Update: The groups have changed their protest date to Mar. 15
MediaChannel.org, a New York-based media watchdog nonprofit, along with United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of U.S. peace groups, will stage nationwide protests Mar. 15 to protest what they view as "media complicity" in abetting the Bush Administration's Iraq War.
In a release, both groups said they would be "targeting a US media system that has largely substituted jingoism for journalism and backed the war - often in the name of supporting the troops."
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As an example, the groups cite new photos from Abu Ghraib that were released by the Australian press last week. Though the photos received heavy coverage in the Guardian, a British newspaper, but their coverage in the U.S. among major U.S. television networks was scarce.
All of the networks, the groups noted, covered a speech that day by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The groups will stage protests and community education across the U.S. in tandem with the third anniversary of the Iraq war. Plans include forums and film screenings.
"Sadly, the media helped make the war possible," MediaChannel Director David Degraw said in a statement, "and despite mea culpas about flawed pre-war coverage, the coverage has basically not changed, an approach which treats every Administration claim seriously, while marginalizing the anti-war movement."
A recent poll showed 55 percent of Americans believe the Iraq war was a mistake, though calls for troop pullout are largely characterized by news outlets as attacks on the troops.
"Before the war began broadcast networks lobbied the FCC for rule changes to allow them to buy more stations," MediaChannel said in their release. "At the time, Washington insiders spoke of a quid pro-quo with the networks asking the FCC to waive their rules while their news shows waved the flag. In that period, then FCC Commissioner Michael Powell justified a need for more media concentration with the claim that 'only big companies can cover a war like the one in Iraq.'"
MediaChannel also plans to organize meetings between critics and media companies.
Correction: MediaChannel and United Peace and Justice have changed the date of their protests to Mar. 15.
Update: The groups have changed their protest date to Mar. 15