Standing Rock vs Crawford - Coverage Matters

 Two journalists present at Water Protector action

I was at the Camp Casey protest outside the Crawford Ranch in 2005. Protestors joined Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in the Iraq War, as she demanded a face to face meeting with the president. When denied, she made camp right outside President Bush’s Crawford, Texas vacation ranch. For most protestors it was an exercise in expressing discontent with the decision to go to war with Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction.

To get to the rural Camp Casey, we had to drive for hours in the hot Texas sun. When we got close, we were made to squint as light ricocheted off the throngs of clean white media trucks; each with different colorful logos and satellite dishes popping out like lightning rods for the emotion of the country. 

The press sprang up from the grass like chiggers to cover the protestors and chew protestors to death with annoying questions. The story did not change. The reasons did not change. The days were the same, one after the other, a circus of media attention focused on a group of people waiting. The media made itself right at home on the side of the road next to the protestors.

By my third day, the press voided their list of original questions for the third day in a row. Employing the mother-in-law technique of nag and stick around for too long – they fished, fought, and nagged the group of protestors for stories, news bites, and information. When that failed, they fell back on covering themselves. 

 Nine journalists present to watch Cindy Sheehan put flowers on a grave.

A much longer protest is happening right now, an event of historical significance which would be nearly impossible to overstate. The issue addressed is nothing less than every problem in the political debates for president, every problem an American family will face in the next 50 years: the problems which caused the breakdown of the economy.

Delegates from around the world have been dispatched to Water Protector protest camps like Sacred Stone to meet with leaders of the protest and participate in actions. Hundreds of American tribes have sent delegates, and letters of support. Some are estimating this is the largest tribal gathering in history.

Even though it has international significance, I have yet to see a single news truck at the Water Protector camps. No sweaty camera men doing their best to keep up with their reporters as they engage the protestors about the issue. No lightning rods. No mother in laws. Just passing, second hand whispers.

A few hundred camped on the side of the road at the President’s ranch. A few thousand are camped at Sacred Stone and Red Warrior Camps just feet outside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

The people of Sacred Stone and Oceti Sakowin Camps, nor their concern about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) have merited almost no first hand coverage.

The issues at Standing Rock are slightly more complex than discontent with war but can be boiled down. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, and grandchildren are fighting to protect each others lives by protecting access to the most basic human needs, the most basic human right – clean water. The DAPL will cross under the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation’s source of water, and above one of the largest aquifers supplying water to agriculture in the country.

The indisputable fact that DAPL leaks will disproportionately affect people of color and the violence against natives is eerily familiar to violence faced by black people at the hands of police during the 1960’s civil rights movement has garnered movements of support from Black Lives Matter and other race focused advocacy groups.

Environmentalists are concerned that DAPL’s existence expands the extraction of fossil fuels which are contributing to climate change and when it it leaks, it will harm the ecosystem. Environmental groups have sent supplies and letters of support.

The DAPL protestors have been fighting to stop the pipeline and have to fight the government, and monied interests to do it. Occupy Wall Street wanted similar economic reform, faced the same foes, and were not subjected to attack dogs, pepper spray. A theme at Camp Casey was to stop war profiteering and no such violence was perpetrated against them even though one could argue the president’s personal well-being is a matter of national security.

Tribal leaders made a plea to the UN for assistance – something no one from Camp Casey did.

The protestors at Standing Rock have been subjected to pepper spray, and attack dogs by private security. Their prayers called riots. No attack animals were set lose on Camp Casey protestors, nor were their faces sprayed with pepper spray. Their prayers were called prayers.

Prayer vigils at Camp Casey never resulted in armored vehicles arriving with LRADS – a type of weapon which uses sound to cause so much pain it drives people away. Assault rifles were never pointed at Camp Casey waiters, never pointed at children, and shot guns pointed at grandmothers in Texas.

While surveillance was part of the Camp Casey protest, constant surveillance by air and car are part of Standing Rock Water Protector Camp's daily routine. COINTELPRO is a constant concern. Police airplanes are constantly overhead, helicopters and drones joining to create an airmada when protestors are performing actions. Police have created self made body cams out of go-pros and have professional quality equipment to take video of the crowd.

The National Guard has been called and they have established checkpoints in and out of the reservation; something which Camp Casey protestors never faced.

Riot police have been dispatched, bringing police armored vehicles to protest locations in spite of zero confirmed reports of violence by protestors. At Camp Casey, the police turned their backs to the protestors, to protect the protestors from the people who may be trying to hurt them.

Journalists were free to cover any aspect of the Camp Casey protest. Media covering Water Protector protests have been targeted for arrest. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now captured video of attack dogs let loose in the crowd of protestors and an arrest warrant was issued. I cannot remember journalists being arrested while covering any protests for Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, or Camp Casey.

I have heard other journalists complain that they cannot be at the camp to wait around for something to happen – a complaint I heard exactly 0 times at Camp Casey.

Delegates from indigenous people of Ecuador, Norway, and Sweden have come in solidarity and to help; something which did not happen at Camp Casey.

Presidential candidates have come to the camp, something not experienced at Camp Casey.

Even though the Standing Rock protest touches on almost every single issue which has been of of public interest for the past decade - the media has found it unsuitable for public exposure.

As a result of the media back turning, police have been issuing reports which have no foundation in truth and the media has been regurgitating them without verification. Attacks on protestors have been reported as attacks by protestors. While protest leaders and protestors all re-state over and over again that they do not want violence, before during and after the actions, and violence is prohibited, and no violence occurs; they are reported as violent by the local media.

Shame on you.