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Journalists try to get images of Indoana Gov. Mike Pence on July 18, 2016, the first day of the Republican National Convention, in Cleveland. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/WireImage)
More than 15,000 journalists descended on Cleveland to cover the Republican National Convention. But it was an unemployed TV reporter sitting in a Starbucks in Los Angeles, 2,345 miles away, who broke the biggest story of the week.
Laid-off TV journalist Jarrett Hill's scoop dominated two days of coverage so the facts are well known: At her much-anticipated first-night speech Monday, would-be first lady Melania Trump plagiarized some parts of a speech delivered by the current first lady, Michelle Obama, when her husband, Barack Obama, was first nominated in 2008 by the Democratic party. Initially, Republican candidate Donald Trump's team went to war, flat out denying the plagiarism, and then admitted it.
There are political lessons to be learned here, most of them old (the cover up is 1,000 times worse). But there's also a lesson for the media: What undoubtedly will be one of the best-remembered stories of the 2016 Republican convention wasn't even unearthed by the throngs of reporters combing for news in a tightly controlled, scripted environment.
Media from all over the world, big and small, set up shop in Cleveland to cover the quadrennial convention. At a time when reports of a shrinking media that can't sustain itself abound, along with stories of endless buyouts and layoffs in the news industry, The Washington Post sent 80 people; The Huffington Post sent 40 (although many traveled by bus); Buzzfeed had 19 there. Even scrappy Gawker sent a staff of four.
CNN sent 18 anchors and 25 reporters -- and that doesn't include the army of producers, make up artists, videographers, go-fers and digital aides-de-camp required to support the "talent." The number is closer to 500, a CNN source told me. NBC and MSNBC sent more than 45 anchors, correspondents and embeds. ABC has about 200 people there.
You get the picture. Coverage of the RNC was excessive. Especially when you consider that there's little opportunity to snag a story no one else has -- unless you are a lone tweeter in LA with an excellent memory.
(The other irony: Amidst the unfolding news about Fox News icon Roger Ailes, who by week's end stepped down over sexual harassment charges, scores of reporters found themselves trying to cover a real story happening in New York from press booths in Cleveland.)
Robert Bluey, editor of The Daily Signal, a multimedia news organization of the Heritage Foundation, summed up the ridiculousness of the Cleveland media landscape to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. "With so much media attention on the RNC, it's a challenge to find a fresh angle for stories, said Bluey. 'How can we produce unique content our audience can't find elsewhere?'"
The answer is simple. They can't. The 15,000-member media army roaming "The Q" (as the Quicken Loans Arena is known) for nuggets of news equates to six journalists for every one of the nearly 2,500 delegates.
In reality, the Republican convention (and the same will be true for the Democratic version) is just a big, fun blowout for journalists to get together, drink, party and gossip. It's the famed, often-mocked White House Correspondents Association dinner on super steroids.
It is not serving the public to have thousands and thousands of skilled journalists milling around The Q interviewing each other. What stories are going uncovered? And parenthetically, would they be covered anyway in a media culture that celebrates celebrities, loves quick hits and can't wait to move on to the next Big Event? Remember the shootings of and by police in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, Minnesota?
Why do so many journalists and media organizations go? Why do news operations spend (conservatively) tens of thousands of dollars to "cover" what amounts to a four-day political commercial? What do they hope to gain at an event where the outcome is preordained?
Ken Doctor, an expert on the news business who writes for Politico and at Newseconomics, believes the RNC coverage is justified.
"Of course, it can seem like overkill, but it is the story of the moment, and one with huge implications for American democracy," said Doctor via email. "Most political conventions indeed fall into mere pageantry, but this one has actually offered news day after day. Anytime media coverage converges on simply reporting the same set of known facts -- Olympics, coming up -- that seems like a textbook example of the poor resource allocation. This convention, though, perhaps more than Hillary's, is different."
True, this convention has more potential than most for delivering the unexpected, given the freewheeling and at times reckless nature of Republican nominee Donald J. Trump. Yet is one more Trump eruption, one more angst-ridden, nose-holding Republican really the kind of news that merits wall-to-wall, flood-the-zone coverage the conventions get?
Consider this different assessment: "You know, conventions -- people call them political conventions," Jonah Goldberg of National Reviewtold NPR. "But in reality, to a large extent, they're media conventions... It's a chance for everybody to get together and catch up and have drinks and commiserate and gossip."
So our nation's newshound go -- and will continue to go in spite of the wretched excess -- for the prestige, the vanity of being part of the pack, and the pure fun of hanging out at Politico's Oxygen Bar or the CNN Grill getting free food and drinks. They go to be seen and see. They go to schmooze, and network with the thousands of political operatives that surpass the number of delegates. "It's truly surreal," one journo friend told me.
