By Dimitri Devyatkin
January 21, 2001 — After watching a day of solemn proceedings marking the handing over of power from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush, instead of feeling confidence and reassurance, I feel a wave of dismay, discomfort and distaste, with a sense of coming disaster.
W. was able to move through the ceremony without misstep, delivering a cold, not particularly compassionate conservative speech and shaking all the right hands. After watching him so long on screen, I get a sense of his arrogance and feeling of entitlement to privilege. He seemed nervous to me, in a sort of unspoken hurry to get it all over with so he could get back to his comfortable slippers and bathrobe, warm milk and cookies.
Last Saturday I watched the peaceful transition on TV. There were about 350,000 spectators. About 30,000 — almost 10 percent — were demonstrators, having traveled to the nation's capital from all over America. There was almost no violence, despite police preparations for potential disturbances, and the heaviest security ever at an inauguration, with 10 checkpoints through which everyone had to pass to get to the parade route, a first in inauguration history. "The police can spin it however they want," said Adam Eidinger, an organizer with the D.C.–based Justice Action Movement, "but the reason why this demonstration was by and large peaceful was because we were peaceful, not because the police kept us from doing anything."
Demonstrators stood at nearly every block of the parade route except the very end, where the president and his wife got out of the car to walk. Some of the protesters were obvious by their colorful dress and placards. Others were stealth demonstrators, dressed inconspicuously, who whipped out placards and banners a moment before the motorcade arrived to add their voice to the loud chanting and booing. At the swearing-in ceremony, a man and woman close to the main podium stood up and stripped to the waist, revealing protest slogans written on their bodies. None of this was shown on television.
The mainstream commentators deftly footnoted the protesters as fringe elements. The New York Times barely mentioned the demonstrators, only quoting one, the comedian Dick Gregory, at a rally: "If you stole my car, I'm never going to accept that it's your car." In any other country, there would have been mass demonstrations and troop movements on the day that the man who did not win the popular vote took power. But in America a bona fide coup d'état has happened, and our national press is doing everything to make us "accept" it as a done deal. The television networks devoted no more than 10 minutes combined to the demonstrators. And The New York Times placed a single story about the protesters on Page 17 and left readers with the impression that the dominant themes of the day were "unity," "tradition" and, above all, "legitimacy," according to the media watch group FAIR.
Activists Weigh In
The Independent Media Center (IMC), a nonprofit group of media activists using mini video cameras, cell phones and the Internet, organized alternative coverage of the Inauguration on their Web site as an audio stream. Over 310,000 hits were recorded to the main site over the day. Listeners were very generous, contributing more than enough funds to cover the entire production budget.
I tuned in at 8:30 a.m. to hear the indomitable Amy Goodman, the prize-winning host of Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now". She is Pacifica's leading light, and her program is carried nationally. In what is perhaps a related development, the Pacifica board in a "Christmas Coup" has sharply curtailed WBAI's freedom, forced a number of staffers to leave and limited what Amy can say on the air.
Related items: Hot Stories: Pacifica Radio, New Dissector: Media Realities & Surrealities, New Dissector: Saving Amy .
Amy had two hours on IMC, from 8 to 10 a.m. She called her show "Plutocracy Now," and it covered a wide array of issues related to the power shift from Clinton to Bush. Amy's professionalism and skill and her producer's made hers the best IMC coverage. She kept the listeners well-informed and used every moment of airtime judiciously. Free of the newly imposed WBAI censorship, the program was carried nationally on many radio stations — in Santa Cruz, Seattle, Hawaii, even the Netherlands. At one point she patched in a representative from "Billionaires for Bush," who proffered: "People don't matter — money does."
In the most emotional moment of Amy's coverage, President Clinton used the last hours of his presidency to announce whom he would and would not pardon, intruding into Bush's media day with the surprise announcements. To the shock and disappointment of thousands of activists through the country, Clinton decided not to pardon Native American activist Leonard Peltier. She called Dennis Moynihan of www.FreePeltier.org in Lawrence, Kansas, to learn that Peltier comes up for parole only in 2008. You can bet no one listening to CNN heard the instant analysis that Bill Clinton's FBI record surely was a factor in dissuading him from freeing the Native American leader. Peltier has been sitting in federal prison since 1975 for the murder of two FBI agents. Though he steadfastly claims he is innocent, he has earned the FBI's bitter hatred, and the agency has actively lobbied against his release.
After "Plutocracy Now," the IMC audio stream went to recorded music. I'm sure many people tuned out then. I know resources were limited, but couldn't IMC have kept something relevant on the line, at least by replaying the previous commentaries? It was not a good idea to leave dedicated listeners with zero.
