Millions of Americans ‘Disappeared’ — Thanks to U.S. Media
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
In her post about Saturday’s “Hands Off” protest rallies, Marcy noted the “increasingly constrained media” — coverage by U.S. news media which doesn’t reflect facts on the ground of importance to the public.
This has been a problem since at least the buildup to the Iraq War, when massive anti-war protests took place and little coverage emerged in mainstream media, or Occupy Wall Street’s prolonged resistance with little reporting documenting its activities.
Much of this can be blamed on the corporate-owned nature of most U.S. news media, combined with the rolling change in business model over the last 30 years since the internet became a common household feature.
But some of the blame also lies with the movements and organizations that continue to act as if this is the 1970s instead of 2025.
Let’s look at how the largest print news media outlets covered the protests.
First, the largest print outlets by circulation as listed by Press Gazette as of March 6, 2025:
I’ve taken screenshots of the print edition first page where available from these ten newspapers, via Newseum.org.
~ 1 ~
The Wall Street Journal — doesn’t have a Sunday edition. Tomorrow’s edition will likely be the most read of the week, and many leaders of U.S. industry will do so tomorrow. Will it cover the “Hands Off” protest rallies at all? Or will it try to keep the business class in the dark while serving up tariff news.
~ 2 ~
The New York Times:
The rally did make the front page though it’s below the fold and confined to a photo and blurb, the story itself on A18. This is an utter embarrassment — a massive gathering in its own backyard and this is all the attention it gets.
At least the story was syndicated and featured elsewhere in US newspapers, just not in the paper of record where one of the largest rallies took place.
~ 3 ~
Next, the New York Post.
It’s as if nothing happened in New York City at all. What a useless POS. This is the Late City Final edition, too, making it even more obvious the Murdochs don’t want to acknowledge the rally.
~ 4 ~
The Washington Post is smaller in terms of print circulation than the Murdochs’ NYPOS. Who would have thought that would ever happen? But this is probably a key reason why:
That pathetic little photo and blurb is all a nationwide protest rally garnered lest Bezos and his weak sauce managing editor piss off his orange overlord. No freaking wonder the number of people willing to buy a print edition has dropped below a NYC tabloid.
Relatedly, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson resigned from WaPo — one less reason to read.
~ 5 ~
On to USA Today, a paper built to be a national outlet: there is no print edition on either Saturday or Sunday.
I will note that the outlet’s digital edition allows readers to tweak the content they see; while Saturday’s rallies didn’t appear in the top segment, there are two choices related to the rallies from which readers can choose.
One might wonder if the selections help shape editors’ future coverage choices.
~ 6 ~
The sixth largest print newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, is even worse than the Washington Post as far as coverage of the rallies is concerned.
You almost need a microscope to find a reference to coverage on the first page; Nazi-friendly Kanye West garners at least eight times the page space. No wonder LAT continues to bleed subscribers.
~ 7 ~
Minnesota is home to a bright star among the nation’s top print outlets: the Star-Tribune gave the rallies the top spot.
Finally, the seventh largest print paper deep in the heartland recognized a nationwide protest by millions of Americans against an 11-week-old administration.
~ 8 ~
The eighth largest paper, Newsday, is a local tabloid covering Long Island, NY, and nearby NYC. Apparently nothing of note happened in NYC on Saturday as far as Newsday is concerned, though editors managed to choke out two words, “nationwide rallies” in the lower left column. I didn’t highlight them — see how long it takes for you to find them.
~ 9 ~
Honolulu Star Advertiser is the ninth largest print edition, a paper with more challenging physical distribution than the rest above as it is the largest in Hawaiian islands. Unfortunately I couldn’t locate a copy of the print edition for Sunday. Here’s its digital entry covering the protests which began five hours earlier in Eastern Time Zone:
Not great considering the lead time it had to cover the events. However the right-hand column identifying subscribers’ favorites tells us protest coverage was important to readers in spite of the less-than-stellar placement on the digital front page.
