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WaPo's Bacon defends coverage of 9/12 rally by pointing to coverage of 2002 anti-war rallies

September 14, 2009 12:49 pm ET by Jamison Foser

Washington Post reporter Perry Bacon, defending the paper's front-page coverage of Saturday's right-wing rally in Washington, DC:

We covered extensively the huge crowds Obama drew at events last year, where I assumed everyone was voting for him and we also covered anti-war protests back in 2002, where I'm guessing there were few Bush voters. The rally was important in that it was the one of the bigger shows of this anti-Obama movement that seems, interestingly, to be in some ways outside of the official Republican Party.

Incredible.

As Eric noted yesterday, The Post put Saturday's roughly 30,000-person rally on the front page.  In 2002, the Post buried a 100,000-person anti-war rally in the Metro section.

The inconsistency in coverage is bad enough.  But it borders on the offensive to see a Post reporter justify the paper's front-page coverage of last weekend's gathering of conservatives by pointing to their coverage of anti-war rallies.

Tags: The Washington Post, Perry Bacon Jr.

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    • Author by Easy to refute wingnuts (September 14, 2009 1:03 pm ET)
      1 1
      We covered extensively the huge crowds Obama drew at events last year
      How many of those were marches? Oh, that's right, none of them.
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    • Author by NiceguyEddie (September 14, 2009 1:19 pm ET)
        1
      this anti-Obama movement [...] seems, [...] to be in some ways outside of the official Republican Party.

      In WHAT WAYS?!

      Why?! Because it was conceived by Glenn Beck instead of Kerl Rove?!

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      • Author by Major Tom (September 14, 2009 1:34 pm ET)
           
        It doesn't seem to matter that Good ol Glenn is a registered republican... Doesn't seem to matter that Fox news promoted this event as if was the last day on earth... Doesn't seem to matter that it was comprised of Bithers, Deathers, Fema Campers, and the rest of the VIOLENT far right wing... Doesn't matter that every "Democrat" the protestors produce is in bed with conservative action PACS... WHAT THE HELL DOES MATTER ABOUT ANY OF THIS THEN?!...
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        • Author by NiceguyEddie (September 14, 2009 1:43 pm ET)
          1 1
          Nothing. FACTS don't matter anymore. The main-stream media is CORPRATE and in bed with CONSERVATIVES and REPUBLICANS. And they will do ANYTHING to prevent their audience from (1) relaizing this and (2) realizing how small a coalition the republicans and conservtaives would truly represent if the truth were ever presented fairly.

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          It's despicable.
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      • Author by wookie (September 14, 2009 1:43 pm ET)
        2  
        Joe Lieberman may have been in there somewhere therefore it's bipartisan...
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    • Author by magnolialover (September 14, 2009 1:29 pm ET)
      2 1
      From above:

      "The rally was important in that it was the one of the bigger shows of this anti-Obama movement that seems, interestingly, to be in some ways outside of the official Republican Party."

      Well, in this little statement, we have some truth, and some lie.

      True, it was one of the bigger anti Obama protests that have happened since he was Inaugurated back in January.

      What's not true is that this happened outside of the official Republican party. Why is this not true? Well, Armey was the man leading the way, and he's pretty big in the Republican party, not to mention the Congressmen and Senators from the Republican party who spoke at this event. It was far from being outside of the official Republican party my friends. It was wholly endorsed by and attended by the Republican party.
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      • Author by political_left-religious_right (September 14, 2009 2:22 pm ET)
          1
        Hey Mags, you were at the rally (and were apparently counted as 30 people, as was everyone else), maybe you can answer this for me:

        Did anyone there bring a loaded gun? (I would guess no, because no one was going to use a gun.) And the follow-up question:

        Then why do some of these people bring loaded guns to town hall meetings?
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    • Author by mk3872 (September 14, 2009 1:30 pm ET)
      2  
      Give the guy a break.

      Mr. Bacon is clearly affraid to simply say, "we are very, very scared of being ravaged by the Right Wing Noise machine".
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    • Author by ReasonAndResolve (September 14, 2009 2:47 pm ET)
      4 1
      Let's not miss the most telling part of the statement: he called it an "anti-Obama movement".

      Isn't this what we have been saying all along - that it has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with irrational fear and hatred of our president?
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      • Author by goesto11 (September 14, 2009 2:56 pm ET)
        1 1
        I latched right onto that, too.

        They hate the man. His policies are almost irrelevant at this point.

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