A Call To March On Fox
Monday, November 22, 2004
.
A Call To March On Fox
For refusing to tell the truth about the rigged election
http://acalltomarchonfox.blogspot.com/
Ari Cohen
aricohen@earthlink.net
(Permission here granted for unlimited distribution of this article.)
In my recent blog,
“The Whole World Is Watching! Tactics And Strategy: A Total Battle Plan For Democrats To Take Back America From The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”
http://wholeworldiswatching.blogspot.com/
I called for marches against the rigged election and stressed the importance of targeting protests against the news organizations that refuse to tell us the truth. Indeed, they refuse to tell us the truth about the rigged election — of which there is massive, documented evidence — as if the dirtiest election in American history just never happened that’s all. For a historical comparison, they might as well be telling us that President Kennedy never got shot. Why, he’s living in an old age home in Poughkeepsie!
And we can’t just merely wait and run people for office next time because the election system has been totally trashed and compromised. They’ve run over our democracy like road kill. And now, to heap further insult on this abomination, they are telling us it just never happened.
So what is left for us to do? We have to stop thinking like government clerks and bean counters about how this or that governmental or legal process has or has not been exhausted, important though those measures are and vital to continue and support. We can’t just be limited to that and then walk away when we run out of these “fixed options.” We have to start thinking about the intangibles of power — the subtle, de facto elements and forces that underlie more tangible, de jure power.
We need to deny the usurper legitimacy today, tomorrow, over and over, again and again, as long as it takes, in protest after protest, so that the country and the world know that this is an illegitimate bastard of a president. All the tangibles that we are desperately trying to calculate and bean count will eventually fall into place after the truth is recognized and the aura of legitimacy is denied. Again and again we must deny Bush legitimacy, over and over, as long as it takes. Like Jeremiah we must speak the truth over and over though they stone us with stones. Again and again and again as long as it takes we must persevere and tirelessly repeat that Bush did not win and he stole the election.
In short, the stolen election was an EVICTION NOTICE to every Democrat and freedom lover in America: GET OUT OF YOUR HOMES AND MARCH!
I am now making a specific call for a specific march with a specific objective:
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.
In New York City.
To demand that they tell the truth about the rigged election!
Why?
For many reasons. To begin with, we have been confronted with a vicious circle. On the one hand the vast right wing conspiracy in this country is taking our democracy away from us. On the other hand the very outcry that could stop this, which has already sporadically begun, is suppressed, smothered, stifled, strangulated and covered up by news organizations like Fox. The Statue of Liberty is being murdered. But she’s also being gagged so she can’t cry out for help as she comes under attack. Because of a quiet media it’s a total Catch-22.
Thus, news organizations like Fox are central to the problem of the rigged election. Fox is the leading media enabler of the rigged election. They’d never get away with it without collaborator news organizations like Fox.
The media seeks to deny even the existence of our marches but their suppression of the truth is not yet total. Therefore, we must combine objectives. To break through we must march against Fox specifically for the obscenity of refusing to tell the truth about the rigged election. This is the focal point for our burning magnifying lens and we must maintain the pressure at precisely this point no matter how long it takes until we make a complete breakthrough.
The central issue is not healthcare. The central issue is not even the war in Iraq. The central issue is not the minimum wage or drugs from Canada or terrorism or lowering taxes or raising taxes on the rich so that they pay their fair share. All the aspirations of the American people, good, bad or ugly, pro or con, left or right amount to nothing unless we have a democracy that can actualize those dreams. Without the safeguards of democracy, we have no worker safety, no safe food, no safe air and water, no safe building construction, no safe bridges or airplanes, no reliable healthcare or medicine, no safe surgery, nothing. More than any weapon used in anger in Iraq, more than any hoodlum attacking in a dark alley, every vote stolen on November 2nd was an actual knife cutting flesh.
Now we are confronted by a threat not to peoples far away, not to the dissemination of democracy overseas, about which Americans may argue, but a threat to our own democracy, which no thinking American regardless of ideology can support — the actual destruction of our freedom and democracy in state after state and not just in the “battleground” swing or tossup states but everywhere, with dirty tricks, literal stealing of Democratic campaign signs all over the country in epidemic proportions, harassment and threats to voters, minority vote suppression, dirty judges, obstructed and even trashed voter registrations in monumental proportions, the disappearance of vast numbers of votes into thin air, utterly false tallies with the real tallies found on documents discarded in the back of election facilities, Bush actually receiving more votes than there were registered voters in key areas, the appearance of piles of other votes discarded, uncounted and wet in an area where there had been no rain, the failure to count huge numbers of votes because Republican “watchers” made bald-faced lies about the voters’ eligibility to vote, voting machines across the country that a child could hack, a bogus terror “alert” at an election site, which served as an excuse to kick out observers, a truckload of votes being driven off in a truck with a Bush-Cheney sticker on it, as verified in a photograph taken of the truck at the time, showing both the sticker and the piles of votes in back, voting computers in location after location that shamelessly had the totals for Bush and Kerry neatly switched, electric voting machines that literally started counting backwards after they reached certain totals for Kerry, indeed electric voting machines so filled with grievous errors and falsehoods, not randomly but repeatedly favoring Bush, that they were no better than one-armed-bandit Vegas slot machines. That’s what this whole election has been: A one-armed-bandit Las Vegas slot machine.
This would never happen in any other mature democracy because there would be an outcry that would shake the rafters. It happened here because that outcry is obscenely stifled and suppressed — by Fox.
Should we protest the rigged election? Or should we protest Fox? We do both — right in front of the offices of Fox. Fox is the number one gag on the outcry against the rigged election.
Fox has been among the most egregious of shills for Bush and the right wing. It has lied constantly during the election and plays a key role in covering up what really happened during the most crooked election in American history. And the American people will not stand for it if only they know the truth.
New York, where the key offices of Fox are located, is also the news media capital of the world. Protesting at Fox in New York will immediately attract the interest of the other news organizations in the city and it will be easy for them to send over someone to take a look at the protest because of the excellent mass transit in the city.
If protesters can make it on a weekday key people at Fox will be there to run into the protesters and see them with their own eyes. Thus we get to be up close and personal. The perfect moment would be if Rupert Murdoch himself showed up, in which case we could get in some good chants against him. And so, if possible, we want to start the protest early. We want to keep it going all day and we want the best of it to happen long before the evening 6 pm news broadcasts in the city, so those broadcasts have plenty of time to get reports on the protest ready. And we want the shouts and chants to continue vehemently all day, so that there is no point in the day when the media can get footage of us slacking off and claim it was no big deal. A nonviolent, legal, verbal confrontation, protected by free speech, between us and Murdoch or his people could add to the reporting on the protest. This is New York. A big mouth gets respect. Monday would be good because protesters would be able to arrive in the city a day early on Sunday without missing an extra day of work. They could then spend Sunday getting the protest ready and getting acclimatized to the city and its mass transit systems. If for logistical reasons a weekday is not possible, a Sunday would still allow more time to get ready than a Saturday. Again, a weekday would offer the greatest contact with the people we are protesting. If it has to be on a weekend a Sunday would mean that what coverage we get would appear in the Monday morning papers. So the personnel at Fox and its affiliates would at least be seeing the story of our protest on their desks as they return from the weekend off.
It is also important to know that the media does not cover a story by “osmosis.” News organizations are so large with everything so broken up by so many departments that nobody covers your story unless you repeatedly contact the correct people in advance. For each participating protest group it is necessary to find out exactly who, by name, are the precise people in each news organization in the city that would handle this kind of story, who are the key columnists, reporters and assignment editors and so on to whom this story would be relevant. In some cases this story would be seen as fitting into more than one department. The key people must then be told over and over, called, reminded, sent faxes and repeatedly given updates to catch their interest days ahead of the march date. Then remind them over and over as the march date approaches. This is a prerequisite for getting media attention in New York. Prepare attractive, eye-catching faxes that are charming, funny and tongue-in-cheek to get papers and reporters interested and keep them interested. Do not be critical of anyone but Fox and Bush in theses faxes and certainly not of the media we are inviting to the protest. Be sure they all get faxes on the actual day of the march too. Faxes are probably more important than emails as a lot of important people never read most of their emails. Many columnists in New York get literally thousands of email. They’re lucky to even see the subject line. We want to get past that. We want a secretary putting a big, eye-catching fax right on their desk.