Maybe by some measures (especially the click-driven metrics that now animate cash-starved newsrooms), this convention may have offered "news," but for a country deprived of the kind of in-depth, nuanced information that voters need to keep this democracy afloat, the result of packing 15,000 journalists into a few square miles has been, as they might say in one of Cleveland's bars, more foam than beer.
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
More than 15,000 journalists descended on Cleveland to cover the Republican National Convention. But it was an unemployed TV reporter sitting in a Starbucks in Los Angeles, 2,345 miles away, who broke the biggest story of the week.
Laid-off TV journalist Jarrett Hill's scoop dominated two days of coverage so the facts are well known: At her much-anticipated first-night speech Monday, would-be first lady Melania Trump plagiarized some parts of a speech delivered by the current first lady, Michelle Obama, when her husband, Barack Obama, was first nominated in 2008 by the Democratic party. Initially, Republican candidate Donald Trump's team went to war, flat out denying the plagiarism, and then admitted it.
There are political lessons to be learned here, most of them old (the cover up is 1,000 times worse). But there's also a lesson for the media: What undoubtedly will be one of the best-remembered stories of the 2016 Republican convention wasn't even unearthed by the throngs of reporters combing for news in a tightly controlled, scripted environment.
Media from all over the world, big and small, set up shop in Cleveland to cover the quadrennial convention. At a time when reports of a shrinking media that can't sustain itself abound, along with stories of endless buyouts and layoffs in the news industry, The Washington Post sent 80 people; The Huffington Post sent 40 (although many traveled by bus); Buzzfeed had 19 there. Even scrappy Gawker sent a staff of four.
CNN sent 18 anchors and 25 reporters -- and that doesn't include the army of producers, make up artists, videographers, go-fers and digital aides-de-camp required to support the "talent." The number is closer to 500, a CNN source told me. NBC and MSNBC sent more than 45 anchors, correspondents and embeds. ABC has about 200 people there.
You get the picture. Coverage of the RNC was excessive. Especially when you consider that there's little opportunity to snag a story no one else has -- unless you are a lone tweeter in LA with an excellent memory.
(The other irony: Amidst the unfolding news about Fox News icon Roger Ailes, who by week's end stepped down over sexual harassment charges, scores of reporters found themselves trying to cover a real story happening in New York from press booths in Cleveland.)
Robert Bluey, editor of The Daily Signal, a multimedia news organization of the Heritage Foundation, summed up the ridiculousness of the Cleveland media landscape to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. "With so much media attention on the RNC, it's a challenge to find a fresh angle for stories, said Bluey. 'How can we produce unique content our audience can't find elsewhere?'"
The answer is simple. They can't. The 15,000-member media army roaming "The Q" (as the Quicken Loans Arena is known) for nuggets of news equates to six journalists for every one of the nearly 2,500 delegates.
In reality, the Republican convention (and the same will be true for the Democratic version) is just a big, fun blowout for journalists to get together, drink, party and gossip. It's the famed, often-mocked White House Correspondents Association dinner on super steroids.
It is not serving the public to have thousands and thousands of skilled journalists milling around The Q interviewing each other. What stories are going uncovered? And parenthetically, would they be covered anyway in a media culture that celebrates celebrities, loves quick hits and can't wait to move on to the next Big Event? Remember the shootings of and by police in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, Minnesota?
Why do so many journalists and media organizations go? Why do news operations spend (conservatively) tens of thousands of dollars to "cover" what amounts to a four-day political commercial? What do they hope to gain at an event where the outcome is preordained?
Ken Doctor, an expert on the news business who writes for Politico and at Newseconomics, believes the RNC coverage is justified.
"Of course, it can seem like overkill, but it is the story of the moment, and one with huge implications for American democracy," said Doctor via email. "Most political conventions indeed fall into mere pageantry, but this one has actually offered news day after day. Anytime media coverage converges on simply reporting the same set of known facts -- Olympics, coming up -- that seems like a textbook example of the poor resource allocation. This convention, though, perhaps more than Hillary's, is different."
True, this convention has more potential than most for delivering the unexpected, given the freewheeling and at times reckless nature of Republican nominee Donald J. Trump. Yet is one more Trump eruption, one more angst-ridden, nose-holding Republican really the kind of news that merits wall-to-wall, flood-the-zone coverage the conventions get?
