Green Bay Citizens Rally for Balanced and Complete News Coverage

Wednesday, June 8

* 3:30 p.m - 5:00 p.m. (the Press Gazette closes at 4:00 p.m.)
* Location: outside the Green Bay Press Gazette office, 435 Walnut Street, Green Bay, (rain or shine)
Signs provided, or bring your own.

Fight censorship and propaganda!

Let’s show the Gannett Corporation that citizens will no longer tolerate the poor quality of their newspapers. Let’s make an example of the Press Gazette for all northeast Wisconsin and start a trend. Bring your friends, co-workers and families to help us make a good showing.

Also, call the Green Bay Press Gazette to register a personal complaint: 920-435-4411 Tell them why balanced and complete news coverage matters to you!

Background:

Once again, the Green Bay Press Gazette, a Gannett Corporation paper, has refused to cover a critically important public event just a few blocks from their office in downtown Green Bay. On June 1st, more than 40 local citizens held a rally at Congressman Mark Green’s office, asking him to start impeachment proceedings against President Bush, given the recent release of the Downing Street Memo in Great Britain which provided further proof that the Bush Administration lied to Congress and the American people to justify an unprovoked military attack on another country. The Press Gazette gave the local event no coverage.

It appears the Press Gazette is protecting Congressman Green and President Bush from criticism, while at the same time carrying frequent articles praising them. This is blatant partisanship. We all remember the months of Press Gazette articles about Clinton’s impeachment for lying about a private affair. We have a right to expect equal Press Gazette coverage of George Bush’s far more serious lies which have led to a $200 billion war and the loss of more than 100,000 lives.

The Press Gazette’s recent neglect is part of a long-standing pattern familiar to active citizens in our area. Environmentalists, labor leaders, community groups, alternative politicians, peace activists, and a wide variety of other social activists often find their events and key issues under-reported or completely censored from the paper. Instead, the public is kept ignorant of dissenting views, and diverted and entertained with trivia such as sports and “human interest stories.” A community newspaper has a solemn duty to provide objective, thorough and unbiased reporting of the news, with no partisan favoritism, but the Press Gazette has repeatedly failed to meet this standard. Under our American form of self- governance, the news media play a critical role in providing basic information for citizens to use as the basis of public debates and votes. One-sided and incomplete news coverage makes a democracy impossible. A true and responsible American newspaper reports honestly on the full political spectrum of community activities.

Now that the competing newspaper, the Green Bay News Chronicle, has been bought and closed down by the Gannett Corporation (as of today), the Press Gazette’s flagrant partisan bias and skimpy news coverage has become intolerable. Please join us in demanding major improvements at the paper.