~ 10 ~
The Seattle Times is no stranger to covering protest rallies:
Above the fold, large amount of text on the front page, and a great photo conveying both the crowd’s energy and a localizing landmark in the background. Thumbs up.
~ Other ~
I should note the two major wire services’ coverage, beginning with the nonprofit Associated Press:
No story on digital front page but a good slice assigned to a collection of rally photos. An article on the rallies is the second most read article as I type this.
Reuters’ articles about the protests weren’t high on its digital page but they did occupy the slot for news about the United States and included a story about the related protests in Europe.
Online news media may have done a better job than print media did; the “Hands Off” protests occupied the top slot in Google News on Sunday based on this screenshot taken about 2:00 pm ET:
One interesting detail: note the time of each story’s publication. NYTimes’ piece was roughly 10 hours later than the others featured here. Why?
~ ~ ~
All of the above is a very lengthy way of saying the US media is still disappearing millions of Americans by editorial fiat. These same outlets which failed to dedicated adequate space to national and international protests against the Trump administration less than three months after inauguration day are missing a critically important story.
Worse, they may also be missing the stories that drove protesters to the streets. The signs tell observers Americans are pissed off about an unelected oligarch rifling through their Social Security; they feel betrayed by a president undermining the rule of law and national security, so intent on enacting authoritarian rule.
And they haven’t yet begun to feel the economic pain from tariffs though they are angry already about the deep damage to their retirement portfolios. When tariffs begin to eat at their household expenses, these kinds of protests are only going to swell.
Americans can’t count on corporate-owned media to do the right thing when they are already failing. A different approach to communication will be necessary to convey solidarity with other Americans while telling the Trump administration and state governments aligned with Trump that Trumpism isn’t working and the public demands better.
I can think of a specific example here in Michigan that feels like a bellwether, an indicator the national media isn’t getting this moment right by a long chalk.
Benzonia, a tiny town in Benzie County, located in northwestern lower Michigan, had a “Hands Off” protest rally. There were an estimated 350 participants. What’s unusual is that Benzie County is very red; it’s only voted for Democratic presidential candidates three out of the last ten presidential elections, and only four times since 1884. The county has only ~15,000 residents. Benzonia is also located 33 miles from Traverse City, where an estimated 4,000 people participated in a rally. Benzonia rally participants chose to protest in very small municipality in a lightly populated red county; their numbers represented roughly 3% of persons who cast a vote in that county in 2024. The number of participants may have been more since media typically underrepresent participants; another local observer estimated 500 attendees.
This isn’t the only such example; there are many more like it given over 1000 protest rallies across the country. At least a local media outlet from a small blue city covered Benzonia’s rally; how many frustrated red towns weren’t afforded that?
More local organizing is necessary to help Americans exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech and free association, to express their frustration with the Trump administration’s repeated failures to ensure laws are faithfully executed.
But that organizing needs to address the repeated failures of a corporate-owned media environment as well, finding ways to make it difficult for media to avoid coverage, and developing alternatives to corporate-owned media to ensure coverage happens anyhow.
Share in comments below how your local media covered the “Hands Off” rallies.
_______
Image used with this story is from the 2017 Women’s March.
It’s not as if we can’t see for ourselves just how big these rallies were, making it wholly obvious just how bad US media has become with few exceptions.
https://mstdn.social/tags/handsoff2025
ADDER: IF YOU ARE IN NORTH CAROLINA OR KNOW SOMEONE AFFECTED IN NORTH CAROLINA —
This excerpt is from Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket newsletter. Please share it with North Carolinians.
Marc Elias is a national treasure
Sounds like an invitation for them to get bigger and louder – though still peaceful.
There were rallies on Boca Raton, Hollywood, and Miami which are sort of close to Mar a Lago. But there needs to be one on Mar a Lago’s doorstep though that is geographically challenging. Just blocking him in – or out – from golfing would be a win.
Could have sworn I saw rally photos from Palm Beach.
You did!
