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Glenn Beck's rally: you make the call

Glenn Beck is holding a "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow. It's not going to be political, he says, "because I haven't found a lot of honor when it's followed by an 'R' or a 'D'."

It will get a good deal of television coverage, I suspect, because these kinds of things do. This story says that the National Park Service expects about 100,000 people to attend. I've seen another estimate to be 300,000, but I can't find the link now.

This Washington Post story quotes Guilford County's own Marcus Kindley: "There's a buildup of energy out here of people frustrated because they don't think Washington's listening. At 9/12, it was a wonderful coming together of people who felt like their voices weren't being heard. And I think the reason so many more are coming this year is because our voices still aren't being heard."

But is this a front page story for us on Sunday? That's a hard one to call early, but I know that if we do not put it on the front page, we will get calls and letters saying that we "buried" the biggest event of the year (because of our liberal bias) and that we're out of touch with people's political sensibilities. (This has happened before.)

We consider ourselves a local paper first, and while there will be a national story on the front page Sunday, it may not be about a non-political rally in Washington. Or, depending on what else is happening, it may be.

So, play the editor: Should we put the rally story on the front page?

Saturday update: Pretty much nothing unexpected happened. For awhile this afternoon, Google News had the Paris Hilton arrest as its lead story of the day. (FoxNews, Beck's network, has a story about Harry Reid's campaign as its top story.)

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Tags: News judgment, Front page

Posted by John Robinson on Friday, August 27, 2010 at 12:52 pm

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DonMoore

August 27, 2010 - 2:11 pm EDT

1. Watch and listen (cause I plan to be elsewhere).
2. If he walks on water or other miracle, get proof.
3. Blame the Tar Heels for secretly scheduling this "event" so close to their NCAA violation "discovery".

DonMoore

August 28, 2010 - 11:11 am EDT

I thought the event would be this afternoon and I also fell for the what people were saying about it (and not what it's real purpose was). After an hour of listening and occasionally watching. I am impressed. Any church-goers offended had better quit going to church or find a real one instead of some social hour service.

Still waiting for something that warrants the front page.

DonMoore

August 28, 2010 - 7:11 pm EDT

Watched the entire thing. Definitely NOT front page news. If you get some first person accounts, they might may a nice Life or Religion article. Closing lanes of I-40 (even through it was previously reported) had more affect on my day.

RandolphBloke

August 27, 2010 - 2:17 pm EDT

No, at this point at least it is not front page news. This is someone using an event with rather unusual timing in order to round up personal publicity. We shouldn't just give it to him without real "news" taking place. There are events that attract thousands, and hundreds of thousands, in Washington rather frequently that do not make front page news.

soatbs

August 27, 2010 - 2:24 pm EDT

I agree with Randolph. Unless there's some local angle to this I'm missing, I don't think it needs to be on the front page. And, you'll get letters & calls regardless of what you do, so IMHO, stick with local news.

brian444

August 27, 2010 - 5:41 pm EDT

What else ya got? This is somewhere between "Moon Landing" (definite yes) and "Lines on Bryan Boulevard Repainted" (definite no, although I think it was front page for the buried Tea Party rally last year). It depends on the competition.

Observation: you find a local connection when you want one. Here, the Post has done the work for you.

John Robinson

August 27, 2010 - 5:46 pm EDT

Oh, we'll have Marcus in our story Sunday, assuming he calls us back. And we hope he says something better than what he told the Post. But that doesn't necessarily elevate the story to the front page.

What else? We won't know until tomorrow. We try to put one national story on the front page and right now, it's looking like Katrina, 5 years later. If the rally is peaceful and full of the expected speechifying, it's doubtful it will make it onto A1.

Spag

August 27, 2010 - 10:13 pm EDT

"If the rally is peaceful and full of the expected speechifying, it's doubtful it will make it onto A1."

If however we can find a few people in the crowd with signs that could be interpreted as racist, we will put that photo on A1 and attempt to portray the whole crowd as being racists.

John Robinson

August 28, 2010 - 7:51 am EDT

Now you know as well as I do that Beck said no signs so that option is out.

Andy

August 27, 2010 - 11:19 pm EDT

Why don't you ask GOD what you should do?

tpartrick

August 28, 2010 - 9:10 am EDT

This looks like an event that should be reported on. If 300,000 show up and something new happens, put it on the cover. If 300,000 attend and the event is just a Tea Party festival-on-the-mall, it's plain old national news.

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (Rev. Sharpton, too!) events aren't news; they're just celebrities. This smells like a pure media event, like the Super Bowl halftime entertainment.

Doug Johnson

August 28, 2010 - 9:55 pm EDT

Front page news, not in my opinion.
Just a bunch of great Americans tired off the BS. ( both parties)
I would have loved to been there, because of sickness in the family, could not go.
If any of you want to see this event trashed, may I recommend Britt and Brad, Monday morning.
I better my great putting stroke, these two will spin this to death .
Have a great week end.

Dogwood

August 29, 2010 - 1:42 pm EDT

Paris Hilton needs to be sentenced to twelve months looking at herself in a mirror seeing the image back of the death and slaughter her cocaine drug habit has caused on our border towns. She contributes to the death of innocent men, women and children with her fun fun fun attitude. The Beck business is media glamore and is just profit in his pocket and loud.

wrkeeney

September 1, 2010 - 9:08 pm EDT

The whole thing was political. It was funded by Fox, the K brothers from Texas, Freedom Works, the NRA, corporate America, and brother Beck's Mormon church. I made the trip up on Saturday leaving Greensboro at 4 a.m. and getting home at 10:30 p.m. Beck and Palin are pandering to anger, particularly the anger of white people who resent at black president. The Beck/Palin rally was 99+% white. The Reclaim the Dream march was 95% black. How's that for a racial divide? Beck never discussed the content of Dr. King's sermon; he simply sought to wrap himself in it and the flag. I walked 4 miles with 100,000 black people from across the country who refused to sit quietly while Pharoah claimed Moses as his hero and ignored Moses' pleas to let his people go. Wake up folks! You are being scammed. Racism is a tool, so is Glen Beck.