U.S. media ran
sensationalistic reports, but
showed little curiosity over about basic
questions such as why Italian forces were
armed with live ammunition.
This trend was particularly noticeable on the three major television
networks' nightly newscasts
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The tens of thousands of people who gathered last weekend to protest the G8
summit in Genoa were greeted by a "ring of steel" manned by police, military
and paramilitary forces; one protester, Carlo Giuliani, was shot in the
head, run over and killed by police. U.S. media ran sensationalistic reports
on the drama "in the streets of this gritty port city" (ABC World News
Tonight, 7/20/01), but by and large showed little curiosity over about basic
questions such as why Italian forces were armed with live ammunition.
This trend was particularly noticeable on the three major television
networks' nightly newscasts, which all managed to focus on the violence
without seriously investigating its causes; when questions of tactics arose,
it was usually in the context of whether protesters were too violent, not
police. In addition, only superficial attention was paid to the substantive
policy issues behind the summit and the demonstrations.
"Genoa is ready for war," reported NBC Nightly News' Jim Maceda in the
run-up to the protests (7/19/01). "Today over 20,000 Italian police on high
alert, the port's shipping lanes closed, surface-to-air missiles deployed at
the airport. The site of tomorrow's economic summit now a two-square-mile
red no-go zone, shops closed, every resident's ID checked." Why such heavy
militarization? Maceda gave the clear impression that Genoa's intense
security measures were a necessary response to dangerous radicals.
"Organized, sophisticated, tens of thousands strong. Their mission: to do
battle with the world economic powers.... With this chaos of
environmentalists, young communists and extreme anarchists, officials here
expect this volatile mix could lead to perhaps deadly violence."
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NBC sidestepped questions of police misconduct in Giuliani's
death by focusing on Giuliani's links to the Black Bloc, whose members
NBC tarred as "apolitical, often drugged, itching for a fight."
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As in fact it did, though it was neither a wild-eyed tree-hugger nor a
communist youth who pulled the trigger. All three networks reported
Giuliani's killing, but none raised questions about the use of live
ammunition for crowd control. NBC Nightly News (7/21/01), while careful to
emphasize that "the large majority" of activists in Genoa were "all
non-violent," sidestepped questions of police misconduct in Giuliani's
death by focusing on Giuliani's links to the Black Bloc, whose members
NBC tarred as "apolitical, often drugged, itching for a fight."
The NBC report made clear that many police actions had been "extremely
violent," but also stated that Italian police were "learning" and had become
"more careful" to target only "black-clad extremists" by helicopter, "then
cutting them off before beating them." The report provided no further
analysis of this practice, leaving viewers to wonder if police beatings
were perhaps the right way to deal with "extremists."
ABC World News Tonight (7/21/01) also made an effort to explain that most
protester violence was initiated by "small bands," and that "the vast
majority of protesters... came here to make argument, not trouble." But
like the other two networks, ABC failed to seriously address the question of
police brutality.
CBS Evening News was perhaps the most careless with generalizations about
"violent protests": "Violent demonstrators laid waste to the city's center"
in a "frenzy of destruction," reported CBS's John Roberts (7/21/01); the
day before (7/20/01), Roberts told viewers that "violent protests transformed
parts of this tranquil Mediterranean port city into a war zone today" in an
episode of "civil unrest and trouble-making."
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The July 22 police raid on the headquarters of the Genoa Social Forum and the
Independent Media Center (IMC) received largely indifferent coverage.
ABC World News Tonight did not report the raid at all. CBS Evening News
(7/22/01) mentioned it in passing
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The July 22 police raid on the headquarters of the Genoa Social Forum-- the
umbrella group coordinating the protests-- and the neighboring Independent
Media Center (IMC) received largely indifferent coverage. Reports indicate
that some 200 police officers descended on the Forum, brutally beating the
activists sleeping there in an attack that injured 61 people, with more than
a dozen of the 93 people arrested carried out of the building on stretchers,
some unconscious (London Guardian, 7/24/01).
During the attack, journalists at the IMC were detained and searched (and
therefore unable to document the beatings occurring next door); several
reported that police trashed the IMC offices and confiscated files. A source
at the Italian Interior Ministry told the London Guardian (7/24/01) that
"the raid had turned into a revenge attack by police venting their
frustration"; there have been calls in the Italian parliament for a
commission of inquiry into the policing, and for the resignation of the
interior minister.
ABC World News Tonight did not report the raid at all. CBS Evening News
(7/22/01) mentioned it in passing, with John Roberts noting almost
approvingly that "the tactics were heavy-handed, but the streets were quiet
today." Commendably, NBC Nightly News (7/22/01) devoted more significant
attention to the attack, with Jim Maceda reporting that 66 activists had
been "beaten mercilessly," and noting that while police claimed the
crackdown had been on "violent extremists," protest leaders countered that
all the victims had been non-violent and "the latest victims of police
brutality."
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And what about the issues that brought so many protesters into the streets?
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And what about the issues that brought so many protesters into the streets?
CBS Evening News (7/21/01) lamented that "rock-tossing, firebomb-throwing
anarchism" was all many people would remember about Genoa, but seemed
utterly unconscious that news coverage might have had anything to do with
this problem. The report segued into uninformative soundbites about debt
relief from Bono and Bob Geldof, which prompted reporter Bill Plante to
opine: "Sometimes it takes a rock star to keep your issue from being drowned
out by violence. Other non-violent groups find themselves ignored." CBS, of
course, was one of the media outlets doing the ignoring.
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ACTION:
Please contact the networks' nightly news shows and urge them to conduct
serious investigations into the growing trend of police violence at
anti-globalization protests. You might also urge them not to wait for
massive civil unrest to report on globalization issues.
CONTACT:
NBC Nightly News
Phone: 212-664-4971 or 202-885-4259
Fax: 202-362-2009
mailto:Nightly@nbc.com
ABC's World News Tonight
47 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
Fax: 212-456-4297
mailto:PeterJennings@abcnews.com
CBS Evening News
Phone: 212-975-3691, 202-457-4385
Fax: 212-975-1893
mailto:audsvcs@cbs.com
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if
you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your
correspondence.
For alternative coverage of the G8 summit and protests, see:
The Independent Media Center, http://www.indymedia.org
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