Consider this different assessment: "You know, conventions -- people call them political conventions," Jonah Goldberg of National Reviewtold NPR. "But in reality, to a large extent, they're media conventions... It's a chance for everybody to get together and catch up and have drinks and commiserate and gossip."
So our nation's newshound go -- and will continue to go in spite of the wretched excess -- for the prestige, the vanity of being part of the pack, and the pure fun of hanging out at Politico's Oxygen Bar or the CNN Grill getting free food and drinks. They go to be seen and see. They go to schmooze, and network with the thousands of political operatives that surpass the number of delegates. "It's truly surreal," one journo friend told me.
Maybe by some measures (especially the click-driven metrics that now animate cash-starved newsrooms), this convention may have offered "news," but for a country deprived of the kind of in-depth, nuanced information that voters need to keep this democracy afloat, the result of packing 15,000 journalists into a few square miles has been, as they might say in one of Cleveland's bars, more foam than beer.
More than 15,000 journalists descended on Cleveland to cover the Republican National Convention. But it was an unemployed TV reporter sitting in a Starbucks in Los Angeles, 2,345 miles away, who broke the biggest story of the week.
Laid-off TV journalist Jarrett Hill's scoop dominated two days of coverage so the facts are well known: At her much-anticipated first-night speech Monday, would-be first lady Melania Trump plagiarized some parts of a speech delivered by the current first lady, Michelle Obama, when her husband, Barack Obama, was first nominated in 2008 by the Democratic party. Initially, Republican candidate Donald Trump's team went to war, flat out denying the plagiarism, and then admitted it.
There are political lessons to be learned here, most of them old (the cover up is 1,000 times worse). But there's also a lesson for the media: What undoubtedly will be one of the best-remembered stories of the 2016 Republican convention wasn't even unearthed by the throngs of reporters combing for news in a tightly controlled, scripted environment.
Media from all over the world, big and small, set up shop in Cleveland to cover the quadrennial convention. At a time when reports of a shrinking media that can't sustain itself abound, along with stories of endless buyouts and layoffs in the news industry, The Washington Post sent 80 people; The Huffington Post sent 40 (although many traveled by bus); Buzzfeed had 19 there. Even scrappy Gawker sent a staff of four.
CNN sent 18 anchors and 25 reporters -- and that doesn't include the army of producers, make up artists, videographers, go-fers and digital aides-de-camp required to support the "talent." The number is closer to 500, a CNN source told me. NBC and MSNBC sent more than 45 anchors, correspondents and embeds. ABC has about 200 people there.
You get the picture. Coverage of the RNC was excessive. Especially when you consider that there's little opportunity to snag a story no one else has -- unless you are a lone tweeter in LA with an excellent memory.
(The other irony: Amidst the unfolding news about Fox News icon Roger Ailes, who by week's end stepped down over sexual harassment charges, scores of reporters found themselves trying to cover a real story happening in New York from press booths in Cleveland.)
Robert Bluey, editor of The Daily Signal, a multimedia news organization of the Heritage Foundation, summed up the ridiculousness of the Cleveland media landscape to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. "With so much media attention on the RNC, it's a challenge to find a fresh angle for stories, said Bluey. 'How can we produce unique content our audience can't find elsewhere?'"
The answer is simple. They can't. The 15,000-member media army roaming "The Q" (as the Quicken Loans Arena is known) for nuggets of news equates to six journalists for every one of the nearly 2,500 delegates.
In reality, the Republican convention (and the same will be true for the Democratic version) is just a big, fun blowout for journalists to get together, drink, party and gossip. It's the famed, often-mocked White House Correspondents Association dinner on super steroids.
It is not serving the public to have thousands and thousands of skilled journalists milling around The Q interviewing each other. What stories are going uncovered? And parenthetically, would they be covered anyway in a media culture that celebrates celebrities, loves quick hits and can't wait to move on to the next Big Event? Remember the shootings of and by police in Dallas, Baton Rouge and Falcon Heights, Minnesota?
Why do so many journalists and media organizations go? Why do news operations spend (conservatively) tens of thousands of dollars to "cover" what amounts to a four-day political commercial? What do they hope to gain at an event where the outcome is preordained?
Ken Doctor, an expert on the news business who writes for Politico and at Newseconomics, believes the RNC coverage is justified.
"Of course, it can seem like overkill, but it is the story of the moment, and one with huge implications for American democracy," said Doctor via email. "Most political conventions indeed fall into mere pageantry, but this one has actually offered news day after day. Anytime media coverage converges on simply reporting the same set of known facts -- Olympics, coming up -- that seems like a textbook example of the poor resource allocation. This convention, though, perhaps more than Hillary's, is different."
