Sparsely attended indeed for a day where the “kick the Second Amendment lovers” folks decided to have a “National Day to Demand Action”. WMUR decided to cover it, with a quick spot at 5pm by reporter, Jennifer Gannon, sweeping her hand towards the middle of the Portsmouth’s Market Square announcing the soon-to-start rally – showing a completely empty area. Don’t worry, she adds, they will be coming! They sure did!
At 6pm, it was one of WMUR lead-off stories, with anchor Jennifer Vaughn doing the throw-over to Gannon for this rally sponsored by Project for Safer Communities NH. Given that WMUR was covering this, it just HAD to be a big deal, right? Well, as Gannon started her patter, I started to frame-by-frame to count noses. Again, lots of people for this NATIONAL day of protest for one set of folks to take away Constitutional rights from another?
Er, not so much.
I counted 10 adults and 2 kids in one shot. During her patter, Gannon said “dozens” were there; later on during a more sweeping / pan shot, I counted the 3 kids and 20 adults – barely 2 dozen. Well attended for this rally that was already a 1/2 hour into its “festivities”, right? Squish hard, and I bet I could have put them all into the Tahoe (darn, but I miss the Suburban; it would have been easy!). But those ‘dozens’ had a TV camera present, right? Breathless coverage? Doubtful you’ll be able to
make the call as it is not clear that the 2 minutes (a good amount of time for such a spot) of video will be on the website.
Contrast that with this: there have been several Second Amendment rallies lately here in NH with the latest one held on 2/23/2013 (plug: the Honor Your Oath rally is coming April 13th) – The .223 Day of Resistance – where approximately 400 hundred or more Patriots came to Concord to demonstrate for their Second Amendment Rights that should not “be infringed” on a cold snowy day. I would say that number would be sufficient to say “dozens” and be safe. Yes, GraniteGrok was there, and yes I spoke, so I personally saw that the State House plaza was full of those 400+ folks. There was an earlier one in Concord with approximately 700 estimated ralliers.
TV cameras at either? Mention on TV NEWS show at WMUR? Not so much -insert cricket noise here.
So, WMUR, are you going provide “fair and balanced”? You’ve seemingly ignored the much larger crowds on the Right thus far and highlighted the piddling number on the Left. Is this a glimpse behind the curtain of the MainStream Media to enforce a narrative? C’mon Vaughn, Griffith and Alisha McDevitt (news director) send somebody to the April 13th Honor Your Oath rally!
GraniteGrok videos of the .223 Day of Resistance:
- .223 Day of Resistance – Dan Dumaine and Diane Bitter
- .223 Day of Resistance – Pam Tucker and Mike Rogers
- .223 Day of Resistance – Father Christian Tutor and Jeff Chidester
- .223 Day of Resistance – Susan Olsen and Jane Cormier
- .223 Day of Resistance – Jack Kimball and Donna Murphy
- .223 Day of Resistance – Susan Olsen, wrap up
