America’s three largest, nationally read general interest newspapers played down a Middle East development that provided the first indication that President Bush’s policy of promoting freedom and democracy in the region is taking root.
The Washington Times reported Tuesday that tens of thousands of protestors peacefully, but vociferously, converged on Beirut Monday, calling for Syria’s complete withdrawal from Lebanon. The marchers denounced the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and most suspect that Syrian forces were behind the attack.
But The Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today – read nationwide and fortified with vastly superior reporting resources – largely missed the protest’s significance, while The Washington Times placed the story on top of Page 1, where it belonged.
“Our demands are simple. A secular, democratic Lebanon with Syria as a neighbor and not in control of our country,” said one demonstrator, according to Washington Times reporter P. Mitchell Prothero, who also works for United Press International.
Prothero also emphasized the diverse beliefs of the protestors, as well as their desire for freedom.
“We are the Muslims, and Druse, together for a free Lebanon,” one member of a Christian militia told Prothero. “Tell America we are waiting for them to invade, all of us.”
However, the Post, New York Times, and USA Today failed to grasp the significance of the demonstration and placed their coverage inside their papers. None of the three adequately captured the tone of the protests for their readers.
USA Today‘s reporter in Damascus made a glancing reference to the protest, acknowledging “the protests by throngs shouting ‘Syria out,'” but placing greater emphasis on the 1989 Taif agreement, which required Syria to withdraw its military forces from Lebanon.
Syria still has 15,000 troops in Lebanon, but also exerts overwhelming control over the government. Anti-government dissent has been almost non-existent, and as Prothero reported, demonstrations are “unheard-of.”
That failed to ring significant to USA Today, which ran their story on Page A-7. The story also failed to make the front page of the New York Times, which determined that stories about the recruitment of homosexuals by the British Navy and the rise of injuries among young athletes as greater in importance.
The New York Times did offer a worthwhile story, inside the paper, about the emptiness of the words from Syrian government officials. And it captured some of the flavor and passion of the Beirut protest, including deep in the article mentions of banners that said “resistance till freedom” and “Syria Out!” But the story should have played up the protest and been placed on the front page.
The Washington Post failed the most miserably. Its story was only four paragraphs; was filed from Amman, Jordan; said almost nothing about the Beirut demonstration; and was placed on Page A-11. Meanwhile, on its front page the Post ran a story about a Wisconsin congressman’s difficulties selling President Bush’s Social Security plan, and another article about the Harvard faculty’s pressures on university president Lawrence Summers over his weeks-ago remarks about female students.
I guess political correctness trumps the hunger for freedom any day.
Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].