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Why the Paucity of News Coverage of the Reason Rally?

I'm wondering why the seeming complete absence of any coverage of the Reason Rally by the major news networks this weekend. On Saturday, after running errands all morning, I came home for a few hours in the afternoon. CNN - nothing. Sunday morning - again nothing. NBC evening news - nothing. I'll grant that I do not watch all the major news outlets. However when I was out running errands, I had NPR on the car radio - nothing. Didn't turn on MSNBC or FOX (then again, I'd rather watch a commercial on incontinence products than have to listen to FOX). Clicked on Google News and lo and behold - nothing. You had to type in "Reason Rally" in the search field, and even then, it was slim pickings at best.

One couldn't help but notice that the Trayvon Martin story dominated the headlines; even over the non-stop political babbling. And, I'm not saying the Trayvon Martin story isn't important. It is. (The coverage is less than stellar, in my opinion, but that's an entirely different topic). However, a peaceful gathering of between 10,000 and 20,000 non-religious people on the capitol grounds of what is falsely described as a "Christian Nation" would seem to merit some mention.

It's possible I missed it, not having surveyed every network out there. Has this been everyone else's experience - or lack thereof? And if so, why do you think it was overlooked.

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Permalink Reply by annet on March 26, 2012 at 6:29pm

oh duh. Well no wonder then. <note to self: always check author>

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 26, 2012 at 6:38pm

No no!

It's okay, the fact that it was published at all. This is the point.

We will only be heard if we speak out.

Right now the mainstream will publish things by, well, …the infamous (in some circles). That's the "in".

Wherever there are comments in these news stories, …give 'em hell, stick up for the side of sanity and fight the good fight.

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Permalink Reply by Becky Glynn on March 28, 2012 at 4:51pm

Thanks Chris, that was a great piece. I read around somewhere that folks wished there had been fewer speakers who could have spoken longer. Other than that, I had not seen anything else. Appreciate it mucho.

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Permalink Reply by Gareth Mensah on March 26, 2012 at 6:00pm

I couldn't agree more, I had to dig deep to find one CNN article, another from Fox. It seems the only decent coverage came from MSNBC and an assembled panel of non-believers, and NPR who had a few hour long sessions on the topic.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 26, 2012 at 6:38pm

I have NPR on by default in the car, …they had many news pieces and blurbs for the last two weeks.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 26, 2012 at 6:47pm

Ohhh! I missed this!

"(then again, I'd rather watch a commercial on incontinence products than have to listen to FOX)."

Dude, same demographic.

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Permalink Reply by Pat on March 26, 2012 at 6:49pm

Apparently, my efforts at seeking out coverage were less than stellar. You guys seemed to have found a lot more than me. Like Richard, NPR is my default "car" station (I actually drive a truck). However, I do have a confession to make. Now that I've gotten my new phone, where I can get podcasts, I tend to listen to "The Atheist Experience" or "The Atheist News Podcast." Nevertheless, when I scoured the major outlets - including NPR - it was a gigantic zilch.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Dodds on March 26, 2012 at 7:12pm

Well, I used Bing instead of Google. That may have had something to do with it, but I don't see how it would.

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on March 26, 2012 at 8:16pm

I just sent the following to CBS News from their website, citing a complaint as follows:

Sunday, 25 March saw over 20,000 people gather on the Mall in Washington, DC to celebrate reason, more specifically, the Reason Rally. This was a major event for the atheist community with multiple personalities lending their support, including Dr. Richard Dawkins and Adam Savage of the "Mythbusters" television series. To my knowledge, not CBS, NBC, or ABC devoted any coverage to this event. Considering the assault which the Separation of Church and State is currently under, I believe the Reason Rally was deserving of mention, particularly since CBS aired a commercial from the Freedom From Religion Foundation during your CBS Sunday Morning program and then again today (26 March) on the CBS Evening News.

We are atheists and we are productive citizens of this nation ... and we deserve notice.

I encourage others to go to the CBS News website here and log their own feedback.

In addition, here's the site for ABC News Feedback.

Feedback to NBC News may be sent to mediainquiries@msnbc.com.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Dodds on March 27, 2012 at 11:21am

Emails are good, but I heard somewhere that often Snail Mail makes a bigger impact. What we need to do is create a flood of messages to every major news outlet in the country. Not just email messages, but snail mail too. And not just to CBS, ABC, and NBC, send them to CNN, the Daily Show, everywhere.

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Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on March 27, 2012 at 12:02pm

there was this:

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/645399-richard-dawkins-msnbc-s-u...

it wasn't coverage of the RR, but the panel consisted of Jamila Bey and Jamie Killstein, as well as Dawkins. they talked about the RR but didn't show any footage or anything. probably because no major outlets were on hand to take footage!