SFChron Op-ed Lays Into Media for Undercounting Protest Crowds [View All]

WHILE TENS of thousands of spirited anti-war marchers were still entering the San Francisco Civic Center on Sunday, March 18, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition organizers got word that a Chronicle reporter covering the event had already determined that only 3,000 people were present. The San Francisco march was part of a worldwide day of protest against on the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Mainstream media undercounting of progressive demonstrations is nothing new, but this one had a magician's touch. With just a few keystrokes, a reporter made 90 percent of Sunday's crowd disappear, hundreds of whom have since expressed their outrage......

We don't know why The Chronicle published such a shocking undercount, but we do know that the first line of the Monday Chronicle's report stated that just 3,000 people marched in San Francisco on Sunday -- fewer, oddly enough, than took to the streets in many U.S. cities. It wasn't just people in the Bay Area who were misinformed by The Chronicle's article; the Associated Press spread The Chronicle's ludicrous number across the country.

....When tens of thousands of people come together to engage in collective free-speech actions, they have the right to expect that their message and very presence will be reported on in a fair and objective manner.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/03/26/EDGC7N72TT1.DTL