True, this convention has more potential than most for delivering the unexpected, given the freewheeling and at times reckless nature of Republican nominee Donald J. Trump. Yet is one more Trump eruption, one more angst-ridden, nose-holding Republican really the kind of news that merits wall-to-wall, flood-the-zone coverage the conventions get?
Consider this different assessment: "You know, conventions -- people call them political conventions," Jonah Goldberg of National Reviewtold NPR. "But in reality, to a large extent, they're media conventions... It's a chance for everybody to get together and catch up and have drinks and commiserate and gossip."
So our nation's newshound go -- and will continue to go in spite of the wretched excess -- for the prestige, the vanity of being part of the pack, and the pure fun of hanging out at Politico's Oxygen Bar or the CNN Grill getting free food and drinks. They go to be seen and see. They go to schmooze, and network with the thousands of political operatives that surpass the number of delegates. "It's truly surreal," one journo friend told me.
Maybe by some measures (especially the click-driven metrics that now animate cash-starved newsrooms), this convention may have offered "news," but for a country deprived of the kind of in-depth, nuanced information that voters need to keep this democracy afloat, the result of packing 15,000 journalists into a few square miles has been, as they might say in one of Cleveland's bars, more foam than beer.
"Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country who are standing up and speaking out for our voting rights, fundamental freedoms, and essential services like Social Security and Medicare."
In communities large and small across the United States on Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people collectively took to the streets to make their opposition to President Donald Trump heard.
The people who took part in the organized protests ranged from very young children to the elderly and their message was scrawled on signs of all sizes and colors—many of them angry, some of them funny, but all in line with the "Hands Off" message that brought them together.
"Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country who are standing up and speaking out for our voting rights, fundamental freedoms, and essential services like Social Security and Medicare," said the group Stand Up America as word of the turnout poured in from across the country.
A relatively small, but representative sample of photographs from various demonstrations that took place follows.
Demonstrators gather on Boston Common, cheering and chanting slogans, during the nationwide "Hands Off!" protest against US President Donald Trump and his advisor, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in Boston, Massachusetts on April 5, 2025. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP)
"Everyone involved in this crime against humanity, and everyone who covered it up, would face prosecution in a world that had any shred of dignity left."
A video presented to officials at the United Nations on Friday and first made public Saturday by the New York Times provides more evidence that the recent massacre of Palestinian medics in Gaza did not happen the way Israeli government claimed—the latest in a long line of deception when it comes to violence against civilians that have led to repeated accusations of war crimes.
The video, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), was found on the phone of a paramedic found in a mass grave with a bullet in his head after being killed, along with seven other medics, by Israeli forces on March 23. The eight medics, buried in the shallow grave with the bodies riddled with bullets, were: Mustafa Khafaja, Ezz El-Din Shaat, Saleh Muammar, Refaat Radwan, Muhammad Bahloul, Ashraf Abu Libda, Muhammad Al-Hila, and Raed Al-Sharif. The video reportedly belonged to Radwan. A ninth medic, identified as Asaad Al-Nasasra, who was at the scene of the massacre, which took place near the southern city of Rafah, is still missing.
The PRCS said it presented the video—which refutes the explanation of the killings offered by Israeli officials—to members of the UN Security Council on Friday.
"They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives," Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN's humanitarian affairs office in Palestine, said last week after the bodies were discovered. Some of the victims, according to Gaza officials, were found with handcuffs still on them and appeared to have been shot in the head, execution-style.
The Israeli military initially said its soldiers "did not randomly attack" any ambulances, but rather claimed they fired on "terrorists" who approached them in "suspicious vehicles." Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an IDF spokesperson, said the vehicles that the soldiers opened fire on were driving with their lights off and did not have clearance to be in the area. The video evidence directly contradicts the IDF's version of events.
As the Times reports:
The Times obtained the video from a senior diplomat at the United Nations who asked not to be identified to be able to share sensitive information.
The Times verified the location and timing of the video, which was taken in the southern city of Rafah early on March 23. Filmed from what appears to be the front interior of a moving vehicle, it shows a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, clearly marked, with headlights and flashing lights turned on, driving south on a road to the north of Rafah in the early morning. The first rays of sun can be seen, and birds are chirping.
In an interview with Drop Site News published Friday, the only known paramedic to survive the attack, Munther Abed, explained that he and his colleagues "were directly and deliberately shot at" by the IDF. "The car is clearly marked with 'Palestinian Red Crescent Society 101.' The car's number was clear and the crews' uniform was clear, so why were we directly shot at? That is the question."
The video's release sparked fresh outrage and demands for accountability on Saturday.
