Charlotte Observer Propaganda (short version) (long version)
When biased reporting crosses over to outright lying reporters and newspapers need to be held accountable. Last Monday night (January 30th) a rally against amnesty for illegal immigrants in the US was held in west Charlotte's Phillip O. Berry Academy. The rally was dutifully covered the city's media. In the case of the Charlotte Observer's coverage by Jim Morrill however this dutiful coverage did not extend to telling the truth. This offense was magnified when his doctored version of reality was further embellished and sent out across the nation on the AP wire service.
The rally was conducted to generate grass-roots resistance to Congressional amnesty plans for illegal aliens. The rally's turnout was light partially due to the keynote speaker Congressman Tom Tancredo having to cancel his appearance on account of the death of his mother. Nonetheless, the rally did draw a crowd of pro-amnesty protesters outside who conducted a peaceful candlelight vigil before rally began inside the building.
The real attendance numbers at the rally confirmed by several people who were at the event including this writer broke down to clearly over 40 supporters and clearly at most 30 or so protesters. An approximation of the numbers of protesters can be confirmed by looking at the photographs, which appear on the web site of Channel 14 news and even in Mr. Morrillfs Charlotte observer article itself. The website photograph shows 25-30 people standing in the protest area. This equates with the account given in the Channel 9 news story, g"Outside the school dozens of people lined the streets in a silent candlelight vigil." The Charlotte Observer photograph, which pans down to one end of the protest line, shows only 16-18 people.
Contrast these numbers with the report given by Jim Morrill in the third sentence of his article which appeared in the next morning's Charlotte Observer, "More than 100 Latinos and other supporters of immigrants came to protest the rally, holding candles and signs..."
Combining Mr. Morrill's account of "about" 30 supports to go with these more than 100 protesters here is how is how his fabrication was repackaged for the lead sentence in the AP news story sent around the country, "CHARLOTTE, N.C. - An immigration reform rally turned into a debate as protesters, outnumbering participants by about three to one, challenged the main speaker over her position on U.S. border policies."
If Mr. Morrill can produce a photograph (un-doctored of course) from one of the news crews at the rally that vindicates my charge of calling him a liar, I will be gracious in apologizing to him publicly.
