Neo-Nazi rally in Arkansas was newsworthy
Neo-Nazi rally in Arkansas was newsworthy By Steve Barnes It wasn’t a total news blackout, but close. The statewide daily newspaper had a reporter and photographer on site but published no story, no picture. One of the four Little Rock television stations carried a brief report, while the other three remained silent. Understaffed, public radio passed. The left-leaning Arkansas Times blog made cursory, condemnatory mention of it. At issue: last Saturday’s rally at the State Capitol of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), widely regarded as a neo-Nazi hate group. The news agencies that disdained the event did so either from an announced resolve to avoid amplifying a message of undisguised bigotry, or to avoid granting a patently staged affair the imprimatur of real, serious news. At the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, managing editor David Bailey: “Our usual practice is we don’t write up events that are obviously for publicity.” In other words, events that are, well, fake news.