The original rally was in Boca Raton. Looks like Palm Beach Gardens spun off which is close to his Jupiter golf course. He was golfing there for his club tournament with he claims to have won – again. The WPB location was at the Palm Beach County Courthouse.
https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/trump/2025/04/05/thousands-in-palm-beach-county-rally-against-trump-musk/82883999007/
“The protests took place while Trump was in town, his eighth weekend in Palm Beach County since his Jan. 20 inauguration. Trump landed at Miami International Airport on Thursday afternoon, then went to his Trump National Doral Golf Club in western Miami-Dade County. He flew back to Palm Beach County on Thursday night and stayed at his Mar-a-Lago residence Friday night for a “candlelight dinner” hosted by the MAGA Inc. organization. (Note: This was a $1million a plate fund raiser} He played golf Saturday at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, where he reportedly played in the club’s senior championship. Reports say he advanced to Sunday’s final round. He’s expected to play Sunday before departing Palm Beach County on Sunday night for Washington.”
Mind you the fly into MIA was for a meetup with the Saudis-LIV Golf at nearby Doral Country Club and then on to PBI for more big money (see above).
Mind you – as you all know – we the taxpayers pay for all this R&R.
Pete TO323, there is a reason caddies call him Pele.
The Griffin List Find N.C. voters whose 2024 legal votes are at risk of not counting https[:]//thegriffinlist[.]com/ [< I broke the link]
The revolution will not be televised. Nor written about apparently. Time for some Gil Scott-Heron.
Nor will it be funded. Got a lot of blank stares from my students when I said that.
There is a book by that name.
You mean Soros didn’t pay for the Hands Off demonstrations? DJT posted that Soros paid 5 million protesters $100M each to attend. I tried to multiply that, but there were too many zeroes to wrap my head around.
The Felon Guy doesn’t know how much it is, either. He’s told that “Soros paid for that” and then fills in numbers that he thinks sound right.
Ha! I had (EXCEPT BY SOROS) in my post before editing it out.
I looked at the online edition of my local paper and the online page for the media group they belong to. Nothing. And from what I could see from social media, the protest here was pretty big. The local Indivisible Group estimated about 5-6 thousand on a chilly wet day.
The irony is that main story on the front page of the online edition of the paper is an AP story with the results of a poll the AP did late March. The story is titled “What Do You Think of Trump’s Policies”. I don’t know if the body of the story is also AP or the GR Press’ spin but the first graph says that immigration is still a strength for Trump because “about half” approve. The breakdown is 49% approve 50% disapprove. The entire graph with poll results shows that at least 50% or more of the country disapprove or strongly disapprove of Trump’s policies.
And scrolling through the media group’s page, I noted at least 5 stories on the negative impact Trump’s polices have on state institutions and people.
And yet nothing about the protests with its ready-made visuals. I should see if the local tv stations covered the protest.
Our local KC media did a decent job of covering the KC area protests, but the television media was far better than the KC Star.
The Star’s business model appears to be covering *everything* that is tangentially related to the Royals and Chiefs, covering *most* things related to KU and MU football and basketball, and then looking around to see what is happening around the area.
*sigh*
Local tv stations, though, had reporters on the scene, providing not just B roll images but also some good sound bites and a couple of longer conversations with protesters.
Importantly, while the bulk of the coverage was about the KC protest, they also did a decent job at mentioning (and getting images from) other smaller protests around the area, in suburban spots less familiar with protests.
My favorite sign came from last month’s protest, courtesy of KCTV (#3 in the photo gallery, but I can’t directly like to it you you have to scroll to see it): “My grandma has recipes that were more secret than the Yemen war plans”
LOL most excellent signage, that.
I enjoyed one I saw that read, “I was invited to this protest via Signalgate list.”
Our local paper’s website (sorry, didn’t get the paper edition) acknowledged the protests but understated the size. “Hundreds” sounds like 200-300, when the New Haven Green was filled & that means closer to 1,000 attendees.
Note: The NY Times article may have been posted so late because there was an earlier version that misrepresented the nature of the protests, saying they were opposing the weak resistance put up by Democratic elected officials rather than the policies of the president.