To maintain march discipline it is helpful to have march “marshals,” designated personnel throughout the march with identifiable armbands or the like and radios or cell phones, who can maintain the order of the march and see to it that people are not doing things that would discredit the march. This was very helpful during protests in the 1960s and helped stop government agents provocateurs from disrupting, diverting or embarrassing the protest, such as by burning an American flag, wearing lewd or offensive clothing or shouting slogans or displaying signs that only discredit the cause. Right wing news outlets will be looking for such embarrassments to discredit us. No good march takes place without discipline. And no activity should be allowed at the protest that wasn’t carefully planned out by organizers in advance. Government informants can instigate “spontaneous events” or shout to people to head off somewhere else and all this can destroy the effort. No unplanned events must be trusted or tolerated. Get your act together ahead of time in consultation with organizers and don’t let anyone divert us on wild goose chases. Written instructions should be distributed among protesters explaining policies of the organizers and also offering helpful information and a map of the area. Marshals can also prevent activities that could give the police an excuse to break up the protest. Organization personnel should also distribute petitions throughout the crowd and collect signatures and emails. After the protest participating organizations can share the signatures and use the lists for email fundraising purposes to help make the movement against Fox and the rigged election grow. For this reason the petition should advocate something relating to Fox and the rigged election in a way that everyone at the march is sure to agree. We want everyone signing. We want to be able to contact everyone by email after the protest so we can organize for the next protest.
All the news organizations in the city are based in the same borough, Manhattan, where the transportation is excellent and nobody can later claim they couldn’t get to the protest. (There are only a handful of exceptions, news organizations that service New York City but are based in New Jersey and Long Island, among them Long Island’s Newsday, which is fairly progressive.) New York buses, taxis and a vast subway system provide exceptional access. This also offers exceptional access for protesters. There are nearly five hundred subway stations in New York City and there is no location in all of Manhattan where there isn’t a subway station walking distance nearby, and all the subway lines in the city are linked up and interconnected underground, with no need to buy a second fare.
Many of the news organizations in the city, while refusing to believe that they are slanted, have nevertheless harbored contempt for Murdoch and his news organizations for years since Murdoch and Company’s arrival in New York. It has been a repeated source of mockery to these competitors of Murdoch that Murdoch’s New York Post once ran a screaming headline entitled, “Headless Man Found In Topless Bar!” Although the article was apparently fact-based (police apparently did find such a body in such a place), the headline has nevertheless become symbolic of everything other news organizations in the city don’t like about the gratuitous leering sensationalism of Murdoch’s news organizations, their willingness to stoop to any depth instead of telling truly important news. The better New York papers also like to refer derogatorily to the New York Post as a “tabloid,” in practice a reference to gratuitous sensationalism, although technically the term “tabloid” refers to a particular size and type of paper. And New York as a city has far more class than Murdoch and his empire, and his competitors in the city don’t like him for that. In fact, Murdoch only became an American citizen because of laws limiting multiple American media holdings for foreigners. A lot of New York media people haven’t forgotten that Murdoch is really an Australian.
People elsewhere in the country have been suckered by Murdoch but a lot of media people in New York haven’t been and are sick of Murdoch. And we want to play on this.
Murdoch and his organizations have been nailed by “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism,” a documentary film sponsored by MoveOn.org and the Center For American Progress. The film has its own site with trailer and many other downloads here:
http://www.outfoxed.org/
The film includes numerous on-camera testimonials by former Fox personnel attesting to the adulteration of the news by Fox. The claimed evils of Fox are not just opinion. They’ve been documented. And you can’t even tune in Fox without seeing some ranting and raving blowhard forcing some new lie down your throat.
We want to go after Fox not only because its adulteration of the news has been glaring and ostentatious but because this is also a shot across the bow, a warning to other news organizations that if you go too far in distorting the news, you too are going to get protests. But we are not protesting other news organizations. We are targeting protests at Fox and graciously inviting other news organizations to cover it as we ourselves cut the deck by covering it ourselves by posting information, photos and videos of the protest online. Everybody bring cameras and video cameras to the protest, and notepaper, and post your reports online. Smaller cameras are easier to conceal if police try to confiscate them. A darker camera is less noticeable. Do not post anything that could be detrimental to the protest or that could give the police evidence against some protester. Organizers should determine which of the posted information, photos and videos should be shared rapidly and aggressively with the news media so they can’t claim they didn’t know about this or that. Rapidly follow up this information sharing with incessant but polite detailed phone call “reminders” to news people or their voicemails so that even before they make their first reports on the protest we are letting them know that we know that they know that we both know that they know what happened.
Note that Fox, being located in New York City, along with the other leading news organizations of the country, is thus located in the same city where the Republican National Convention was held in ‘04. Many activist organizations were there to protest the GOP convention. They have thus had recent experience doing it in the city. They had a chance to learn the terrain, get to know the transportation and layout of the city, how to survive here, find adequate food and lodging and everything else needed for mass events here. Logistically, the activist movement is ready for a march on Fox.
New York also has a huge, intelligent, liberal, sophisticated and classy population that is sympathetic to protests and voted for Kerry in the election. Many prominent liberal and activist actors and celebrities live in New York. You see them on the street, in restaurants, around town, and unlike the crazed, brain dead Arnold groupies in California, people actually respect actors in New York and leave them alone. Definitely, New York is a classy place. And many of these celebrities have been involved with activist causes for years. New Yorkers famous and otherwise will attend protests in huge numbers. True, the mayor is a Republican, but even there it should be noted that he is a relatively moderate one (by national GOP standards) and he ran as a Republican in part because he didn’t think he could get the Democratic nomination. He had previously supported President Clinton.
While this is not a perfect situation, it is better than having to go in to protest in a city with a hardcore right wing establishment. Despite all fair criticism that might be made, New York police also have a lot of experience dealing with large protests and are more laid back and less trigger happy than in some more reactionary parts of the country.
Without overlooking the known corruption of New York cops, cops in New York will often stroll into a disorder more professionally, far more casually (smart policy) and with less affectation than, say, cops in Washington, D.C., where they are often determined to swagger and prove their manhood. I won’t say things were perfect at the RNC convention. They just would have been a lot worse in a lot of other cities. Once, in an anti-Vietnam War march in New York in the ‘60s, someone threw a bag of cement mix off a high-rise construction site along the route. It streamed down toward the protesters ominously like a trail of smoke. No one was hurt but the police stormed into that building like they were going after any hoodlum in the act. That’s better than you might get from the police in a redneck region.
There should probably be an effort to offer soda, orange juice or coffee to the police at the protest and in a city like New York it might actually bring some good results, more so than in some other cities. We don’t want a bad incident with the police if we can avoid it, because it gives the media an excuse to use it to discredit us. Tell the police you appreciate their efforts on 9/11 and the sacrifices they made back them. They are not the enemy. Fox is.
As a place to take a first stand against the rigged election New York compares favorably to less hospitable locations such as Florida and Ohio, both controlled governmentally more solidly by the Republicans. Even Washington, D.C. is more hostile terrain, not only because the entire federal government is now under Republican control but because fear of terrorism threatening government officials has turned Washington, D.C. into a paranoid armed camp. Despite 9/11, this is not the case in New York. In fact, even right after 9/11 New Yorkers were actually a lot less paranoid than people in many other parts of the country. In other parts of the country dumb rednecks were refusing to let airlines take off until some Sikh with a turban got booted off the plane, even though Sikhs belong to a Hindu offshoot and are not Moslems. Nothing like that happens in New York despite all the major airports in the city area. And New York is a highly multi-ethnic city where the whole populace has ages of practice in being tolerant.
New York is a gigantic city spread over a huge harbor and multiple rivers and islands, with an enormous population and when a paper here reports some shocking local event it does not have the same personal impact emotionally as if it had happened in a smaller town. Things happen all the time in New York because it’s such an enormous city, so if it happened elsewhere in the city people don’t feel as if it happened to them personally. In recent years there have been rare weak tornadoes in New York City, especially in the seaward Borough of Staten Island. This is new and it is the result of global warming. But nobody freaks out screaming, “Dang! There was a tornado in our ever-lovin’ blessed town!” The reaction among city residents has been, “Tornado in Staten Island? Uh-huh.” After 9/11 in New York there were no crazed rednecks roaming the streets with shotguns and axe handles. You can be sure there would have been if it had happened in Texas.
For refusing to tell the truth about the rigged election
http://acalltomarchonfox.blogspot.com/
Ari Cohen
aricohen@earthlink.net
(Permission here granted for unlimited distribution of this article.)
In my recent blog,
“The Whole World Is Watching! Tactics And Strategy: A Total Battle Plan For Democrats To Take Back America From The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”
http://wholeworldiswatching.blogspot.com/
I called for marches against the rigged election and stressed the importance of targeting protests against the news organizations that refuse to tell us the truth. Indeed, they refuse to tell us the truth about the rigged election — of which there is massive, documented evidence — as if the dirtiest election in American history just never happened that’s all. For a historical comparison, they might as well be telling us that President Kennedy never got shot. Why, he’s living in an old age home in Poughkeepsie!
And we can’t just merely wait and run people for office next time because the election system has been totally trashed and compromised. They’ve run over our democracy like road kill. And now, to heap further insult on this abomination, they are telling us it just never happened.
