As what TV reports later described as “several hundred” protestors were preparing to gather for a protest at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland Thursday evening, Oregon Public Broadcasting‘s local news report during the 5:30 break in “All Things Considered” made note of the nationwide, coordinated protests by referring to the “wry” smile they gave to a soldier from Fort Lewis. He was smiling because — and I have to paraphrase here because OPB doesn’t have their news reports archived online — he was going to be going to Iraq next spring as a part of the “surge” strategy to protect the right of the protestors to protest.
No indication was given as to why that particular soldier was chosen to speak. No voice of any protester or protest organizer was heard during the piece. No opinion was presented apart from that of the soldier.
And, of course, there wasn’t any questioning of exactly how 25 million Iraqis were supposedly impinging on the rights of 300 million Americans to protest or anything else, or how a war in Iraq was preventing that.