Hey, Ravenclaw, sounds like you and I were at the same protest! Yes, “hundreds” is an undercount. A friend who works for Rosa DeLauro told me that the “official estimate” was two to three thousand. Pretty good given the terrible, horrible weather–the organizers did not want umbrellas but many brought them, a futile gesture when New England’s patented sideways rain pelts your exposed skin.
I see the neglect by our “trusted media” as something far more insidious than merely missing a major story. The owners of these outlets actively suppress this news. The fewer red state (or county) voters know that their peers might be expressing disenchantment with the power structure, the greater that power structure’s chance of hanging on to their votes.
These protests are intended by the organizers to be inclusive, user-friendly, novice-level events where those who voted for Trump but regret it will not be judged. Questioned (gently), maybe, but not judged. More than anything else, we need to talk to each other. Protest rallies provide excellent venues for that. Trump and his media accomplices have every reason not to facilitate their spread.
“More than anything else, we need to talk to each other. Protest rallies provide excellent venues for that…” That is the most important thing I get from attending. Morale boosting. I don’t think our small community protest in red, rural eastern Washington has any other impact. Maybe I’m wrong about that. This valley may be 6000 people and a turn-out of 300 seems big.
Top of front page of Spokane’s The Spokesman’s Review, “HANDS ON FOR ‘HANDS OFF!'”, continued on p. 10 with another story headlined “Mass protests across the country show resistance to Trump.”
There was a good turnout in Rochester NY of 3-4,000, well-covered by local public outlet WXXI (radio & tv) as well as the local paper, the Democrat & Chronicle, which ran a good dozen-and-a-half photos.
This rally was the fourth protest in a week: On March 29, protesters gathered outside a Tesla showroom in Henrietta NY in opposition to Musk; March 30, activists marched for Transgender Day of Visibility at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park in town; and on March 31, a crowd of a couple hundred assembled outside City Hall, calling for the firing of Rochester police officers who assisted federal agents (in violation of City policy) in detaining three Guatemalan immigrants.
where i am, MA, coverage on SM, nothing in online edition of paper.
apologies — there was coverage, but belated, of local protest of approx 500 in online editions of papers.
my PacNW town has a newish fabulous paper – digital w/one print edition a week. they did a great job covering, sending reporters to three different protests throughout the County, interviewing participants about what particular Trump/Musk actions are affecting them and how.
Got a link, rosalind? Let’s send them some traffic. ;-)
p.s. Hit me up by the site’s email if you’re worried about location ID.
nah, it’s time. Cascadia Daily.
https://www.cascadiadaily.com/2025/apr/05/hands-off-protests-in-whatcom-skagit-counties-bring-in-thousands
Top 2 most read stories: 1) “Rep. Larsen demands answers from Feds after Bellingham ICE raids” & 2) “Hands Off protests in Whatcom/Skagit counties draw thousands”
Longtime Seattle Times staffer Ron Judd started the Cascadia Daily a couple years back, and the publication has completely transformed local coverage, especially for local elections. They just hired two young reporters who are POC, which was definitely needed to help expand the newsroom demo.
Cascadia has begun holding town halls, the first with travel guru Rick Steves just before the election where he screened his short film on the rise of fascism with much audience discussion about where a Trump re-election could lead, though none of us then could imagine how fast things would crumble. The second was a great panel on the Canadian/U.S. border situation, with lots of statistics on how much money WA border businesses have lost already, the huge drop in Canadians crossing over, and how relationships between the people who do the day-to-day border work together has really degraded.
Current top issues being covered are the ongoing ICE raids. They just grabbed 37 men from a local roofing company and sent them off to “detention”, and a young farmworker and immigrant advocate Juarez Zeferino was grabbed out of his car a few weeks ago and is being held.
Anyway, Casacdia Daily is an example of how a new local newspaper CAN be created, and how valuable it can be in educating the public and challenging our electeds.
