Coverage of hecklers unbalanced

Karen Jansen Albemarle County
Published: July 14, 2008

As a researcher, I am accustomed to basing conclusions on data and empirical observations. On July 4, I had the opportunity to be a participant observer at the naturalization ceremony at Monticello.

I also recorded and observed the midday and eve-ning news reports of two local channels and the three national news programs. So, I had plenty of data to work with. Here are my observations.

Remember the adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease? Nowhere is that more apparent than in the media coverage of this event. The actions of .18 percent of attendees garnered 50 percent of the media coverage.

Put another way, the actions of 99.8 percent of those sitting on the lawn at Thomas Jefferson’s home were virtually ignored. That silent majority waved flags, applauded and respected the goal of this event — to welcome new citizens into our country.

The local media did a much better job conveying the actual tone of the event than the national media. ABC national news was by far the worst. It reported 76 (rather than the actual 72) citizens in the ceremony, and also stated that “twice that number jeered” during the President’s speech.

Based on my observation, calculations and police re-ports, there were six. Six obviously staged, irritatingly overacted interruptions.

I couldn’t agree more with Bryan McKenzie’s article in the July 5 Daily Progress (“Protestors make point of diminishing event”).
Unlike Bryan, however, I sat in the red section, and a neighbor sat in the green section. Across all colors, my observations were the same. Young children were scared by the outbursts; adults jeered the protesters, not the president, and many parents were given the opportunity to teach a moral lesson about respect and appropriately timed and communicated free speech.

The 72 new citizens spent the morning at Thomas Jefferson’s home, became U.S. citizens amidst pomp and circumstance and were officially welcomed into this country by our president.

The 99.8 percent of us that remained to the end of the ceremony witnessed the handshakes, hugs and pride, and were touched by the testimonials of the new citizens. 
The data speaks for itself.