What I saw at the revolution

Protesters had plenty to say, but was anyone listening?

by Ben Geman

Last thursday, having covered the street protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles for four days straight, I ducked into the air-conditioned lobby of the Biltmore Hotel to cool off (and use the bathroom).

REVOLUTION BREWING: not that you'd know it by the media's coverage of the convention protests.

For the better part of the week, I'd been running around in LA's summer heat trying to keep up with the protesters -- who frequently held demonstrations in several places at once. They had come to LA to say that the Democrats have abandoned workers, immigrants, and the environment in their zeal to please corporations. Joining us, but not entirely welcome, was the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which acquainted both the activists and the media covering the protests with their batons and rubber bullets.

So when I stumbled into the downtown hotel, the lobby was a startling contrast. A television was broadcasting a clip of vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman's speech. The Tennessee delegation was holding a luncheon in a banquet room. Delegates and other well-coifed conventiongoers milled about. Venders hawked official Gore buttons and other paraphernalia.

If I hadn't just come in from the noisy protest, I might not even have known it was taking place. No one seemed to be aware that there was a revolution brewing in the streets.

The week's demonstrations -- which included a well-organized march against presidential candidate Al Gore's investment in the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, whose Colombian operations threaten the indigenous U'wa people -- had little effect on the convention's politics, even if the thousands of marching activists and the LAPD army made sure the convention was not quite business as usual.

For example, although Gore mentioned a pet issue of the LA activists -- sweatshop labor -- he did so to appease the AFL-CIO, not the bunch of young activists who've been beating that drum since Seattle's World Trade Organization protests last year. And there's little doubt that Gore also mentioned sweatshop labor because the issue resonates with the American public, thanks in large part to Kathie Lee Gifford.

Beyond that, the protesters' issues didn't really make it into the public eye. Much of the media coverage consisted of taking easy potshots at the demonstrators -- Slate's David Plotz called them "sundry progressive rabble-rousers" -- and making fun of their myriad causes. For example, Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote, "It's just your basic free - Mumia - Abu - Jamal - vote - for - Ralph - Nader - end - police - brutality - stop - the - scourge - f - globalism - save - the - rainforest - forgive - Third - World - debt - no - more - death - penalty - support - organized - labor - close - the - sweatshops - freedom - for - Tibet - end - racism - anarchy - in - the - streets - save - the - sea - turtles - peace - love - and - justice movement."

Other reports focused on the bullying tactics of the LAPD, which the protesters organized against. On Wednesday, they marched to the department's Rampart division, which is under investigation for widespread corruption and abuse against citizens, to draw attention to police abuse of protesters. A bigger march targeting criminal-justice issues took activists to police headquarters later that day. But these protests were not what got the media to cover the cops' actions. The media covered the police brutality during the convention because it was impossible to ignore the sight of officers, outfitted in riot gear, firing rubber bullets on protesters -- which is what they did Monday night after a Rage Against the Machine concert staged outside the Staples Center, where the convention was being held.

Some observers speculate that the media get caught up in the drama of covering clashes between activists and the police, and that this distracts them from what the protesters are actually saying. "It seems like the journalists dispatched to cover the street protests are going to cover the action and don't seem to be asking the questions about why people are assembled in the first place," says Linda Iannacone of New York City's progressive Paper Tiger Television series.

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Ben Geman can be reached at bgeman[a]phx.com.