(and just checked, the two town halls are available to view on the Cascadia Daily youtube channel)
I thought this was an interesting “media” story:
https://bsky.app/profile/theohioangle.bsky.social/post/3lm5pqcfiy22k
April 6, 2025 at 11:03 AM
That post begins with:
This is so very Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake”-ish:
He said he won the championship on Sunday. No mention of the guy who tied him.
https://thegolfnewsnet.com/golfnewsnetteam/2025/04/07/donald-trump-claims-win-in-senior-club-championship-at-his-west-palm-beach-fla-golf-club-136058/
the quotation referenced was from Jean Jacques Rousseau, written in ‘Confessions’, 24 years before the French Revolution—at which time, Marie Antoinette was 8 years old.
it is widely attributed to her, but most historians suspect it was appropriated and ascribed to her to gin up outrage and resentment against the aristocracy.
And now I need not gin up against the orange stained aristocracy because he actually said, more or less, “Let me play golf!”
The French hated Marie Antoinette in general because she wasn’t French, she was Austrian. They found it easy to convince the population that she was actually calling the shots behind the scenes and was “fooling” her husband.
Not a perfect online outlet, but an alternate worth mention. Good coverage: https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/05/hands-off-rally-draws-thousands-to-minnesota-capitol-to-protest-trump/
Good on Big Ag vs Small Ag: https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/04/usda-cuts-hit-small-farms-as-trump-showers-billions-on-big-farms/
and: https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/04/07/cargill-complained-about-a-state-employees-social-media-activities-he-was-fired/
Part of a network: https://statesnewsroom.com/
Yes, OT about MSM lack of attention. But worth noting. Saying they are active in all 50 states means other commenters can check it out. Not to misdirect the thread to everyone’s got a favorite alternate site, but it is attempting to be local, fair, and relevant. Low budget but well intended.
The Colorado Sun (which is online-only and non-paywalled) posted a great synopsis at 6:46pm on Saturday the 5th. It reported a ‘crush of 10,000 protesters’ at the state capitol, tens of thousands of protesters ‘from Denver to Montrose, Fort Collins to Fairplay and as far south as Trinidad’ (which covers a huge swath of Colorado), and linked to the AP news coverage already mentioned.
As I mentioned in my reply to Dr. Wheeler’s post, I did not learn about the protests until late in the game (that is partially on me). Reporting after the fact is important, but so is getting the word out ahead of time.
There’s a MAGAt with a local news blog who reported on a protest by saying that because HE didn’t recognize any of the few hundred protesters (in a borough with population 9000) they therefore were not local and therefore not worth interviewing. Fun fact: he doesn’t live in that borough. He’s getting called out for this on his social media but like a true MAGAt he’s doubling down and saying his reporting was accurate.
I’m not posting a link because I won’t send him any traffic.
The courtier press did not dare to disappoint Convict-1 / Krasnov in yet another example of why having billionaires in charge of our hyper-merged media is a really bad thing. Not only are they moral cowards, they’re also one of the ‘access’ gang. It doesn’t change the fact that the people were out, and not willing to be bought off. This situation for the regime will only get worse over time because more people will be hurt and when one loses all other forms of redress, protests and strikes will follow.
I suspect that Convict-1 / Krasnov is trying in his feral way to cover his arse from blowback, by hiding on his golf course ‘winning’ the senior club championship (ignoring the four soldiers coming home, just like in the first term). He followed that by continued gaslighting by claiming that someday soon we’ll be rich Rich RICH beyond our dreams (never mind this was all supposed to happen on Day 1) and screaming that reporters asking about the tariffs were asking stupid questions in a passive-aggressive stunt. Of course, none of these screaming contradictions and blown promises made a dent in the courtier press.
I think this may change sooner than later. Jamie Dimon and Bill Ackman are already grumbling about the tariffs now that they were also hit. The other media oligarchs will take the hint soon (watch what Murdoch does for the trigger) and that will unleash chaos, because I do not know what Convict-1 / Krasnov will do when the bad news hits. He can’t realistically resign (the GOP would immediately throw him under the bus to cover themselves) nor can he show any sign of what he considers ‘weakness’.
Unfortunately Dimon and Ackman don’t own major newspapers. Trump still holds the main ones by the short hairs–hence the silence in regards to mounting opposition.
