Anti-Bush demonstrators descended on major television news outlets in New York during the Republican National Convention, directing their sharpest criticism at Fox News while also targeting CNN and CBS.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal media watchdog that has tracked news coverage since 1986, organized the "March on the Media." The group argued that mainstream outlets had largely deferred to the White House on issues including the Iraq war, the 2000 Florida recount, and post-September 11 detention policies. Around 200 people gathered separately outside Fox headquarters.
FAIR member Julie Hollar cited the September 11 attacks as a turning point, arguing they produced a media environment in which President Bush "could do no wrong." The New York Times and the Washington Post had each published self-critical examinations of their pre-war Iraq reporting in the months prior.
At a cultural event called "Imagine," actress Kathleen Turner criticized media consolidation and what she called managed news. An independent press center run by Indymedia, a network founded after the 1999 Seattle protests, operated near Ground Zero, producing a nightly cable television program and its own print publication.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in September 2004, in its own words.