So what is left for us to do? We have to stop thinking like government clerks and bean counters about how this or that governmental or legal process has or has not been exhausted, important though those measures are and vital to continue and support. We can’t just be limited to that and then walk away when we run out of these “fixed options.” We have to start thinking about the intangibles of power — the subtle, de facto elements and forces that underlie more tangible, de jure power.
We need to deny the usurper legitimacy today, tomorrow, over and over, again and again, as long as it takes, in protest after protest, so that the country and the world know that this is an illegitimate bastard of a president. All the tangibles that we are desperately trying to calculate and bean count will eventually fall into place after the truth is recognized and the aura of legitimacy is denied. Again and again we must deny Bush legitimacy, over and over, as long as it takes. Like Jeremiah we must speak the truth over and over though they stone us with stones. Again and again and again as long as it takes we must persevere and tirelessly repeat that Bush did not win and he stole the election.
In short, the stolen election was an EVICTION NOTICE to every Democrat and freedom lover in America: GET OUT OF YOUR HOMES AND MARCH!
I am now making a specific call for a specific march with a specific objective:
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.
In New York City.
To demand that they tell the truth about the rigged election!
Why?
For many reasons. To begin with, we have been confronted with a vicious circle. On the one hand the vast right wing conspiracy in this country is taking our democracy away from us. On the other hand the very outcry that could stop this, which has already sporadically begun, is suppressed, smothered, stifled, strangulated and covered up by news organizations like Fox. The Statue of Liberty is being murdered. But she’s also being gagged so she can’t cry out for help as she comes under attack. Because of a quiet media it’s a total Catch-22.
Thus, news organizations like Fox are central to the problem of the rigged election. Fox is the leading media enabler of the rigged election. They’d never get away with it without collaborator news organizations like Fox.
The media seeks to deny even the existence of our marches but their suppression of the truth is not yet total. Therefore, we must combine objectives. To break through we must march against Fox specifically for the obscenity of refusing to tell the truth about the rigged election. This is the focal point for our burning magnifying lens and we must maintain the pressure at precisely this point no matter how long it takes until we make a complete breakthrough.
The central issue is not healthcare. The central issue is not even the war in Iraq. The central issue is not the minimum wage or drugs from Canada or terrorism or lowering taxes or raising taxes on the rich so that they pay their fair share. All the aspirations of the American people, good, bad or ugly, pro or con, left or right amount to nothing unless we have a democracy that can actualize those dreams. Without the safeguards of democracy, we have no worker safety, no safe food, no safe air and water, no safe building construction, no safe bridges or airplanes, no reliable healthcare or medicine, no safe surgery, nothing. More than any weapon used in anger in Iraq, more than any hoodlum attacking in a dark alley, every vote stolen on November 2nd was an actual knife cutting flesh.
Now we are confronted by a threat not to peoples far away, not to the dissemination of democracy overseas, about which Americans may argue, but a threat to our own democracy, which no thinking American regardless of ideology can support — the actual destruction of our freedom and democracy in state after state and not just in the “battleground” swing or tossup states but everywhere, with dirty tricks, literal stealing of Democratic campaign signs all over the country in epidemic proportions, harassment and threats to voters, minority vote suppression, dirty judges, obstructed and even trashed voter registrations in monumental proportions, the disappearance of vast numbers of votes into thin air, utterly false tallies with the real tallies found on documents discarded in the back of election facilities, Bush actually receiving more votes than there were registered voters in key areas, the appearance of piles of other votes discarded, uncounted and wet in an area where there had been no rain, the failure to count huge numbers of votes because Republican “watchers” made bald-faced lies about the voters’ eligibility to vote, voting machines across the country that a child could hack, a bogus terror “alert” at an election site, which served as an excuse to kick out observers, a truckload of votes being driven off in a truck with a Bush-Cheney sticker on it, as verified in a photograph taken of the truck at the time, showing both the sticker and the piles of votes in back, voting computers in location after location that shamelessly had the totals for Bush and Kerry neatly switched, electric voting machines that literally started counting backwards after they reached certain totals for Kerry, indeed electric voting machines so filled with grievous errors and falsehoods, not randomly but repeatedly favoring Bush, that they were no better than one-armed-bandit Vegas slot machines. That’s what this whole election has been: A one-armed-bandit Las Vegas slot machine.
This would never happen in any other mature democracy because there would be an outcry that would shake the rafters. It happened here because that outcry is obscenely stifled and suppressed — by Fox.
Should we protest the rigged election? Or should we protest Fox? We do both — right in front of the offices of Fox. Fox is the number one gag on the outcry against the rigged election.
Fox has been among the most egregious of shills for Bush and the right wing. It has lied constantly during the election and plays a key role in covering up what really happened during the most crooked election in American history. And the American people will not stand for it if only they know the truth.
New York, where the key offices of Fox are located, is also the news media capital of the world. Protesting at Fox in New York will immediately attract the interest of the other news organizations in the city and it will be easy for them to send over someone to take a look at the protest because of the excellent mass transit in the city.
If protesters can make it on a weekday key people at Fox will be there to run into the protesters and see them with their own eyes. Thus we get to be up close and personal. The perfect moment would be if Rupert Murdoch himself showed up, in which case we could get in some good chants against him. And so, if possible, we want to start the protest early. We want to keep it going all day and we want the best of it to happen long before the evening 6 pm news broadcasts in the city, so those broadcasts have plenty of time to get reports on the protest ready. And we want the shouts and chants to continue vehemently all day, so that there is no point in the day when the media can get footage of us slacking off and claim it was no big deal. A nonviolent, legal, verbal confrontation, protected by free speech, between us and Murdoch or his people could add to the reporting on the protest. This is New York. A big mouth gets respect. Monday would be good because protesters would be able to arrive in the city a day early on Sunday without missing an extra day of work. They could then spend Sunday getting the protest ready and getting acclimatized to the city and its mass transit systems. If for logistical reasons a weekday is not possible, a Sunday would still allow more time to get ready than a Saturday. Again, a weekday would offer the greatest contact with the people we are protesting. If it has to be on a weekend a Sunday would mean that what coverage we get would appear in the Monday morning papers. So the personnel at Fox and its affiliates would at least be seeing the story of our protest on their desks as they return from the weekend off.
It is also important to know that the media does not cover a story by “osmosis.” News organizations are so large with everything so broken up by so many departments that nobody covers your story unless you repeatedly contact the correct people in advance. For each participating protest group it is necessary to find out exactly who, by name, are the precise people in each news organization in the city that would handle this kind of story, who are the key columnists, reporters and assignment editors and so on to whom this story would be relevant. In some cases this story would be seen as fitting into more than one department. The key people must then be told over and over, called, reminded, sent faxes and repeatedly given updates to catch their interest days ahead of the march date. Then remind them over and over as the march date approaches. This is a prerequisite for getting media attention in New York. Prepare attractive, eye-catching faxes that are charming, funny and tongue-in-cheek to get papers and reporters interested and keep them interested. Do not be critical of anyone but Fox and Bush in theses faxes and certainly not of the media we are inviting to the protest. Be sure they all get faxes on the actual day of the march too. Faxes are probably more important than emails as a lot of important people never read most of their emails. Many columnists in New York get literally thousands of email. They’re lucky to even see the subject line. We want to get past that. We want a secretary putting a big, eye-catching fax right on their desk.
To maintain march discipline it is helpful to have march “marshals,” designated personnel throughout the march with identifiable armbands or the like and radios or cell phones, who can maintain the order of the march and see to it that people are not doing things that would discredit the march. This was very helpful during protests in the 1960s and helped stop government agents provocateurs from disrupting, diverting or embarrassing the protest, such as by burning an American flag, wearing lewd or offensive clothing or shouting slogans or displaying signs that only discredit the cause. Right wing news outlets will be looking for such embarrassments to discredit us. No good march takes place without discipline. And no activity should be allowed at the protest that wasn’t carefully planned out by organizers in advance. Government informants can instigate “spontaneous events” or shout to people to head off somewhere else and all this can destroy the effort. No unplanned events must be trusted or tolerated. Get your act together ahead of time in consultation with organizers and don’t let anyone divert us on wild goose chases. Written instructions should be distributed among protesters explaining policies of the organizers and also offering helpful information and a map of the area. Marshals can also prevent activities that could give the police an excuse to break up the protest. Organization personnel should also distribute petitions throughout the crowd and collect signatures and emails. After the protest participating organizations can share the signatures and use the lists for email fundraising purposes to help make the movement against Fox and the rigged election grow. For this reason the petition should advocate something relating to Fox and the rigged election in a way that everyone at the march is sure to agree. We want everyone signing. We want to be able to contact everyone by email after the protest so we can organize for the next protest.