The Europeans honoring our dead soldiers made our Commander in Chief look like the craven coward he has always been. That disgusting display ought to rally anyone who claims military affiliation of any kind. Media coverage of Trump’s dishonor?
Crickets.
Be thankful that Dimon and Ackman do not own major newspapers. They would not move the needle a smidgen to the left.
The Dallas Morning News failed enthusiastically, with no local coverage of the Hands Off! Dallas rally that was (checks Google Maps) 0.8 miles from Dealey Plaza, where the rally took place, to the Dallas Morning News location on Commerce Street. They did (eventually?) publish the AP article, with no local quotes or pictures (“tell me you had no reporters or camera operators there, without using those words”).
A friend who is also an enthusiastic protester said his best guess on the Dallas crowd size (again, no estimate was published) was about 7,000, and he noted that there were about six other rallies on Saturday within an hour’s drive from Dallas, so something like 10,000 attendees across multiple locations.
Group,
Search of “Protest”, “Saturday Protest,” and “demonstration”, in the “search articles” bar of the “sections” section of the “paper of record” returns nothing of both relevance and timeliness. Now, if you were to say “Mr. datnotdat, you cannot do the interwebs equivalent of falling off a log,” I would say “guilty as charged.” Nonetheless I find it telling, just how hard it is to find news in a newspaper.
datnotdat
Our problem is not print or television as those mediums of information disbursement no longer matter much. The problem we have is digital, and according to Pew Research in 2024 54% of Americans got their news often or sometimes from social media, with 25% saying often.
Given how rapidly a digital media outlet can change its landing page, it’s nearly impossible to take a snapshot that can be analyzed as the outlet’s response to an event/topic.
That’s why I went with print outlets, all of which have online presence as well. The print format represents their editors’ commitment at the time the event/topic was au courant.
Thanks to the Europeans for standing with Americans protesting in many cities such as Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, London and Lisbon. Unity across the pond.
For me, Bluesky was an excellent immediate source for protests around the country with constant updates.
Currently(Apr 7) the top story at my little local paper, with a nice set of photos: https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/
The Philadelphia Inquirer had the rally in Philly published in its Sunday paper over the fold. This newspaper is non-profit and is owned by the Lenfest Institute of Journalism. We subscribe to the print and get the online version as well with our subscription.
Can I post a copy of the front page in the reply??
You can’t post an image — that’s a super power above that of community members.
I’ll post it here in a moment.Link to Inquirer’s report about the protest rally: https://www.inquirer.com/politics/trump-musk-hands-off-protest-philadelphia-50501-20250405.html
Rayne, I read your headline as “thanks to us media”–meaning: “us” including emptywheel. Not U.S.
Could you change it to “USA” to prevent that misapprehension? (This is a friendly and deeply respectful suggestion.)
found today’s (Apr 7) WSJ front page at https://www.frontpages.com/the-wall-street-journal/ . No mention of the rallies.
Despite mid-30s and snowing there were about as many at the New Mexico state capital as for the pussy hat rally. One MAGAT driving around the vicinity honky his horn with a trump sign on his hood. I did tell someone to stop throwing snowballs at him. I saw zero uniformed police. I saw no obvious news reporters or photographers. The rallies was covered by local on-line press, the Santa Fe New Mexican. Had to dig for crowd size estimate – 2000 out of population of about 80000.
The estimate for Albuquerque was about 15,000 people. At the Indivisible Albuquerque meeting yesterday, a speaker said it was more than they’d hoped, and that it was very peaceful, with only one incident with a disruptor. I didn’t check the newspaper’s coverage on Sunday.
I was out of town so didn’t attend but my local paper, the Ventura County Star, had the story. They had a good turn out at two very busy locations. No counter protests or trouble reported. I hope to be able to join in the next protests.
https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2025/04/05/thousand-oaks-ventura-hands-off-protests-draw-thousands/82956665007/
ps..I haven’t seen many trump trucks or a Trump Train in my city recently
Here is a great article with crowd sizes and many funny signs protestors carried: https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelabramwell/best-signs-from-hands-off-anti-trump-protests