As reported by NewsBuster Richard Newcomb, an interesting clash between the anti-war group Code Pink and the pro-military Move America Forward occurred at a United States Marines recruitment center in Berkeley, California, on Wednesday.
Although one of the local newspapers did a fairly balanced report of the confrontation - including quite surprisingly beginning the piece "Flag-waving demonstrators far outnumbered a group of peace advocates" - the Bay Area's CBS-TV affiliate, KPIX, painted quite disparate pictures of the leaders of the organizations involved.
In particular, MAF's Melanie Morgan was depicted as an evil, intransigent warmonger after she was asked the following (video available here):
ANN NOTARANGELO, KPIX : Do you think you could ever sit across, with a cup of coffee, and talk with somebody from Code Pink?
MORGAN: No. Never, ever would I ever speak to any of those individuals other than the most disparaging manner possible.
This came moments after Code Pink's Medea Benjamin was shown saying:
I feel sorry for that level of aggression that they have. I've tried to dialogue with them. I've tried to invite them into our house.
Interesting contrast, wouldn't you agree? Benjamin was depicted as a calm, thoughtful, open-minded individual while Morgan was shown to be totally closed off to discussion and filled with hatred.
But that was just the beginning, for moments later, Morgan was shown saying, without any context, "To go straight to hell." No such brief snippet of Benjamin making aggressive statements of any kind was offered.
As a result, Bay Area viewers were left with the impression that those on the anti-war side of the debate are marvelous individuals all just worried about saving innocent lives.
Contrarily, the picture of pro-military supporters was as typical an ugly caricature of crazed minds in love with everything related to war.
How sad.
For those interested, KTVU-TV in the Bay Area created this astonishing video of the confrontation in Berkeley that day. Viewers should be advised that the footage is raw with some vulgarity.
Also, for a more neutral report on this event, here is a video from ABC-TV affiliate KGO.