All the news organizations in the city are based in the same borough, Manhattan, where the transportation is excellent and nobody can later claim they couldn’t get to the protest. (There are only a handful of exceptions, news organizations that service New York City but are based in New Jersey and Long Island, among them Long Island’s Newsday, which is fairly progressive.) New York buses, taxis and a vast subway system provide exceptional access. This also offers exceptional access for protesters. There are nearly five hundred subway stations in New York City and there is no location in all of Manhattan where there isn’t a subway station walking distance nearby, and all the subway lines in the city are linked up and interconnected underground, with no need to buy a second fare.
Many of the news organizations in the city, while refusing to believe that they are slanted, have nevertheless harbored contempt for Murdoch and his news organizations for years since Murdoch and Company’s arrival in New York. It has been a repeated source of mockery to these competitors of Murdoch that Murdoch’s New York Post once ran a screaming headline entitled, “Headless Man Found In Topless Bar!” Although the article was apparently fact-based (police apparently did find such a body in such a place), the headline has nevertheless become symbolic of everything other news organizations in the city don’t like about the gratuitous leering sensationalism of Murdoch’s news organizations, their willingness to stoop to any depth instead of telling truly important news. The better New York papers also like to refer derogatorily to the New York Post as a “tabloid,” in practice a reference to gratuitous sensationalism, although technically the term “tabloid” refers to a particular size and type of paper. And New York as a city has far more class than Murdoch and his empire, and his competitors in the city don’t like him for that. In fact, Murdoch only became an American citizen because of laws limiting multiple American media holdings for foreigners. A lot of New York media people haven’t forgotten that Murdoch is really an Australian.
People elsewhere in the country have been suckered by Murdoch but a lot of media people in New York haven’t been and are sick of Murdoch. And we want to play on this.
Murdoch and his organizations have been nailed by “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism,” a documentary film sponsored by MoveOn.org and the Center For American Progress. The film has its own site with trailer and many other downloads here:
http://www.outfoxed.org/
The film includes numerous on-camera testimonials by former Fox personnel attesting to the adulteration of the news by Fox. The claimed evils of Fox are not just opinion. They’ve been documented. And you can’t even tune in Fox without seeing some ranting and raving blowhard forcing some new lie down your throat.
We want to go after Fox not only because its adulteration of the news has been glaring and ostentatious but because this is also a shot across the bow, a warning to other news organizations that if you go too far in distorting the news, you too are going to get protests. But we are not protesting other news organizations. We are targeting protests at Fox and graciously inviting other news organizations to cover it as we ourselves cut the deck by covering it ourselves by posting information, photos and videos of the protest online. Everybody bring cameras and video cameras to the protest, and notepaper, and post your reports online. Smaller cameras are easier to conceal if police try to confiscate them. A darker camera is less noticeable. Do not post anything that could be detrimental to the protest or that could give the police evidence against some protester. Organizers should determine which of the posted information, photos and videos should be shared rapidly and aggressively with the news media so they can’t claim they didn’t know about this or that. Rapidly follow up this information sharing with incessant but polite detailed phone call “reminders” to news people or their voicemails so that even before they make their first reports on the protest we are letting them know that we know that they know that we both know that they know what happened.
Note that Fox, being located in New York City, along with the other leading news organizations of the country, is thus located in the same city where the Republican National Convention was held in ‘04. Many activist organizations were there to protest the GOP convention. They have thus had recent experience doing it in the city. They had a chance to learn the terrain, get to know the transportation and layout of the city, how to survive here, find adequate food and lodging and everything else needed for mass events here. Logistically, the activist movement is ready for a march on Fox.
New York also has a huge, intelligent, liberal, sophisticated and classy population that is sympathetic to protests and voted for Kerry in the election. Many prominent liberal and activist actors and celebrities live in New York. You see them on the street, in restaurants, around town, and unlike the crazed, brain dead Arnold groupies in California, people actually respect actors in New York and leave them alone. Definitely, New York is a classy place. And many of these celebrities have been involved with activist causes for years. New Yorkers famous and otherwise will attend protests in huge numbers. True, the mayor is a Republican, but even there it should be noted that he is a relatively moderate one (by national GOP standards) and he ran as a Republican in part because he didn’t think he could get the Democratic nomination. He had previously supported President Clinton.
While this is not a perfect situation, it is better than having to go in to protest in a city with a hardcore right wing establishment. Despite all fair criticism that might be made, New York police also have a lot of experience dealing with large protests and are more laid back and less trigger happy than in some more reactionary parts of the country.
Without overlooking the known corruption of New York cops, cops in New York will often stroll into a disorder more professionally, far more casually (smart policy) and with less affectation than, say, cops in Washington, D.C., where they are often determined to swagger and prove their manhood. I won’t say things were perfect at the RNC convention. They just would have been a lot worse in a lot of other cities. Once, in an anti-Vietnam War march in New York in the ‘60s, someone threw a bag of cement mix off a high-rise construction site along the route. It streamed down toward the protesters ominously like a trail of smoke. No one was hurt but the police stormed into that building like they were going after any hoodlum in the act. That’s better than you might get from the police in a redneck region.
There should probably be an effort to offer soda, orange juice or coffee to the police at the protest and in a city like New York it might actually bring some good results, more so than in some other cities. We don’t want a bad incident with the police if we can avoid it, because it gives the media an excuse to use it to discredit us. Tell the police you appreciate their efforts on 9/11 and the sacrifices they made back them. They are not the enemy. Fox is.
As a place to take a first stand against the rigged election New York compares favorably to less hospitable locations such as Florida and Ohio, both controlled governmentally more solidly by the Republicans. Even Washington, D.C. is more hostile terrain, not only because the entire federal government is now under Republican control but because fear of terrorism threatening government officials has turned Washington, D.C. into a paranoid armed camp. Despite 9/11, this is not the case in New York. In fact, even right after 9/11 New Yorkers were actually a lot less paranoid than people in many other parts of the country. In other parts of the country dumb rednecks were refusing to let airlines take off until some Sikh with a turban got booted off the plane, even though Sikhs belong to a Hindu offshoot and are not Moslems. Nothing like that happens in New York despite all the major airports in the city area. And New York is a highly multi-ethnic city where the whole populace has ages of practice in being tolerant.
New York is a gigantic city spread over a huge harbor and multiple rivers and islands, with an enormous population and when a paper here reports some shocking local event it does not have the same personal impact emotionally as if it had happened in a smaller town. Things happen all the time in New York because it’s such an enormous city, so if it happened elsewhere in the city people don’t feel as if it happened to them personally. In recent years there have been rare weak tornadoes in New York City, especially in the seaward Borough of Staten Island. This is new and it is the result of global warming. But nobody freaks out screaming, “Dang! There was a tornado in our ever-lovin’ blessed town!” The reaction among city residents has been, “Tornado in Staten Island? Uh-huh.” After 9/11 in New York there were no crazed rednecks roaming the streets with shotguns and axe handles. You can be sure there would have been if it had happened in Texas.
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Among potential allies we will have in the city are a very large number of Democratic congressmen, including congressmen who have now denounced the rigged election. Many New York Democratic congressmen also come from minority communities who are especially ticked off about racially targeted voter suppression during the election. And they all have district offices in the city. All their offices should be contacted before the protest. That is not a guarantee they will personally get involved, but they should be invited nevertheless and at least close contact should be established. If anything goes wrong their help could be invaluable.
New York State also has two important Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. I had a lot to say in my previous blog ( mentioned above —
http://wholeworldiswatching.blogspot.com/
) in praise of Schumer’s toughness and his willingness to directly call a Republican (his previous opponent, Al D’Amato) the “L” word — LIAR — and to make that into an offense, not a defense. I would have liked to see Schumer become Senate Minority Leader. However, we have just heard that Schumer was appointed head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And that’s real good. And on November 2nd 2004 Schumer was reelected by a landslide. In his new role now as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman he will come in contact with Democratic contributors from all over the country. These combined factors guarantee that Schumer will also have the momentum and resources to win a landslide victory six years from now. In other words, Schumer has a rock-solid safe seat for at least the next twelve years. And that means he can stick his neck out.
All this means that in New York we will be on friendly ground. I would compare this very favorably to Washington D.C., a city that is overshadowed by Republican power, full of excessive anti-terrorist security and totally paranoid. And the huge liberal population in New York can also add to the numbers of protesters. A march on Washington depends a lot on people coming from elsewhere. Indeed, Washington itself is a much smaller city. But a march in New York starts with a large indigenous base of potential protesters before the outsiders even show up. And all of them can show up on the subway, without owning a car, because virtually every location in the city is walking distance from a subway station and the subway system is totally integrated underground. Without ever exiting the system you can get anywhere from anywhere on the New York subway at most by changing trains once or twice, and without ever paying a second fare. So because of these factors the chances of success for a New York protest can be greater. And also keep in mind that if you’re coming to the city by car, even if you can’t find a parking space near the protest, you’ll find a subway station walking distance from wherever you park your car and it will get you there.
