USA: ‘Don’t use Paris as an excuse for racism and war!’ say anti-CNN protesters
Protesters chanting: “Black lives matter”
Greg Butterfield, International Action Center: “In spite of the tragedy that happened in Paris on Friday, the media and the government here in the U.S. spin it in such a way, they ignored the tragedy that happened when the Russian plane was downed a few weeks ago, they completely ignored what happened in Lebanon on Thursday when a similar massacre took place.”
“You can see here that for this modest turnout for this demonstration, there is a big police presence. They’re here protecting the media monopoly CNN, that tells the narrative they want the world to know. But we’re not going to be intimated by that, we’re going to keep fighting and we’re going to keep coming out and telling the truth.”
Butterfield holding a banner reading: “Don’t use Paris as an excuse for racism and war!”
Larry Holmes, Peoples Power Assembly: “We didn’t have people going to the Russian Embassy, laying down flowers. So while we mourn the attacks in Paris, we also feel it’s important to say, that all the victims, no matter where they are, of war, of repression, of terrorism, are equal.”
“But we also mourn those who died in Beruit a few days earlier, who were also killed in a terrorist attack. CNN didn’t cover that too much. The big corporate media in this country, didn’t send reporters there to interview the families of victims.”
Protesters gathered in front of the CNN headquarters at Columbus Circle in New York City, Sunday, to speak out against what they see as a biased use of the media when reporting about tragedies, using as an example the different coverage of the recent Paris and Beirut attacks, as well as the Russian plane that was downed in Sinai.
Protesters held banners against the misuse of Paris terror attacks to spread racism and war, and chanted slogans to this end. One of the speakers at the rally, Greg Butterfield of the International Action Centre, pointe out that the media monopolies “tell the narrative they want the world to know.”
Despite being a peaceful and small protest, a significant number of police forces were deployed at the site. No incidents have been reported by the time of writing.
At least 129 people were killed and more than 352 left injured, 99 critically, after a series of coordinated attacks were carried out at six different locations across Paris on Friday evening.
On Thursday two powerful explosions went off in the Shiite majority neighbourhood and Hezbollah stronghold of Bourj al-Barajneh in the suburbs of Beirut, killing at least 44 people and injuring more than 240.
Although both attacks were claimed to be carried out by the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL), they received differing levels of coverage from the media outlets, specifically those in western countries, with Paris covered much more.
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