AP: Fiery anti-war statement goes unseen, unheard (IOW, Media reports media doesn't give a damn)

[Bucky]

Fiery anti-war statement goes unseen, unheard

{Malachi Ritscher} carefully planned the details, mailed a copy of his apartment key to a friend, created to-do lists for his family. On his website, the 52-year-old experimental musician who'd fought with depression even penned his obituary.

At 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 — four days before an election caused a seismic shift in Washington politics — Mr. Ritscher, a frequent anti-war protester, stood by an off-ramp in downtown Chicago near a statue of a giant flame, set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire.

Aglow for the crush of morning commuters, his flaming body was supposed to be a call to the nation, a symbol of his rage and discontent with the U.S. war in Iraq.

(snip)

There was only one problem: No one was listening.

It took five days for the Cook County medical examiner to identify the charred-beyond-recognition corpse. Meanwhile, Mr. Ritscher's suicide went largely unnoticed. It wasn't until a reporter for an alternative weekly, the Chicago Reader, pieced the facts together that word began to spread.

This didn't make your local news because it's not pleasant; it won't help sell aspirin or Chevy trucks. It will make you think, it will make you act. So it's better that no one tell you about this. The article goes on to speculate at length that Ritscher was depressed. As if the sane thing to do is be happy and grateful when your tax dollars and your country's reputation are being used to kill thousands.

I can't condone his form of protest, but how in God's name can the media decide for the past three weeks that this isn't newsworthy?

[lostnotforgotten]

1. "how ... can the media decide"?

You know the answer. Move along here nothing to see.

[RC]

2. What? Someone protesting the war news?

The war is killing brown people, furiners yet. 'sides we're keeping the war over there. What's to protest? :sarcasm:

[and-justice-for-all]

3. DEMOCRACY NOW should bring it up...

Amy Goodman does a great job.

[MadHound]

4. How sad for this man. Not suprising, but a tragedy nonetheless

Like most anti-war news and protests in this country, his death was unreported, and now underreported. Hell, before this war started, there was a clear majority, over 65% of the US public who didn't want to go until after the inspectors finished their job. Yet this went underreported, as have the millions that have turned out to protest since then.

Poor guy, he sacrificed his life in vain, another tragic death unreported by the media. The MSM should be held complacent for their part in enabling this illegal, immoral war, sadly they won't be.