We want a lot of change from Fox and we are not willing to meet with them, make a separate peace with them for any individual participating organization in our protests. We are not willing to fraternize with the enemy, accept gestures, mollification, inducements or bribes. And we will not be satisfied with promises. Anything they say they’re going to do, you’re a known liar, we don’t believe you, cut the crap and prove it.
We also need to be very clear and disciplined about the number one issue in this protest. Yes, there will be some who may want to protest Fox for its failure to adequately cover the desperate plight of the people of Guacamole Island somewhere on a river in Baluchistan. Some may want to show up at the protest with a banner supporting the G.L.O. (that’s Guacamole Liberation Organization). But this is not what this protest is about. Anyone ranting and raving at the protest about how Fox hasn’t given enough attention to the benefits of mung beans is only making us look idiotic and must not be allowed to derail our objective. Marshals must have a sharp eye for suspected freeper disrupters. We are not doing this protest to get detoured by side issues or issues the media, including Fox, will be looking to use to discredit us. Fox could even hire people to disrupt or embarrass our protest. Keep your eyes peeled. And the right wing media will try to say we are perverts, long-hairs, unkempt, rude, far-left fringe, violent, terror-loving, illegal traitors up to no good. Don’t give them ammunition to discredit what we are doing. Additionally, if someone is being genuinely disruptive in a way that truly undermines what we are trying to do, marshals should be trained in a couple of jujitsu hand holds so they can firmly but pleasantly escort a freeper out of the protest. There are ways of grabbing just a couple of fingers and pulling so that the disrupter absolutely has to come with you. My heart bleeds for whining freeper disrupters who want to deprive us of freedom of speech, assembly and the press.
This protest is about one thing: Fox’s obscene refusal to tell the world about the crime of the century — the heist in broad daylight of the greatest democracy in human history. We stand as defenders of the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and also founded the Democratic Party. He stood against the other major party of his day, the Federalists, who wanted to take things back to a more blue-blood era of royalty. Today we are still fighting that same fight, the autocrats vs. the democrats. Anyone who tells you the fight of our times is not about democracy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. This is not even about the Iraq war. Some are for it, some against. But whether an American is for or against the war, there can be absolutely no disputing that the robbing of our democratic tradition is an obscene, filthy, un-American abomination. As Americans we can and must be totally united against the destruction of our democracy. This issue, the total rigging of the election of George W. Bush on a scale never before seen has the potential to open the eyes of all who thus far failed to see. No true American dares question the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. This issue is a point of unity for all Americans. Have the selflessness to downplay personal, pet or side issues, no matter how important they are to you so that the American people will not be able to say to themselves, “Well, I can’t support this anti-Fox pro-democracy protest because the protesters have a different view on the war or taxes or healthcare or religious or moral values.”
All these side topics are not the issue. Not now. Our nation, our democracy, our freedom, our vote — on which ALL OTHER ISSUES DEPEND — was stolen right in front of us. And the LIARS at Fox refuse to tell the truth about it. This is the ultimate obscenity against all things American. This is the ultimate abrogation — that the truth itself has been hijacked — by Fox.
Also keep the focus on Fox and Murdoch’s other companies as opposed to other news organizations. We are not protesting other news organizations now. Only organizations associated with Murdoch. We want the other news organizations to attend and report on our protest of Fox and we don’t want to alienate them. Even if they don’t give us the attention we want, there will be internal debates going on in the other news organizations in the city about how much attention to give this. We want the voices of good journalism to express themselves and be heard inside those news organizations and we don’t want to put those better voices on the spot by protesting their news organizations. Even though we are not satisfied with the media as a whole, stifle your hostility toward the other news outlets and keep the attention focused — on Fox. The evidence against Fox is most copious and well documented. We want to first establish what can be most easily proven to get across that there are indeed right wing media organizations doing a rotten job. So don’t dissipate our focus and keep our efforts on target.
Imagine that your own mother was mugged, raped and murdered in front of numerous witnesses. Imagine that you have personally just laid your mother to rest and those witnesses look you straight in the face and say, “Your mother wasn’t murdered! She’s living in Canarsie, Brooklyn!” THAT’S Fox News. And yet, for millions of gullible Americans Fox is brainwash headquarters. The silence of Fox, their denial, their lies, their electric ridicule machine, has made them accomplices to the greatest crime in United States history — a robbery of our democracy that, without Democratic majorities to investigate on Capitol Hill, makes the Watergate burglary look like small potatoes.
In other words:
Headless democracy found in bottomless news organization. Statue of Liberty found chopped to bits in Rupert Murdoch’s basement.
And as the chief stifler of the truth, politically Rupert Murdoch is the New York Strangler.
Remember the Tiananmen Square massacre in China? Students were demanding democracy. They had actually erected a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty there. In a play on Murdoch’s destruction of professional journalism, and to demonstrate his suppression of the truth about the stolen election, let’s bring to the protest huge replicas of the Statue of Liberty — each, like the sensational Post headline, missing its head. Believe me, that will be a picture seen round the world. Besides, New York is overrun with little replicas of the Statue of Liberty sold in every tourist shop in the city. And one entire borough of the city’s five boroughs, Staten Island, commutes to work in Manhattan almost entirely by the Staten Island Ferry (excluding cars that take the Verrazano Narrows Bridge), and the Staten Island Ferry passes right by the Statue of Liberty. Everybody in Staten Island sees the Statue of Liberty twice a day. Rest assured, if there is a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty at the protest, headless, there will be news organizations that will eat it up. It will be their way of getting even with Murdoch for dragging their profession through the mud.
Be sure the replica is not hazardous or the authorities may try to ban it. New York police have been known to confiscate protest signs built with wooden sticks instead of cardboard (since in theory the stick could be used as a weapon). Some years ago a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float in the city knocked over a lamppost causing injuries. Some of the floats were also damaged by 40 mph winds. The Macy’s Parade may offer lessons in how, and how not, to create and bring in a headless replica of the Statue of Liberty. Floats in honor of college football teams may also provide examples of how to construct a Statue of Liberty replica. Make sure there is no regulation they can invoke to prevent you from doing this. Incidentally, the real Statue of Liberty is mainly a hollow shell, with a very thin metal skin and mainly merely some scaffolding inside. Make the replica thin and hollow and it will be lighter and easier to get to the protest. And make sure it won’t collapse or fall over under any conditions. We don’t want some city agency banning this replica because it violated some environmental regulation. Possibly include the head on the replica — who could object to the Statue of Liberty after all — and only remove the head after you get it to the protest.
This is the central point about Murdoch and Company: A vast amount of evidence has been collected about the rigged election, but the American people are not allowed to know because of Rupert Murdoch and the other rigged election shills in his organizations. People who are working hard to get the truth out about the rigged election are coming up against this brick wall — that the media isn’t covering it, with Fox and its associates leading the way.
We want people out in front of Murdoch’s empire chanting and yelling and roaring and screaming their LIVING GUTS out over and over and over with rage and fury, “Rupert Murdoch tell the truth! Fascists rigged the voting booth!” “One, two, three, four! Rig the vote and hear us roar! Five, six, seven, eight! Stop the lies and votergate!” If you don’t come back from the protest with laryngitis you didn’t do your duty.
Here is some pertinent information:
Fox News Channel is located at:
Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas (also called 6th Avenue)
2nd Floor,
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-556-2500
Web: www.foxnews.com
The avenues in Manhattan run north-south. Cross-streets: Fox is between 47th Street and 48th Street. Numbered streets in Manhattan run east-west. (Manhattan Island is long and narrow with the length running north-south and the width running east-west. Thus the avenues run nearly the full length of the island while the numbered cross-streets run across the narrow width of the island east-west.)
Additionally:
The News Corporation, which is at the pinnacle of Murdoch’s media empire and owns much of the rest of it including Fox News Channel, Fox Broadcasting Company Network and the New York Post, is also in the same building at the above address. News Corporation is on the 8th Floor. Rupert Murdoch is the Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation and his office is also in the building, although supposedly he’s on the 7th Floor. Here you will find a lengthy list of News Corporation assets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corporation#Film
News Corporation contact info:
Phone: 212-852-7000
Web: www.newscorp.com
The New York Post covers the 9th and 10th Floors. New York Post contact:
Phone: 212-930-8000
Web: www.nypost.com
From the above we can see that a vast right wing media empire and/or its parent companies is located right in that one single building. Set up a protest outside that building and you have hit the jackpot.
