ahlamuna

I am from Minneapolis originally and returned there right before the protests. I have been on the front lines of protests, listening to organizers and others. I don’t feel that the media coverage is reflecting the reality of the vast majority of protests here.
Being here on the ground, do you feel that the media coverage of the protests in Minneapolis have been representative and balanced?

Well, for one thing, the media is accepting and reporting that the semi driver who drove into a crowd of protesters did it by accident. I spoke to several people who were almost killed by him and witnesses who confirmed that he saw people and did not slow down and continued to drive. Much of it is not inaccurate as it is not representative. I live in New York now, and a woman there who has been to Kabul recently told me she thought Minneapolis was more dangerous than Kabul from what she was reading. That was an exaggeration, but the media has overplayed the “violence” (which is not physical harm but property destruction) and given very little time to the demands of the organizers. Sometimes there is only one independent/non-corporate media outlet covering the protests I’m at with hundreds of people. I know of several people who have been hurt by tear gas and rubber bullets but no one who has been physically harmed by protesters. Meanwhile, I saw no coverage of the white supremacist bomb threat that broke up the peaceful protest I was at on Monday.