"The IDF denied access to the site for days; they sent in diggers to cover up the massacre and intentionally lied about it," said podcast producer Hamza M. Syed in reaction to the new revelations. "The entire leadership of the Israeli army is implicated in this unconscionable war crime. And they must be prosecuted."
"Everyone involved in this crime against humanity, and everyone who covered it up, would face prosecution in a world that had any shred of dignity left," said journalist Ryan Grim of DropSite News.
"They're dismantling our country. They're looting our government. And they think we'll just watch."
In communities across the United States and also overseas, coordinated "Hands Off" protests are taking place far and wide Saturday in the largest public rebuke yet to President Donald Trump and top henchman Elon Musk's assault on the workings of the federal government and their program of economic sabotage that is sacrificing the needs of working families to authoritarianism and the greed of right-wing oligarchs.
Indivisible, one of the key organizing groups behind the day's protests, said millions participated in more than 1,300 individual rallies as they demanded "an end to Trump's authoritarian power grab" and condemning all those aiding and abetting it.
"We expected hundreds of thousands. But at virtually every single event, the crowds eclipsed our estimates," the group said in a statement Saturday evening.
"Hands off our healthcare, hands off our civil rights, hands off our schools, our freedoms, and our democracy."
"This is the largest day of protest since Trump retook office," the group added. "And in many small towns and cities, activists are reporting the biggest protests their communities have ever seen as everyday people send a clear, unmistakable message to Trump and Musk: Hands off our healthcare, hands off our civil rights, hands off our schools, our freedoms, and our democracy."
According to the organizers' call to action:
They're dismantling our country. They’re looting our government. And they think we'll just watch.
On Saturday, April 5th, we rise up with one demand: Hands Off!
This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history. Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights—enabled by Congress every step of the way. They want to strip America for parts—shuttering Social Security offices, firing essential workers, eliminating consumer protections, and gutting Medicaid—all to bankroll their billionaire tax scam.
They're handing over our tax dollars, our public services, and our democracy to the ultra-rich. If we don't fight now, there won’t be anything left to save.
The more than 1,300 "Hands Off!" demonstrations—organized by a large coalition of unions, progressive advocacy groups, and pro-democracy watchdogs—first kicked off Saturday in Europe, followed by East Coast communities in the U.S., and continued throughout the day at various times, depending on location. See here for a list of scheduled "Hands Off" events.
"The United States has a president, not a king," said the progressive advocacy group People's Action, one of the group's involved in the actions, in an email to supporters Saturday morning just as protest events kicked off in hundreds of cities and communities. "Donald Trump has, by every measure, been working to make himself a king. He has become unanswerable to the courts, Congress, and the American people."
In its Saturday evening statement, Indivisible said the actions far exceeded their expectations and should be seen as a turning point in the battle to stop Trump and his minions:
The Trump administration has spent its first 75 days in office trying to overwhelm us, to make us feel powerless, so that we will fall in line, accept the ransacking of our government, the raiding of our social safety net, and the dismantling of our democracy.
And too often, the response from our leaders and those in positions to resist has been abject cowardice. Compliance. Obeying in advance.
But not today. Today we've demonstrated a different path forward. We've modeled the courage and action that we want to see from our leaders, and showed all those who've been standing on the sidelines who share our values that they are not alone.
Citing the Republican president's thirst for "power and greed," People's Action earlier explained why organized pressure must be built and sustained against the administration, especially at the conclusion of a week in which the global economy was spun into disarray by Trump's tariff announcement, his attack on the rule of law continued, and the twice-elected president admitted he was "not joking" about the possibility of seeking a third term, which is barred by the constitution.
"He is destroying the economy with tariffs in order to pay for the tax cuts he wants to push through to enrich himself and his billionaire buddies," warned People's Action. "He has ordered the government to round up innocent people off of the streets and put them in detention centers without due process because they dared to speak out using their First Amendment rights. And he is not close to being done—by his own admission, he is planning to run for a third term, which the Constitution does not allow."
Live stream of Hands Off rally in Washington, D.C.:
Below are photo or video dispatches from demonstrations around the world on Saturday. Check back for updates...
United Kingdom
France
Germany
Belgium:
Massachusetts:
Maine:
Washington, D.C.:
New York:
Minnesota:
Michigan:
Ohio:
Colorado:
Pennsylvania:
North Carolina:
The protest organizers warn that what Trump and Musk are up to "is not just corruption" and "not just mismanagement," but something far more sinister.
"This is a hostile takeover," they said, but vowed to fight back. "This is the moment where we say NO. No more looting, no more stealing, no more billionaires raiding our government while working people struggle to survive."