Thursday 11 December 2003

Ignore or Spin, that is the Question

Some readers may be aware that there was a large Demonstration against Terrorism in Iraq recently. But only if they've been getting the data from Primary Sources. People who actually took part, and took photos.
From FrontPage Magazine :
Almost 20,000 men and women - twice the number reported by al-Jazeera - marched across central Baghdad, while others repeated the move in different cities of Mesopotamia yesterday. The demonstrators, from all walks of life and from all religions and ethnicities of Iraq, shouted one slogan in Arabic: "La' la' lil irhab. Na'am, na'am lil dimucratiya." That is: "No, no to terrorism. Yes, yes to Democracy!"
The only papers to cover it took it from the KnightRidder Washington Bureau.
Five thousand to 10,000 Iraqis tried to send terrorists a cease-and-desist message Wednesday from downtown Baghdad in the biggest demonstration against violence to date
Even then, what they're saying isn't exactly what eyewitness bloggers who took part are reporting:
In Baghdad, the protesters snarled traffic by filling Fateh Square near the National Theater and Fardos Square in front of the Palestine Hotel. Chanting "No, no terrorism" and "Yes, yes Islam," they carried photographs of religious leaders and unfurled banners that read "The Iraqis Should Not Forget Palestine."
[...]
...not everyone was feeling peaceful. "What did Saddam do for us? He slaughtered us all. What did the Americans do for us? They slaughtered us all," said an angry woman in a head-to-toe black abaya.
The rest of mainstream Media is just pretending that it didn't happen.

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