The Pioneer Press's Role in a State of Fear

Fear of State is Autonomously Maintained
The federal government in the States uses fear to prevent public demonstrations of opposition. For many, a fear of arrest and bodily harm are two reasons that kept them from peacefully protesting issues important to them. Unfortunately, this creates a community where people are more willing to risk a DUI arrest over an unlawful assembly arrest. I spoke with lower-upper class neighbors, many types of young people, conservative Roman Catholic family and strangers to find that many opposed two key issues: the war in Iraq and big money in politics. As my middle-aged neighbor tells me, “I would’ve liked to protest but my god, it felt like a police state down there, I don’t want to be arrested!”
The government intentionally fueled this fear in two ways. One way was through illegal arrests. For example, Amy Goodman (host of nationally-recognized Democracy Now!) was illegally arrested for attempting to free her press colleagues who were being detained illegally. On the last night, a crowd gathered outside of the convention. The people were never told to disperse and when they tried to leave they were prevented. The officers did not say whether or not they were being detained or arrested. In this scenario, citizens are legally free to leave. Shortly after, hundreds of people (including members of the press) were arrested. In conclusion, the government incited fear among protesters and protesters-to-be by illegally arresting people en mass as well as members of the media.
Preemptive use of force is another way that the state weakened the number of peaceful protesters. After a crowd had successfully (and legally) marched to the convention, police physically prevented its numbers from growing at the rally. As the crowd slowly dispersed, police deployed tear gas and pepper spray on a crowd of innocent civilians. After this event made headline news the number of protesters greatly diminished for the rest of the convention. This state of fear fueled by the state only increases apathy despite opposition to key factors of the Republican agenda.
This past week was unsuccessful in many ways on a federal level because the numbers were not with us due to a fear of direct action. However, on a small scale we did create change. For example, Zac de la Rocha attempted to play a free show but the police pulled the plug. Afterwards, several friends and I rallied the crowd of several hundred to march the convention headquarters. Hours later the police attacked the peaceful protest with tear gas and pepper spray. In the paper the next day, police actions were shamed. It has been proven that an effective way to create change on a political scale is to embarrass the government. While we did not have the numbers at an impromptu march for a large scale statement; locally we affected change by embarrassing the federal police on a local level.
Assumptive Perspectives of Mass Media
Headlines inherently slant articles and therefore can be highly persuasive when broadcast to a mass audience. The hometown mainstream newspapers poorly explained or understood three loaded and often headline words. ‘Anarchy’ is a complex concept that cannot precisely be defined. There are many ways to be a ‘protester’ but there are unifying points between them all. A term such as ‘maverick’ can be highly relative. The mainstream newspapers imply a specific meaning through assumptions of knowledge.
Anarchy is a self-defined concept that, to me, means a more horizontal power structure that functions by means of self-governance. The idea of people not ruling over each other and not tolerating a state of being ruled is one key component of anarchy. Upon raiding a few individual houses the term ‘anarchist’ quickly adopted an inherently violent and chaotic connotation for readers of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It made potential protesters leery of demonstrating in fear that a renegade anarchist bloc would sneak into the peaceful group and violently incite riot police to tear gas, pepper spray or arrest the entire group. However, it was the riot police who took preemptive measures to violently quell peaceful protests. The newspaper assumed that the readers knew what anarchy really calls for and applied one situation to an entire group of people.
A protest can be an individual boycott on a product, a public demonstration, a piece of art, and support for the opposition among many other things. The St. Paul paper took away the strength of the protesters’ numbers by using the same tactic, divide and conquer, as did the riot police. Yes, the protesters as a collective had different points of interest and various ways of making them heard. However, one underlying theme among all the protesters was distaste for big money in politics that changes the motives for actors’ decisions. There was not a single article that attempted to write on the protest movement from a holistic perspective. Meanwhile, the RNC attendees were labeled as one single united force. Protesting efforts were described on an individual basis which made the collective appear ineffective to mainstream readers.
As the Pioneer Press writes, John McCain is ‘the maverick Republican who does not work for special interest, Capital Hill, the party itself, or himself but for you’. This is simply a lie; to be nominated the individual has to work for the Republican Party, to not work for someone’s special interest is impossible, ex-President’s never have financial worries, and if Capital Hill becomes red in the coming election he’ll have to work for them. The real maverick in the Republican race was Ron Paul, the one nominee not allowed to speak the RNC Xcel Energy Center. The word maverick is loosely defined in the newspaper and it is assumed that readers understand the narrow spectrum of United States politics.
Conclusion
While it is not the role of the newspaper to incite social change through biased framing of new stories, the reverse it also true. Dominate news institutions framed protestor news stories in a mechanical, fragmented way that increased fear and apathy of social change. However, the paper did fragment a couple events from a protestor perspective. It may be true that certain assumptions are unavoidable from a mainstream media source but they don’t have to be made from limited perspectives. It may also be true that a person with power will build a protective wall to maintain the position using various scare tactics. The state’s preemptive fear mongering exposed by the local media became national news more than once. Most protestors would agree that it exposed the problem of big money in politics. Even if it was for brief moment only, the actions of the protesters created a slight social change away from a state of fear and a paradigm setting newspaper. Yet, there are many ways to protest.