Here is a downloadable anti-Fox petition from MoveOn.org:
http://cdn.moveon.org/content/pdfs/moveon_outfoxed_petition.pdf
Here is an anti-Fox brief video about Fox News Channel’s head and right wing shill and past Nixon hatchet man, Roger Ailes. The video also includes examples of Fox tarring and feathering John Kerry:
http://www.moveon.org/foxad-QT.html
MoveOn.org’s complaint against Fox filed with the Federal Trade Commission:
http://cdn.moveon.org/content/pdfs/ftc_filing.pdf
Here’s a MoveOn clip (from the MoveOn.org website) against Fox and Fox’s Bill O’Reilly showing him constantly telling everyone to “keep your mouth shut” and “shut up,” America being a democracy and all. He is also shown (and heard) ordering a guest’s microphone cut off, which is emblematic of everything Fox represents. Essentially, Fox cuts the mic on the American People:
http://cdn.moveon.org/data/ShutUp_Final_BbandHi.mov
Save that clip to your hard drive. Watch it over and over. The clip actually shows O’Reilly saying, “It is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up and shut up publicly.” After you’ve seen that SOB at Fox telling everyone to shut up enough, you’ll be ready to speak out.
MoveOn.org has also run a full-page ad in the New York Times comparing Fox to the Soviet Union’s press agency, Pravda and this may be useful to reprint and distribute at the protest. See the ad here:
http://cdn.moveon.org/content/pdfs/fox_nytimes.pdf
Here’s a useful site, “News Hounds: We watch FOX so you don’t have to” —
http://www.newshounds.us/
Following is more information on New York City, to help orient everyone to the terrain and transportation in the city, so you won’t get lost while trying to get to the protest (and also to be able to run errands to support the protest and its material needs). When people visit New York they typically take taxis because they feel disoriented by New York’s huge and complicated subway system. This is a shame because the subway is so inexpensive compared to taxis and more reliable. There are plenty of times and places in the city where you won’t find a cab. So following is the “mother lode” of information on how to use New York’s subway system, everything you need to know but didn’t know who or what to ask. Read the following information five or ten times, carefully study the downloadable maps and I guarantee you’ll know how to get around New York as well as people who have been living here for five or ten years:
Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York — website — has downloadable maps of the bus and subway systems:
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/
Make sure you print a subway map in color as each subway line is a different color and if you print it in black and white the train lines will all look like tangled spaghetti and you’ll get lost. Recommendation: Get to New York a day earlier than you otherwise would have and spend a day riding around the subway system to get used to it. A single subway fare lets you ride around the city indefinitely as long as you don’t exit the system. From the same site, here’s the New York City subway map:
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/maps/submap.htm
However, that version does not contain complete map information. You want the “pdf” version that you can enlarge greatly. It also tells you exactly which trains with different letters and numbers stop at each specific station (all trains have names, either a letter or a number. There’s the A train, the B train, the 1 train, the 2 train etc.):
http://www.mta.info/nyct/maps/subwaymap.pdf
Study the map. Get to know it so you won’t get lost once you get to New York. Otherwise you’ll be forced to rely on expensive taxis to get everywhere. Other sections of the site also have bus maps. Helpful, but keep in mind that New York City buses run at a snail’s pace compared to subways. Taxis can be fastest of all and also door-to-door, but expensive compared to subways. The police might also block off some streets in response to the protest, which might be a problem for a taxi. And during rush hour or due to other problems a taxi can get tied up in traffic. Taxis can also require you to pay tolls at bridges since there are bridges all around Manhattan. (If you require a taxi to enter or leave Manhattan.) But subways avoid this since they just go right under the rivers around Manhattan. (You probably won’t even notice when your subway train is under a river unless you study the map carefully. Then you might be able to conclude, “Hm. We must be under the East River at this point in the ride…”)
It’s good to familiarize yourself with all city transportation methods (have maps handy) in case something goes wrong with one of them.
Taxis are easier to spot on major thoroughfares, especially major avenues. If you choose to take a taxi be safe but make sure you are standing where the taxi driver can see you raising your arm to hail him. And stand in a place that allows the taxi to come to a stop near you, not in a location where he can’t stop because of traffic coming behind him. There are also taxi companies in the New York Yellow Pages. Unlike regular cabs they can’t be hailed and can only pick up passengers who call. There is no guarantee they will arrive promptly, if too many people are seeking a cab.
Here’s a page from the same website with New York City transit telephone numbers to get information. Anything you don’t know or understand, call them up ahead of time and they will explain it to you (the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask):
http://www.mta.info/mta/phone.htm
Also keep in mind that the big Amtrak train station in New York (not to be confused with the subway system which is a totally separate system unconnected to Amtrak) is at 34th Street in Manhattan and is called Penn Station (Pennsylvania Station). Since Murdoch’s empire is at 47th Street, once you take a train to New York’s Penn Station, as soon as you get out you are only about 13 blocks away, not a terribly long walk. If you look closely on the subway map at the blue subway train line, you will see in Manhattan a station marked “34 St Penn Station.” As you can see, there are subway trains that stop there, next to Penn Station. Get out of the Amtrak train, walk until you get to the subway entrance, which is less than a block away underground (signs will direct you), and take a subway train to anywhere you want in the city.
If you’re coming from Newark Airport in New Jersey, take a Path train from there into the city. Then take the subway. From JFK or LaGuardia Airports (both shown on the subway map east of Manhattan) you can take subway trains into Manhattan or anywhere in the city you want to go. LaGuardia and JFK Airports require you to take a short bus ride to get to the subway. The subway map shows the bus routes and bus numbers which make that connection between the airports and the subway system.
Incidentally, many out-of-towners are unfamiliar with New York City’s trailblazing “express train” subway system. Let me explain it. In many other cities that have subways, a given subway line just has two tracks. One going in one direction along that line, and the other track going in the opposite direction along the same line. But in New York, many New York subway stations have both “local” trains and “express” trains stopping there in the same station. In such a station you will likely see 4 separate tracks side by side. In most cases they are so close to each other that you’ll be able to see all 4 tracks while standing there.
A staircase will take you to a walkway above or below the tracks so you can switch from say, a northbound to a southbound train if you need to reverse direction. This is available only in express stations, since they are larger stations to accommodate both local and express train service. Express stations accommodate both. Local stations only accommodate local trains, so they are smaller stations. Being smaller stations, the local stations don’t usually have stairs leading to walkways connecting uptown and downtown service above or below the tracks. Thus, in most local stations you won’t be able to switch from a northbound train to a southbound train should you wish to do so.
New York State also has two important Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. I had a lot to say in my previous blog ( mentioned above —
http://wholeworldiswatching.blogspot.com/
) in praise of Schumer’s toughness and his willingness to directly call a Republican (his previous opponent, Al D’Amato) the “L” word — LIAR — and to make that into an offense, not a defense. I would have liked to see Schumer become Senate Minority Leader. However, we have just heard that Schumer was appointed head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. And that’s real good. And on November 2nd 2004 Schumer was reelected by a landslide. In his new role now as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman he will come in contact with Democratic contributors from all over the country. These combined factors guarantee that Schumer will also have the momentum and resources to win a landslide victory six years from now. In other words, Schumer has a rock-solid safe seat for at least the next twelve years. And that means he can stick his neck out.
All this means that in New York we will be on friendly ground. I would compare this very favorably to Washington D.C., a city that is overshadowed by Republican power, full of excessive anti-terrorist security and totally paranoid. And the huge liberal population in New York can also add to the numbers of protesters. A march on Washington depends a lot on people coming from elsewhere. Indeed, Washington itself is a much smaller city. But a march in New York starts with a large indigenous base of potential protesters before the outsiders even show up. And all of them can show up on the subway, without owning a car, because virtually every location in the city is walking distance from a subway station and the subway system is totally integrated underground. Without ever exiting the system you can get anywhere from anywhere on the New York subway at most by changing trains once or twice, and without ever paying a second fare. So because of these factors the chances of success for a New York protest can be greater. And also keep in mind that if you’re coming to the city by car, even if you can’t find a parking space near the protest, you’ll find a subway station walking distance from wherever you park your car and it will get you there.
We want a lot of change from Fox and we are not willing to meet with them, make a separate peace with them for any individual participating organization in our protests. We are not willing to fraternize with the enemy, accept gestures, mollification, inducements or bribes. And we will not be satisfied with promises. Anything they say they’re going to do, you’re a known liar, we don’t believe you, cut the crap and prove it.
