The March 26 article that covered President George W. Bush’s visit to Boston (“Bush in Kerryland,” pg. 1) gravely misrepresented Bush supporters and College Republicans present at the rally.
The first problem with the article is the sub headline, “President greeted by protesters of all stripes.” The author must have meant one of two things: 1) Bush supporters are included under the heading “protesters of all stripes,” or 2) that Bush supporters were not present. The former is incorrect because Bush supporters at the rally were not protesting; they were showing support for our nation and President. I can assume the editors wanted to portray the later implication of the title, because Bush supporters were simply not present in her article.
The opening lines of the article were a disturbing misrepresentation of the statement by Topher Smith, a College of the Holy Cross sophomore and supporter of George W. Bush. Although he did make the statement, it was not for reasons that were implied by the author, Brittany Oat. At the time the statement was made, the AFL-CIO and other Kerry supporters were thrusting themselves upon the area where the College Republicans were rallying. They violently pushed a number of people out of their way, to the extent that Boston Police intervened and removed them from the crowd.
Ms. Oat also ignored the behavior of the protesters. At least five protesters were dragged away by Boston Police because of disorderly conduct. At one point, protesters started chanting “Kill Bush,” while one was carrying a defaced flag that had liberal comments written on it, both of which are federal offenses. While the protesters were waving a defaced U.S. flag and Palestinian flags, the College Republicans respectfully displayed a U.S. flag and chanted “four more years.” Eventually, the protesters outnumbered the supporters and grabbed our pro-Bush signs out of our hands and ripped them up.
Furthermore, the article was obviously skewed to portray the protesters as peace-loving, job-seeking, working-class voters and the Bush supporters as belligerent rich kids “influenced by their parents.” The only quotation from a Bush supporter in the article was the comment made by Smith, which was not fully correct. The views of the pro-Bush rally were completely ignored. College Republicans from Boston University, Boston College, Harvard University and Holy Cross did not chant any profanity and acted with dignity and class. The author recognized none of this.
All that were present at the rally will agree that this is a more accurate portrayal of what happened on March 25. The Daily Free Press should place articles like the one written by Ms. Oat in the opinion section, not the supposedly unbiased Vote 2004 news section.
Adrian Grabicki
CGS ’06
The author is a member of the Boston University College Republicans.
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