Protest, Interviews, & Censorship by the Los Angeles Times

On Saturday, March 17th, 2007, I participated in an Anti-War Protest in Los Angeles on the anniversary of the begining of the current Iraq War. I went with Audrey, (check her blog entry for more details on the protest) other students from Cal Arts and UCLA, and the L.A. Chapter of Artists Against the War. Audrey, had sewn black hood liken to the hoods worn by detainees. These were worn by 10 of us, including Audrey and myself.

At the begining of the march, I was approached by a LA Times staff writer who asked if he could ask me some questions. He requested I remove my hood so I could speak to him, I obliged him. He first asked of course why the hoods. He asked where I was from and if I was a student and was surprised that I was here all the way from New York. The question of why I was out here protesting came up, during the course of answering the question I mentioned the military history of my family. This seemed to interest him a great deal and spent much time going over it with me.

During the rest of the march there was a group of us wearing the hoods that walked together for the most part and were of much interest to the press who were continually photographing us throughout the march.

Upon reaching the end, Audrey and Myself went and stood among the mock coffins placed in the street by Veterens Against the War. A strong symbolic image and also iconic that resulted in a continuous flow of attention from the press. Some of these images can be seen here about midway down the page on LA Indie Media.

That evening Audrey and myself checked the Los Angeles Times website for any article about the protest. We did find one about the protest which included a full 3 paragraphs about me with two quotes. The article was for the most part pro anti-war. The screenshots of the original article are below.







The next day, I returned to New York and upon landing Audrey notified me that the article had been completely edited and the article that went to print was the revised version. The new article looked to marginalize the protest by saying it lacked large turnout, that it included celebrities and musicians, and all in all was a "kind of a freak show." You can see the revised article here Thousands protest in Hollywood.

So, it seems that the article was completely revamped likely by the parental corporate structure that now exercises oversite over its operation. In recent this has caused resignations by editors. Apparently I am worthy of being censored by the "parental units" of the Los Angeles Times.