There were sporadic cell-phone calls from people in the streets saying the demonstrators were encountering difficulty passing through police lines even though they had a permit to gather at Freedom Plaza near 14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. We heard from the antiauthoritarian "black bloc" group at F and 13th, apparently all dressed in black, who were standing in the streets shouting: "Whose streets? Our streets!" and "Abolish capitalism!" One representative described their function as providing security in the event of a confrontation, implying that they were tough guys almost spoiling for a fight. There was no comparable reportage on the networks, which avoided showing or even mentioning any demonstrators.
From The Streets
On NBC, several old prep-school classmates of George W. Bush from Andover, draped in their white school scarves, described the young George W. as the one who knew everybody. On CBS, they told us that George W. is no stranger to the White House having lived there during his father's reign. CBS proudly added that they've carried every U.S. inauguration live since 1946 and then broke for a real commercial.
ABC seemed to have the most impressive command of helicopter shots, following W.'s massively armored black limousine as it cruised through the D.C. streets. The soon-to-be-anointed one had to stop for ablutions at St. John's Church, as all presidents do on their way to the swearing in. ABC was able to jump from camera to camera with virtually no break in the live coverage of an automobile. (It reminded me of how they covered O. J. Simpson's mad Bronco ride before the California Highway Patrol.) ABC also had the stupidest-looking hosts, who were wearing identical tan cowboy hats.
Turning back to IMC, I learned that more than 400 protesters were being held up by police at 14th and Pennsylvania, right along the parade route. The IMC host asked the woman who called in to put the telephone up to the mouth of a policeman and ask questions. "Use your telephone like a microphone," he directed. However, the woman holding the phone did not sound assertive enough to push her phone forward. The difference between a regular demonstrator and a media activist is the awareness of moments like this one, where an extra measure of gumption makes the difference between getting a story or not.
In some incidents, I had a strange feeling about the IMC studio hosts, as if they were almost looking for a disturbance to break out. There was a breathless tone from one caller describing the first arrests: "The Bush crackdown has already begun." CNN showed protesters in large groups marching, shouting slogans and holding placards, and at least one egg hitting the Bush limousine. Yet the overwhelming tone of the protests — by such groups as the National Organization of Women, International and National Action Centers and dozens of others — was peaceful and seriously concerned. A well-spoken woman interviewed on CNN said she had come to protest the undemocratic procedure followed in Florida. Police restrained a young man wearing only striped boxer shorts after he jumped into the parade route.
IMC's coverage was less benign, presenting live audio coverage of people who had been detained by the police. One man who called in said he had blood dripping from a head wound. He said he had been peacefully leaving as ordered by a policeman when he was struck on the head. In trying to disperse the crowd, police hit about 10 people, according to the caller. Again the networks and major newspapers covered none of this.
Reigning In The Rain
Watching the Bush family traipse around Washington, the network commentators made various remarks about his 19-year-old twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara. Officially, the girls are non-topics for the press by request of their mother, Laura Bush, who asked the press to restrain their coverage of the girls "as they did with Chelsea Clinton." (The National Enquirer already published a scalding report about one daughter's wild drinking and carrying on at college.) NBC found time to comment that now the young women will suspect any new friend's attentions, question everybody's intent. George W. apparently likes to stay in touch with his daughters by e-mail, but now every note he writes will become part of the public record, so he is going to have to be careful.
As we approached the big moment and the bigwigs were shown climbing the stairs to the ceremony, all cameras focused on the Bush family. Former President George H. W. Bush climbed up with his wife Barbara, beaming with pride to see their boy had made it. It was raining lightly, so the VIPs were issued clear plastic raincoats. George W. arrived with music and lots of handshakes. He air-kissed his wife and brushed cheeks with his daughters. Clinton and Gore sat in fancy leather armchairs, also out in the rain. George W. also got a fancy chair.
As he lifted his right arm and pressed the Bible, the oath was spoken and a new president was installed. A Marine Corps tenor sang the national anthem. George W.'s speech — some said it was his best ever — was colder and harsher than it might have been. He took a jab at Clinton with a claim for "responsibility," so no one would forget about Monica Lewinsky. Fox TV said that throughout the ceremony George W. avoided eye contact with Clinton.
— New York City–based Dimitri Devyatkin (Devyatkin@earthlink.net) has been an independent video producer since 1971, whose work has appeared on ABC and PBS as well as British and French TV.
HOME
