Time to hold press accountable for correctly telling the Minnesota ICE story
Saturday Jan 17, in downtown Minneapolis, there was a stunning encounter between local residents who have been protesting ICE and supporting the community and the outsider, pardoned-January-6-rioter, Jake Lang, who planned an Anti-Islamic, March Against Minnesota Fraud. He promised a crowd of thousands; it looked like dozens or fewer showed up. He met up with counter protesters in the thousands. They stopped him with silly string and water balloons. He was eventually led away to a local hotel, from which he and (separately) his handful of supporters hustled away.
What happened in between depends on who you are reading or watching. Were you watching livestream footage in real time? Did you watch FOX News after the fact? Did you read it in your hometown paper?
The same can be said of Jonathan killing Renee Good, and ICE beating and detaining US citizens, and incidents happening to citizens, residents, children, adults, seniors and pregnant women happening in the Twin Cities and other communities in Minnesota.
We at Women’s March MN are angry and worried because what we see in mainstream media does not reflect what we have seen in person, livestreams or reported by independent media. It was irritating when they consistently under reported attendance at marches but there’s so much more at stake now. Much of the rest of the world is hearing our collective story through a lens that we know is distorted.
It’s time to contact those media sources and call them out. This is something you can do from home whether you are in Minneapolis, Roseau or around the world. Here are some high-level instructions:
If you read/see/hear news that seems wrong to you, take a minute. Does it disagree with your own experience or expertise? Does it seem counter to what you saw in a livestream from a trusted source? Consider contacting the editor and or reporter.
Is your issue based on your own eyewitness experience or expertise knowledge? Or maybe from your friend, child or neighbor? Write up your firsthand complaint or correction. For example, you might say, “I see your article (Title/date/link if possible), you report that a dozen legal observers were present. I was there and easily counted 200. I hope you will be able to post a correction.” Please provide a link to any images or videos you have to support your comment.
Is your issue based on watching a video or livestream from a trusted source? Write up your complaint or correction as above but cite (and provide a link if possible) the source. You may have your own trusted sources, we livestream some events ourselves and share links to others on our Facebook Page.
Do you want to do more? If you feel passionate and/or experience that you feel merits lifting up your correction/complaint, consider a letter to the editor. Letters to the editor can be especially compelling in hyper local resources like your neighborhood paper or local daily or maybe your hometown local source. Or post on your social media and tag the source(s) in question. Also, you can always like and share the original post. Helping to lift up trusted locals and independent journals is helpful too.
