FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: NYC Newspapers Smear Activists Ahead of WEF Protests

January 28, 2002 Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
 http://www.fair.org/press-releases/pre-wef.html

In a few days, the World Economic Forum will hold its annual meeting, an elite gathering of what the WEF calls the world’s “top decision-makers”-- in other words, big business leaders and government officials. The event usually takes place in Davos, Switzerland, but will be in New York City this year (January 31- February 4), ostensibly as a gesture of solidarity after the September 11 attacks.

Many globalization critics identify the WEF as a nerve center for neoliberal economics, and past WEF meetings have been the focus of significant protest. This year’s meeting promises to be no exception, and local media are serving up some of the same distortions that have greeted past globalization protests.

Mainstream New York City newspapers have tended to frame discussion of the demonstrations in terms of their status as a security problem. A search of the Lexis-Nexis database (12/1/01 - 1/28/02) found that most articles in the New York Daily News, New York Post, New York Times and Newsday mentioning the WEF have focused on police preparations for the protests. As a result, the political debate over the WEF has been obscured, as have concerns about police brutality and civil liberties.

Though the New York Times and Newsday didn’t manage to overcome this skew toward security questions, it should be noted that both papers provided more substantive coverage that did the Post and the News. Commendably, Newsday steered clear of the vitriol that has characterized some of its competitors. One recent Newsday article, “Activists: We Come in Peace” (1/25/02), focused on the protest organizers’ endorsement of non-violence and concerns about potential police brutality; another (1/27/02) attempted a serious overview of recent political controversies over globalization.

Contrast this approach to one particularly vicious editorial from the New York Daily News (1/13/02), which referred to anti-WEF activists as “legions of agitators,” “crazies,” “parasites” and “kooks.” The paper threatened activists, saying “You have a right to free speech, but try to disrupt this town, and you'll get your anti-globalization butts kicked. Capish?”

The Daily News compared critics of the WEF to the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. “New York will not be terrorized,” declared the paper. “We already know what that's like. Chant your slogans. Carry your banners. Wear your gas masks. Just don't test our patience. Because we no longer have any.”

It’s hard to read such rhetoric as anything other than an attempt to manipulate New Yorkers’ legitimate anger and grief over September 11 in order to whip up a backlash against dissent. Unfortunately, the Daily News wasn’t the only New York paper to attack activists in these terms. Much WEF coverage has been dominated not by serious reporting, but by unsubstantiated commentaries that portray activists as violent thugs.

New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman (1/19/02) described globalization activists as people “less known for their deep thinking than for their willingness to trash cities,” saying “some would say that New York needs this [protest] about as much as it needs another airplane attack.”

In an account of an extremely friendly interview “over a light beer at Lanagan’s” with former New York City deputy police chief John Timoney, the New York Post’s Steve Dunleavy (1/18/02) asserted that planned protests are “a potentially scary scene, promised by little nasty twits.” The column was titled “Econ Summit Brings Own Terror Threat.”

“There are some very serious bad guys out there,” Timoney told the Post, “and I am not talking about Osama bin Laden. We are talking about pretty sophisticated bad guys.” Though Timoney seemed to be making the outlandish suggestion that globalization activists are as dangerous as international terrorists, Dunleavy relayed the claim uncritically, following up with a tough-guy endorsement of Timoney’s prowess: “Timoney, like most cops, has been beaten and shot at by punks all his life.”

The ease with which commentators equate activists with terrorists has its roots in the mainstream media’s rewriting of the history of U.S. globalization protests. Recent articles about the WEF have referred to previous, overwhelmingly peaceful globalization protests in Seattle, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Philadelphia as “window-smashing, flame-tossing spectacles” (Daily News, 1/24/02), “violent mayhem” (New York Post, 1/20/02), “radical protesters rampag[ing] through the streets… clashing with police” (Daily News, 1/18/02), “wild protest melees” (New York Times, 1/25/02), and, simply, “violent” (Newsday, 1/18/02).

It’s true that violence has been a problem at globalization protests, but the majority of it has been initiated by police, not protesters. The November 1999 WTO protests in Seattle were characterized by unprovoked tear-gassing, beating and unlawful arrests of peaceful demonstrators (and even of bystanders), and a National Lawyers Guild investigation characterized the Seattle violence as a “police riot.” The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed alarm over police abuses at globalization protests, and in more than one case filed suit against law enforcement authorities over the issue. Yet time and again, media have distorted events to suggest that police force was a necessary response to “violent” activists. (See Extra!, 1-2/00 and 7-8/00.)

When coverage is dominated by news and commentary that presents lawful political assembly as a terrorist threat-- a threat that the police “know what they have to do” to deal with (New York Post, 1/18/02)-- it has a chilling effect on dissent, raises tensions between police and the public, and risks creating a climate where law enforcement agencies feel able to exercise force against demonstrators with impunity.

