[Marxism] Wash. Post co-sponsors pro-war event

[Anna Fierling <anna_fierling@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081101980_pf.html*
Antiwar Activists Decry Media's Role in Promoting Pentagon Event*

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 12, 2005; C01

Organizers of next month's planned antiwar demonstrations yesterday
criticized media organizations, including The Washington Post, for
co-sponsoring with the Department of Defense an event to remember the
victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and to support the troops in Iraq.

The Defense Department-sponsored Freedom Walk will proceed from the
Pentagon to the Mall near the Reflecting Pool on the morning of Sept.
11. Country music star Clint Black is donating his time to perform a
concert after the walk that will be broadcast to troops overseas. The
Post, WTOP radio, WJLA-TV and NewsChannel 8 are donating public service
announcements in advance of the event. Non-media co-sponsors include
Lockheed Martin, Subway and the Washington Convention and Tourism
Corp.,
according to the Defense Department's Web site for the walk.

"The Pentagon has done some kind of event on 9/11 ever since it
happened
because we came under attack," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant
secretary of defense for communications. "It's to commemorate the
victims of 9/11. It's to honor our veterans past and present."

On Sept. 24, nearly two weeks after the walk, critics of the war will
gather in Washington for three days of demonstrations, including a
concert, a march and other events.

Yesterday, some of those critics said media support for the Pentagon
event undercuts their credibility in covering the controversial war as
well as reporting on antiwar efforts.

"No common person will see this as not taking sides in this war," said
Adam Eidinger, a promoter of the antiwar concert being called Operation
Ceasefire. "This is clearly support for the war because it's being
organized by the U.S. military."

"With The Washington Post and other media outlets supporting this, they
are in effect putting their opinions behind the Bush administration,"
said Caneisha Mills, a national organizer with the antiwar group
International ANSWER and a student at Howard University.

Representatives of the media organizations drew a distinction between
supporting the troops and supporting the war policy. They also said the
sponsorships emanated from the corporate sides of their companies, not
the newsroom.

"Our interest in the event is consistent with our past support of
causes
related to the victims of September 11 and the veterans of wars past
and
present," said Eric Grant, spokesman for The Post. "The event was never
presented to The Post as a rally to support the war. We would be
disappointed if it took that approach."

"They're supporting American troops worldwide, supporting troops, not
the policy, and they're honoring people who died in the Pentagon attack
on 9/11," said Jim Farley, vice president for news and programming with
WTOP. "As I see it, those are both worthwhile. We're not making a
connection between the war and 9/11."

"I don't see a tie between supporting our troops and whether or not you
support the war," said Jerald Fritz, senior vice president with
Allbritton Communications, parent of WJLA and NewsChannel 8. "You don't
lose your patriotism because you become a journalist. . . . You can
still support the troops and be an objective reporter."

Participants in the Freedom Walk will have to register with the
Pentagon
ahead of time via the department's Web site. Barber said that
requirement is only to give planners an idea of the crowd size for
logistics and security. She said the intent of the Freedom Walk is
being
miscontrued by skeptics and maintained that the public understands the
difference between honoring troops in general and endorsing a
particular
war.

"The American people are smart," she said. "They get how important it
is
to support the people who fight the war without having to get into a
statement about the policy of the war."

But the peace activists said the Pentagon event can't help but be
political. "For the Pentagon to be instigating what is essentially a
support-the-troops rally off of September 11 is offensive," Eidinger
said. "Because they're promoting a lie, that the war in Iraq had
anything to do with September 11."

So far, media outlets are not offering to co-sponsor the demonstrations
of Sept. 24, said Mills, with ANSWER.

"Operation Ceasefire is just as much a worthy cause to support the
troops as giving money to the U.S. military to put on a pro-war rally
at
the Lincoln Memorial," said Eidinger.



Anna Fierling
Otto-Suhr-Institut
FU-Berlin

"Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden."
                
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