We also need to be very clear and disciplined about the number one issue in this protest. Yes, there will be some who may want to protest Fox for its failure to adequately cover the desperate plight of the people of Guacamole Island somewhere on a river in Baluchistan. Some may want to show up at the protest with a banner supporting the G.L.O. (that’s Guacamole Liberation Organization). But this is not what this protest is about. Anyone ranting and raving at the protest about how Fox hasn’t given enough attention to the benefits of mung beans is only making us look idiotic and must not be allowed to derail our objective. Marshals must have a sharp eye for suspected freeper disrupters. We are not doing this protest to get detoured by side issues or issues the media, including Fox, will be looking to use to discredit us. Fox could even hire people to disrupt or embarrass our protest. Keep your eyes peeled. And the right wing media will try to say we are perverts, long-hairs, unkempt, rude, far-left fringe, violent, terror-loving, illegal traitors up to no good. Don’t give them ammunition to discredit what we are doing. Additionally, if someone is being genuinely disruptive in a way that truly undermines what we are trying to do, marshals should be trained in a couple of jujitsu hand holds so they can firmly but pleasantly escort a freeper out of the protest. There are ways of grabbing just a couple of fingers and pulling so that the disrupter absolutely has to come with you. My heart bleeds for whining freeper disrupters who want to deprive us of freedom of speech, assembly and the press.
This protest is about one thing: Fox’s obscene refusal to tell the world about the crime of the century — the heist in broad daylight of the greatest democracy in human history. We stand as defenders of the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and also founded the Democratic Party. He stood against the other major party of his day, the Federalists, who wanted to take things back to a more blue-blood era of royalty. Today we are still fighting that same fight, the autocrats vs. the democrats. Anyone who tells you the fight of our times is not about democracy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. This is not even about the Iraq war. Some are for it, some against. But whether an American is for or against the war, there can be absolutely no disputing that the robbing of our democratic tradition is an obscene, filthy, un-American abomination. As Americans we can and must be totally united against the destruction of our democracy. This issue, the total rigging of the election of George W. Bush on a scale never before seen has the potential to open the eyes of all who thus far failed to see. No true American dares question the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. This issue is a point of unity for all Americans. Have the selflessness to downplay personal, pet or side issues, no matter how important they are to you so that the American people will not be able to say to themselves, “Well, I can’t support this anti-Fox pro-democracy protest because the protesters have a different view on the war or taxes or healthcare or religious or moral values.”
All these side topics are not the issue. Not now. Our nation, our democracy, our freedom, our vote — on which ALL OTHER ISSUES DEPEND — was stolen right in front of us. And the LIARS at Fox refuse to tell the truth about it. This is the ultimate obscenity against all things American. This is the ultimate abrogation — that the truth itself has been hijacked — by Fox.
Also keep the focus on Fox and Murdoch’s other companies as opposed to other news organizations. We are not protesting other news organizations now. Only organizations associated with Murdoch. We want the other news organizations to attend and report on our protest of Fox and we don’t want to alienate them. Even if they don’t give us the attention we want, there will be internal debates going on in the other news organizations in the city about how much attention to give this. We want the voices of good journalism to express themselves and be heard inside those news organizations and we don’t want to put those better voices on the spot by protesting their news organizations. Even though we are not satisfied with the media as a whole, stifle your hostility toward the other news outlets and keep the attention focused — on Fox. The evidence against Fox is most copious and well documented. We want to first establish what can be most easily proven to get across that there are indeed right wing media organizations doing a rotten job. So don’t dissipate our focus and keep our efforts on target.
Imagine that your own mother was mugged, raped and murdered in front of numerous witnesses. Imagine that you have personally just laid your mother to rest and those witnesses look you straight in the face and say, “Your mother wasn’t murdered! She’s living in Canarsie, Brooklyn!” THAT’S Fox News. And yet, for millions of gullible Americans Fox is brainwash headquarters. The silence of Fox, their denial, their lies, their electric ridicule machine, has made them accomplices to the greatest crime in United States history — a robbery of our democracy that, without Democratic majorities to investigate on Capitol Hill, makes the Watergate burglary look like small potatoes.
In other words:
Headless democracy found in bottomless news organization. Statue of Liberty found chopped to bits in Rupert Murdoch’s basement.
And as the chief stifler of the truth, politically Rupert Murdoch is the New York Strangler.
Remember the Tiananmen Square massacre in China? Students were demanding democracy. They had actually erected a huge replica of the Statue of Liberty there. In a play on Murdoch’s destruction of professional journalism, and to demonstrate his suppression of the truth about the stolen election, let’s bring to the protest huge replicas of the Statue of Liberty — each, like the sensational Post headline, missing its head. Believe me, that will be a picture seen round the world. Besides, New York is overrun with little replicas of the Statue of Liberty sold in every tourist shop in the city. And one entire borough of the city’s five boroughs, Staten Island, commutes to work in Manhattan almost entirely by the Staten Island Ferry (excluding cars that take the Verrazano Narrows Bridge), and the Staten Island Ferry passes right by the Statue of Liberty. Everybody in Staten Island sees the Statue of Liberty twice a day. Rest assured, if there is a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty at the protest, headless, there will be news organizations that will eat it up. It will be their way of getting even with Murdoch for dragging their profession through the mud.
Be sure the replica is not hazardous or the authorities may try to ban it. New York police have been known to confiscate protest signs built with wooden sticks instead of cardboard (since in theory the stick could be used as a weapon). Some years ago a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float in the city knocked over a lamppost causing injuries. Some of the floats were also damaged by 40 mph winds. The Macy’s Parade may offer lessons in how, and how not, to create and bring in a headless replica of the Statue of Liberty. Floats in honor of college football teams may also provide examples of how to construct a Statue of Liberty replica. Make sure there is no regulation they can invoke to prevent you from doing this. Incidentally, the real Statue of Liberty is mainly a hollow shell, with a very thin metal skin and mainly merely some scaffolding inside. Make the replica thin and hollow and it will be lighter and easier to get to the protest. And make sure it won’t collapse or fall over under any conditions. We don’t want some city agency banning this replica because it violated some environmental regulation. Possibly include the head on the replica — who could object to the Statue of Liberty after all — and only remove the head after you get it to the protest.
This is the central point about Murdoch and Company: A vast amount of evidence has been collected about the rigged election, but the American people are not allowed to know because of Rupert Murdoch and the other rigged election shills in his organizations. People who are working hard to get the truth out about the rigged election are coming up against this brick wall — that the media isn’t covering it, with Fox and its associates leading the way.
We want people out in front of Murdoch’s empire chanting and yelling and roaring and screaming their LIVING GUTS out over and over and over with rage and fury, “Rupert Murdoch tell the truth! Fascists rigged the voting booth!” “One, two, three, four! Rig the vote and hear us roar! Five, six, seven, eight! Stop the lies and votergate!” If you don’t come back from the protest with laryngitis you didn’t do your duty.
Here is some pertinent information:
Fox News Channel is located at:
Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas (also called 6th Avenue)
2nd Floor,
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-556-2500
Web: www.foxnews.com
The avenues in Manhattan run north-south. Cross-streets: Fox is between 47th Street and 48th Street. Numbered streets in Manhattan run east-west. (Manhattan Island is long and narrow with the length running north-south and the width running east-west. Thus the avenues run nearly the full length of the island while the numbered cross-streets run across the narrow width of the island east-west.)
Additionally:
The News Corporation, which is at the pinnacle of Murdoch’s media empire and owns much of the rest of it including Fox News Channel, Fox Broadcasting Company Network and the New York Post, is also in the same building at the above address. News Corporation is on the 8th Floor. Rupert Murdoch is the Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation and his office is also in the building, although supposedly he’s on the 7th Floor. Here you will find a lengthy list of News Corporation assets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corporation#Film
News Corporation contact info:
Phone: 212-852-7000
Web: www.newscorp.com
The New York Post covers the 9th and 10th Floors. New York Post contact:
Phone: 212-930-8000
Web: www.nypost.com
From the above we can see that a vast right wing media empire and/or its parent companies is located right in that one single building. Set up a protest outside that building and you have hit the jackpot.
Here is a downloadable anti-Fox petition from MoveOn.org:
http://cdn.moveon.org/content/pdfs/moveon_outfoxed_petition.pdf
Here is an anti-Fox brief video about Fox News Channel’s head and right wing shill and past Nixon hatchet man, Roger Ailes. The video also includes examples of Fox tarring and feathering John Kerry:
http://www.moveon.org/foxad-QT.html
MoveOn.org’s complaint against Fox filed with the Federal Trade Commission:
http://cdn.moveon.org/content/pdfs/ftc_filing.pdf
Here’s a MoveOn clip (from the MoveOn.org website) against Fox and Fox’s Bill O’Reilly showing him constantly telling everyone to “keep your mouth shut” and “shut up,” America being a democracy and all. He is also shown (and heard) ordering a guest’s microphone cut off, which is emblematic of everything Fox represents. Essentially, Fox cuts the mic on the American People:
http://cdn.moveon.org/data/ShutUp_Final_BbandHi.mov
Save that clip to your hard drive. Watch it over and over. The clip actually shows O’Reilly saying, “It is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up and shut up publicly.” After you’ve seen that SOB at Fox telling everyone to shut up enough, you’ll be ready to speak out.
