Iraq policies.
   In San Francisco, demonstrators stretched about a mile as they
marched from the financial district to City Hall, carrying placards
that read, "Money for jobs, not for war" and "No blood for
oil."
   Young punk rockers with mohawks, aging hippies and middle-aged
couples with children all took part, chanting, "One, two, three,
four, we don't want your racist war."
   In Berlin, an estimated 8,000 people, brandishing placards that
declared "War on the imperialist war," converged on the downtown
Alexanderplatz and marched past the German Foreign Ministry.
Another 1,500 showed up in Frankfurt, 500 in Hamburg.
   Another 1,500 rain-soaked demonstrators gathered under umbrellas
outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark. More than 1,000
marched in Stockholm, Sweden.
   In Washington, civil rights activist Al Sharpton addressed Bush,
even though the president was at an economic summit in Mexico.
   "It would have been good for you to be here, George, so you
could see what America really looks like," Sharpton said. "We are
the real America.
   "We are the patriots that believe that America should heal the
world and not bring the world to nuclear war over the interests of
those business tycoons who put you in the White House."
   ------
   Associated Press writers Elizabeth Wolfe in Washington and
Angela Watercutter in San Francisco contributed to this report.

   On the Net: International Answer:
http://www.internationalanswer.org

* * *

[Now, for snippets of earlier "writethrus"].

[From the 3rd, moved at 10:36 am]

By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON
Associated Press Writer
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Demonstrators by the hundreds gathered near
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Saturday as organizers pledged a
loud, angry but nonviolent protest march against President Bush's
pre-emptive war policies...
   Saturday's march around the White House coincides with anti-war
demonstrations in San Francisco, Rome, Berlin, Copenhagen, Tokyo
and Mexico City. Organizers say they expected the combined
participation of hundreds of thousands of people.
   Turnout was below expectations for the first overseas
demonstration, a march through downtown Tokyo in which about 300
protesters sang anti-war songs and held up banners. One said:
"Stop the war before it starts."

[The 4th, which crossed the wire at 10:50, kept that material and added,
among other stuff:]

   Thousands of people protested in northern Europe, but the
turnouts were far below organizers' predictions.
   In Germany, a crowd estimated by police at 4,500 people carried
placards that declared "War on the imperialist war," "Stop
Bush's campaign" and "No blood for oil," along with a few Iraqi
flags, at Berlin's downtown Alexanderplatz ahead of a planned march
past the U.S. and British embassies....

[By the time the 5th Ld was sent out at 1:39 PM Eastern AP was changing its
tune:]

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several thousand demonstrators rallied near
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Saturday ....
   The protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations in San
Francisco; Rome; Berlin; Copenhagen, Denmark; Tokyo; San Juan,
Puerto Rico; and Mexico City....
   Police did not estimate the crowd, which appeared to number
several thousand people....
   In Germany, a crowd estimated by police at 8,000 people carried
placards that declared "War on the imperialist war" along with a
few Iraqi and Palestinian flags....

[Notice the German cop's crowd calculation nearly doubles without
explanation, but that is nothing compared to what is going on in Washington
where "hundreds" have become "several thousand", a change of an order of
magnitude.]

[And by the time the 6th Ld crossed just after 4 PM, the earlier snickering
about turnouts "below expectations" and "far below organizers predictions"
had to give way before reality: a massive, international protest against
Bush's war drive]:

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters
circled the White House on Saturday ....

   The protest coincided with anti-war demonstrations from Augusta,
Maine, to San Francisco and abroad from Rome and Berlin to Tokyo to
San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City....

       Protest organizers claimed up to 200,000 people had answered the
call to challenge President Bush's determination to force out Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein. Because the U.S. Park Police no longer
issues crowd estimates, the size of the crowd could not be
verified. As the march began, participants stretched for at least
five city blocks.

   On a nearby street corner, a handful of Iraqi-Americans staged a
counterdemonstration....







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