Media reports sugarcoat bitter rhetoric from Thursday’s demonstrations
November 14, 2016
In Milwaukee’s Red Arrow Park and on State Street in Madison, demonstrators gathered Thursday night to protest Tuesday’s election results and the victory of President-elect Donald Trump.
The MacIver Institute documented both events, which featured mostly peaceful protesters carrying a variety of signs – some vulgar – and filling the streets with chants littered with profanity. Thanks to reporting by the mainstream media, however, most Wisconsinites saw only a gathering of families and concerned citizens expressing their opposition to the President-elect.
WISN-TV’s broadcast coverage of the protest in Milwaukee reported that, “Mothers and fathers took their young children to demonstrations to see peaceful protests in action…as they walked west on Wisconsin (Street) and across downtown, they hoped the image of people from different faiths, backgrounds, and generations would send a message of solidarity.”
Missing from their reporting were the not-so-family-friendly signs and chants that permeated the event.
Likewise, WTMJ-TV’s report stated that protesters showed up at the demonstration to speak up for minority and LGBT rights, but also omitted any mention of the more vulgar signage and language.
The MacIver Institute followed the demonstrators and captured video the mainstream outlets wouldn’t show and didn’t mention:
Red Arrow protesters against #Trump took to streets. This is one chant. **Language warning** #wiright #wipolitics pic.twitter.com/sunsO24vsH
— MacIver Institute (@MacIverWisc) November 11, 2016
The stations had wildly different estimates of the number of people who showed up at the Milwaukee protest. WISN quoted an estimate from the ACLU that the crowd numbered about 3,000, while WTMJ reported an estimate from police that the crowd numbered closer to 500.
Protesters in Madison also got in on the act Thursday night when students and others gathered for an event called “Storm the Capital. Make Trump Hear Our Voices.” An estimated 2,000 people walked up State Street from Bascom Hall on the UW-Madison campus to the steps of the state Capitol.
See photos from the Madison and Milwaukee protests here (click on any photo to see the entire gallery):
The MacIver Institute also live streamed the Milwaukee protests as demonstrators marched around downtown Milwaukee:
In addition to the protests, the “Solidarity Singers,” a group of protesters who gather to sing in the Capitol rotunda daily, also took the opportunity to protest the President-elect in addition to Gov. Walker.
Also, joining another national trend, the Graduate Worker Union at UW-Madison offered to help its members process their feelings in the wake of the election with “facilitated sharing circles” and by pointing people to resources “for marginalized students who have felt particularly targeted during this election.”