Democracy Awakening Mobilized Protesters To “Protect Voting Rights, Get Big Money Out Of Politics,” and Demand Action On President Obama’s Supreme Court Nomination. The protest was from April 16 through 18 in Washington, D.C.
Democracy Spring Urges Congressional Action On Specific Bills To “Save Our Democracy.” an April 19 article explained that a group called Democracy Spring organized mass protests in Washington, D.C., to “demand that Congress listen to the People and take immediate action to save our democracy,” according to the group’s website.
Democracy Spring has four specific legislative demands:
- Passing legislation to overturn the 2010 Citizens United decision.
- Passing an update to the Voting Rights Act to restore provisions of the law struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.
- Passing the Voter Empowerment Act to make voter registration easier.
- Passing the Fair Elections Now Act to create a public financing system for Senate candidates.
USA Today reported on April 18 that the week of protests against "the influence of money in politics" in Washington, D.C., organized by Democracy Awakening and Democracy Spring had amassed thousands of participants and led to hundreds of arrests. The protests and sit-ins also targeted "the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case" and "laws [Democracy Awakening] considers discriminatory, such as Voter ID laws".
Evening Broadcast News Programs Devoted Less Than Half A Minute To Demonstrations
A Media Matters analysis found that of the four broadcast network evening shows: ABC's World News Tonight, CBS' CBS Evening News, NBC's NBC Nightly News, and PBS's PBS NewsHour, only PBS NewsHour devoted any airtime to covering the Democracy Awakening and Democracy Spring protests in Washington, D.C., from April 11 to 18. The coverage on PBS was scant, however, with only two segments totaling 29 seconds devoted to the demonstrations.
Weekend Network Programs Entirely Ignored The Protests
The analysis found that the five network weekend programs: ABC's This Week, CBS' Face the Nation, NBC's Meet the Press, Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, and PBS' PBS NewsHour Weekend, entirely omitted coverage of the demonstrations and sit-ins in Washington, D.C., during their April 16 and 17 broadcasts.
Limited Coverage Emphasized Arrests, Ignored Specific Goals Of Protests
The minimal coverage garnered by the protests made no mention of the goals of Democracy Awakening and Democracy Spring, instead emphasizing how many protesters were arrested. On the April 18 edition of PBS’ PBS NewsHour, Hari Sreenivasan said of the protests: “Meanwhile, 300 people were arrested at the U.S. Capitol. It’s the latest in a week’s worth of protests against big money in politics.” The April 11 edition of PBS NewsHour had similar coverage.
The analysis included any segment devoted to the Democracy Spring and Democracy Awakening protests and sit-ins in Washington, D.C., as well as any substantial mention of money in politics or campaign finance directly pertaining to the protests. Discussions of campaign finance reform or money in politics not pertaining to the protests were excluded. Reruns, teases for upcoming segments, and passing mentions were excluded.
Timestamps, segment duration, and number of segments were acquired through iQ Media, SnapStream, and LexisNexis. Coverage that counted toward the totals included discussions where the stated topics were Democracy Spring, Democracy Awakening, or protests over money in politics that took place in Washington, D.C.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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