{free zine!} We the People Demand Fair and Equal News Coverage
ICYMI, 5.2 million Americans marched on April 5, 2025.
(The news didn’t cover it very well, unsurprisingly. Sam the Eagle is disappointed.)
We the People Demand Fair and Equal News Coverage
These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such.
-Cory Booker
On April 5, 2025, 5.2 million Americans assembled in small towns, cities, parks, and along roadsides. From Alaska to Florida, these patriots peacefully protested.
Countless people from around the world joined them in protest, understanding that we are a global community and that when one of us is under attack, we are all weaker.
WELL DONE AMERICA!
5.2 million Americans.
Two percent of our country.
This is MAJOR NEWS.
Two percent of the country doesn’t just go out and march against the government for no good reason. April 5 was not business as usual.
You wouldn’t know this from the headlines on April 6.
If you rely on news websites for information, you might not have been informed about the protests either before, during, or after. Or, you might have been (mis)led to believe that there were just a few thousand people protesting here and there.
If you get your news from social media, you might not have heard about the protests at all, depending on the algorithm.
Here are some examples of the headlines at noon on April 6, after a day of historic protests:
How did your preferred news source measure up?
On January 6, 2021, we received breathless, minute-by-minute news coverage of approximately 2,500 insurrectionists violently assaulting our Capitol.
We get a push notification from a news app every time Trump posts something ridiculous on (un)Truth Social.
Every single awful thing that has happened in our government since inauguration day has been added to the top of a never-ending news cycle and given endless coverage by the media until the next awful thing happens.
But when 5.2 MILLION Americans organize to peacefully protest those awful things…crickets.
News organizations choose what information to prioritize on their platforms.
Why did they choose not to prioritize coverage of this historic event, which is among the largest protests in American history?
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstrations_in_the_United_States_by_size
What the news platforms are telling us through their front page headlines is that politicians matter, the economy matters, violence matters, celebrities matter, the daily political drama matters, everything in the world matters, but
We the People
DO NOT
This is untrue.
This is unacceptable.
We deserve better.
We must demand better.
The proof that peaceful protest works is right there in the top three highest-attended protests. Each of these actions provoked meaningful change. Each is proof that there is work yet to be done.
Let’s work together to preserve democracy.
At stake right now are the most basic American principles —
That if you work hard your entire life and pay into Social Security, it should be there for you when you retire, and you should not have to question if those paychecks will arrive.
That if you serve your nation, you will be respected and taken care of – and not forced to worry that the federal employees who provide you with care will be fired, or the benefits you rely on will be denied, or that your healthcare needs won’t be met.
That your children will have access to a high quality public education and return home safely from school each day;
That the people you elect to serve in government will represent you and not try to make themselves richer;
That everyone’s rights will be equally protected and everyone will be held equally accountable under the law;
Right now, all of this – things that make our country different — are under attack. Our constituents are asking us to acknowledge that this is not normal, that this is a crisis.
So I am going to stand here until I no longer can. I am going to speak up.
– Cory Booker
Will you speak up, too?
Will you join 5.2 million Americans in disrupting the business of the United States for as long as you are able?
This doggo would love to see you there!
Calls to Action:
- Print/distribute this zine for free.*
- Contact news organizations and demand better coverage of protests.
- Join 50501 in fighting to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach: https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
- March until the assault on our democracy ends.
*Printing instructions below.
I wrote this zine to serve two purposes:
- To help raise awareness about these protests, which many people I spoke with didn’t know were happening; and
- To demonstrate how our media is failing us.
I go hard for newspapers, but headlines like these make it very hard to justify their defense. These marches were historic. They were news. The media’s job is to report the news and it failed in a very demonstrable way this weekend.
You can download the zine right here!
(If you’ve never printed a zine before, this PDF file will look weird! After following the printing instructions you’ll fold it in half and everything will magically be in order!)
This zine is FREEEEEE!
It was also a lot of work – if you’d like to see more of this sort of thing in the universe, feel free to leave a tip and buy the lasagna some cheese!