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From CorpWatch:

World Economic Forum Protests Pose New Challenges for Anti-Globalization Movements
By Kenny Bruno
CorpWatch
January 29, 2002
 http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1468
NEW YORK -- Three international meetings, being held in New York and Brazil in the coming days, mark the first major test of the anti-corporate globalization movement since September 11th. The protestors are keenly aware that the New York public is in no mood for mischief or confrontations with City police, who remain heroes of the highest order in the city and nationally. All the groups signed-on to the protests have taken pledges of non-violence. Yet all are aware also that a few window smashers or agents provocateurs can ruin the peacefulness of the entire demonstration. For these reasons, the atmosphere on the streets is expected to be very tense. The media are likely to focus on whether there are broken windows or tear gas, how many blocks are "frozen" by the police, and whether the protestors are unpatriotic or anti-American.



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CORPORATE MEDIA ARTICLES:

Go on, punks, make our day... New York awaits anti-globalisers
Independent 31 January 2002
By David Usborne in New York
 http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=117181
The real opposition to globalisation will not be on Manhattan's streets
The message from New York to anyone who wants to disrupt the World Economic Forum that opens here tomorrow, perhaps by smashing a few windows at Starbucks in the name of social justice, is emphatic: just try it. Just in case blood does run hot, the New York Police has served notice that it will practice zero tolerance of civic disobedience.

Associated World Social Forum article:
 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=117183



PEACEFUL OVERTURES
By ADAM MILLER
 http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/40208.htm
January 30, 2002 -- Protesters set to converge on the World Economic Forum insisted yesterday their rallies will be peaceful, even while the NYPD, citing violence and vandalism that has plagued similar meetings, continued preparing for the worst.
And the protesters also claimed any violent disruptions at the sessions starting tomorrow will be the result of provocation by police, whom they accused of treating them like "terrorists."
"For weeks, the police have been training in riot tactics," Direct Action Network's Brooke Lehman said, referring to the baton-wielding cops who've been participating in a mobilization exercise dubbed "Operation Decorum at the Forum."
"We've been training in samba, puppetry and street theater."
The NYPD has vowed to enforce an 1845 law that bars three or more protesters from wearing masks during marches.



ABCNews
Words of Peace
Protesters Say Message, Not Violence, Is Goal of Anti-WEF Plans
 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/wef020130.html
Jan. 30 — Groups planning protests against the World Economic Forum that kicks off Thursday in New York say they will wear a different face from the ones seen in violent confrontations in the past, and police say that's fine, as long as the face they wear is their own.
At issue could be a 19th century New York City law barring demonstrators from wearing masks. Many of the anarchist and anti-globalization groups say their protests will come in the form of "street theater" involving costumes and performances to dramatize what they say are the negative effects multinational corporations have on the world's poorest nations and the environment. "We're going to enforce the law," New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly said.



Davos woos WEF back, at least for 2003
AFP
January 30 2002 at 07:11AM
 http://www.busrep.co.za/html/busrep/br_frame_decider.php?click_id=345&art_id=ct2002012918251813I531781&set_id=60
Geneva - In a historic move, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has opted to decamp from Davos, the elegant Swiss alpine resort that has hosted the annual meeting for 31 years, to New York City for this year's gathering. The venue transfer also reflects growing friction between the organisers of the WEF and Swiss authorities after increasingly violent demonstrations against the event in recent years. Forum organiser and founder Klaus Schwab, who made no secret of his attachment to the resort, came round to the idea and announced last week that the forum would return to Davos in 2003.



WEF annual meeting begins tomorrow
By Masood Haider
 http://www.dawn.com/2002/01/30/ebr11.htm
NEW YORK, Jan 29: Over 3,000 world leaders from business, governments, academia, religion, the media and civil society would meet in New York. The world leaders will have a first opportunity to develop an integrated response to the new circumstances which have evolved following Sept. 11
The annual meeting 2002 is focused around six major challenges that the global community is facing:
1. Restoring Sustained Growth
2. Achieving Security, Addressing Vulnerabilities
3. Redefining Business Challenges
4. Reducing Poverty and Achieving Equity
5. Sharing Values and Respecting Differences
6. Re-evaluating Leadership and Governance



Mon 28 Jan 2002
Activists plan mass WEF protests in New York
 http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/story_25351.asp
AFP - Anti-globalisation activists plan to rally tens of thousands of protesters in Manhattan to disrupt a five-day meeting of global business and political powers at the World Economic Forum. "The main theme for the protest is 'People before profits and rebuild New York for people, not for business."Protests are expected to range from peaceful to radical, depending on the group.


More than just cocktail parties for this year's WEF
Sunday January 27, 12:13 PM EST
By Arindam Nag
NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters)
 http://money.iwon.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_ge.jsp?section=news&news_id=reu-n25163537&feed=reu&date=20020127&cat=USMARKET
This WEF will perhaps be one of the most closely watched in its history.
The five-day conference is being held at a time when global stock markets have been far from buoyant. The colossal corporate power of America is looking a little less confident these days with the likes of former industry standards Bethlehem Steel (BS), Enron, and retailer Kmart Corp. (KM) all operating under bankruptcy protection.
In recent months, the stench of corporate scandal has increased and threatens to undermine investor confidence in U.S. regulations.