MoveOn.org has also run a full-page ad in the New York Times comparing Fox to the Soviet Union’s press agency, Pravda and this may be useful to reprint and distribute at the protest. See the ad here:
http://cdn.moveon.org/content/pdfs/fox_nytimes.pdf
Here’s a useful site, “News Hounds: We watch FOX so you don’t have to” —
http://www.newshounds.us/
Following is more information on New York City, to help orient everyone to the terrain and transportation in the city, so you won’t get lost while trying to get to the protest (and also to be able to run errands to support the protest and its material needs). When people visit New York they typically take taxis because they feel disoriented by New York’s huge and complicated subway system. This is a shame because the subway is so inexpensive compared to taxis and more reliable. There are plenty of times and places in the city where you won’t find a cab. So following is the “mother lode” of information on how to use New York’s subway system, everything you need to know but didn’t know who or what to ask. Read the following information five or ten times, carefully study the downloadable maps and I guarantee you’ll know how to get around New York as well as people who have been living here for five or ten years:
Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York — website — has downloadable maps of the bus and subway systems:
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/
Make sure you print a subway map in color as each subway line is a different color and if you print it in black and white the train lines will all look like tangled spaghetti and you’ll get lost. Recommendation: Get to New York a day earlier than you otherwise would have and spend a day riding around the subway system to get used to it. A single subway fare lets you ride around the city indefinitely as long as you don’t exit the system. From the same site, here’s the New York City subway map:
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/maps/submap.htm
However, that version does not contain complete map information. You want the “pdf” version that you can enlarge greatly. It also tells you exactly which trains with different letters and numbers stop at each specific station (all trains have names, either a letter or a number. There’s the A train, the B train, the 1 train, the 2 train etc.):
http://www.mta.info/nyct/maps/subwaymap.pdf
Study the map. Get to know it so you won’t get lost once you get to New York. Otherwise you’ll be forced to rely on expensive taxis to get everywhere. Other sections of the site also have bus maps. Helpful, but keep in mind that New York City buses run at a snail’s pace compared to subways. Taxis can be fastest of all and also door-to-door, but expensive compared to subways. The police might also block off some streets in response to the protest, which might be a problem for a taxi. And during rush hour or due to other problems a taxi can get tied up in traffic. Taxis can also require you to pay tolls at bridges since there are bridges all around Manhattan. (If you require a taxi to enter or leave Manhattan.) But subways avoid this since they just go right under the rivers around Manhattan. (You probably won’t even notice when your subway train is under a river unless you study the map carefully. Then you might be able to conclude, “Hm. We must be under the East River at this point in the ride…”)
It’s good to familiarize yourself with all city transportation methods (have maps handy) in case something goes wrong with one of them.
Taxis are easier to spot on major thoroughfares, especially major avenues. If you choose to take a taxi be safe but make sure you are standing where the taxi driver can see you raising your arm to hail him. And stand in a place that allows the taxi to come to a stop near you, not in a location where he can’t stop because of traffic coming behind him. There are also taxi companies in the New York Yellow Pages. Unlike regular cabs they can’t be hailed and can only pick up passengers who call. There is no guarantee they will arrive promptly, if too many people are seeking a cab.
Here’s a page from the same website with New York City transit telephone numbers to get information. Anything you don’t know or understand, call them up ahead of time and they will explain it to you (the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask):
http://www.mta.info/mta/phone.htm
Also keep in mind that the big Amtrak train station in New York (not to be confused with the subway system which is a totally separate system unconnected to Amtrak) is at 34th Street in Manhattan and is called Penn Station (Pennsylvania Station). Since Murdoch’s empire is at 47th Street, once you take a train to New York’s Penn Station, as soon as you get out you are only about 13 blocks away, not a terribly long walk. If you look closely on the subway map at the blue subway train line, you will see in Manhattan a station marked “34 St Penn Station.” As you can see, there are subway trains that stop there, next to Penn Station. Get out of the Amtrak train, walk until you get to the subway entrance, which is less than a block away underground (signs will direct you), and take a subway train to anywhere you want in the city.
If you’re coming from Newark Airport in New Jersey, take a Path train from there into the city. Then take the subway. From JFK or LaGuardia Airports (both shown on the subway map east of Manhattan) you can take subway trains into Manhattan or anywhere in the city you want to go. LaGuardia and JFK Airports require you to take a short bus ride to get to the subway. The subway map shows the bus routes and bus numbers which make that connection between the airports and the subway system.
Incidentally, many out-of-towners are unfamiliar with New York City’s trailblazing “express train” subway system. Let me explain it. In many other cities that have subways, a given subway line just has two tracks. One going in one direction along that line, and the other track going in the opposite direction along the same line. But in New York, many New York subway stations have both “local” trains and “express” trains stopping there in the same station. In such a station you will likely see 4 separate tracks side by side. In most cases they are so close to each other that you’ll be able to see all 4 tracks while standing there.
A staircase will take you to a walkway above or below the tracks so you can switch from say, a northbound to a southbound train if you need to reverse direction. This is available only in express stations, since they are larger stations to accommodate both local and express train service. Express stations accommodate both. Local stations only accommodate local trains, so they are smaller stations. Being smaller stations, the local stations don’t usually have stairs leading to walkways connecting uptown and downtown service above or below the tracks. Thus, in most local stations you won’t be able to switch from a northbound train to a southbound train should you wish to do so.
.
When you first enter the subway system, if you are entering at a local station, there will usually be two separate entrances, generally on opposite sides of a street or avenue. Note the signs there and make sure you pick the entrance that gets you to trains going in the right direction you want. For instance, a sign at the entrance might say “Uptown 1 and 9 trains” — or — “Downtown 1 and 9 trains.” One of these entrances will be on one side of the street and the other will be on the other side of the street. Check the map and pick the entrance with the sign that applies to your travel needs. Otherwise you’ll be going on the correct line but in the wrong direction and will then have to wait till you get to an express stop, get off the train and find a train going in the opposite direction. Of course, if you are entering the subway system at an express stop, you don’t have to worry about this. Because all the trains of that train line, in both directions, are available there at express stops. At an express station any entrance will get you to any train that stops at that station, regardless of which direction it is headed in. Again, when entering a local station, the entrance on one side of the street will get you to trains going in one direction. The entrance on the other side of the street will get you to trains going in the opposite direction. If it’s a local station note the signs at the entrance carefully before entering at that entrance. If it says the right train you want but the wrong direction, you’ll need to cross the street and take the other entrance.
Again, if you are on a local train and you want to reverse your direction (not that you would unless you screwed up) you will need to take the local train to the next express stop, since there you will find the walkways that allow you to cross over from the uptown direction to the downtown direction (or to reverse from going eastward to going westward, if that train line runs east-west).
You usually won’t need to take a staircase to switch from a local to an express track going in the same direction on the same line because they are usually right next to each other and accessible to each other. A local train is usually against the wall of the station and the express track is usually a few feet across the waiting platform more into the middle of the station. That is, if you are in an express station, both the local and express tracks for trains of a given line going in the direction you want to take will be right next to each other, separated only by a single, relatively narrow waiting platform. Which makes it extremely easy to switch from a local train to an express train or vice versa at an express station.
Why are some New York subway trains “express” trains?
Express trains stop at fewer stations so they go faster. Take a local train until you get to a station with express service (called an “express station”). Get off the local train and wait for the express train (usually on the same waiting platform, generally on a separate track on the other side of the same waiting platform — like, maybe 20 feet from where you got off the local train). Take the express train for most of your journey. It will go very fast. If your exact destination is only a local stop (where express trains don’t stop) finish your subway trip by switching back to the local track at an express station just ahead of your destination. You’ll get there a lot quicker if you make use of the express trains. Depending on conditions you can sometimes cut your travel time in half. Generally express and local trains run side by side through many of the same tunnels and you can often see the other train if you look out your subway car window. But the express train skips a lot of stations for speed because it runs on a track that is separate from the local train track. That is, in most parts of the subway system, express trains have their own exclusive tracks. In the station signs at each track will tell you what trains run on that track. Again, local trains are usually against the wall of the station and express trains are usually toward the middle of the station and not against any wall.
Aggressive train switching to make use of express trains is highly recommended in order to shorten your travel time tremendously. The only time you don’t want to make aggressive use of train switching is late at night when trains run much less frequently. In that case, if you happen to be on a local train that will get you to your destination, stay on it and don’t switch to the express train along the way, since you might have a long wait on a platform till the express train shows up. But that’s only relevant late at night, like maybe 11 pm.
(If you are in a local station depending on which one, you may notice an extra track there that does not run past a pedestrian waiting platform so no one on a train running on that track would be able to get off even if that train stopped in that station, which it doesn’t. So you may see a train come through on that track, without stopping in that local station. That’s the express train. It rushes right through the local station but doesn’t stop and can’t stop because its track is not adjacent to any waiting pedestrian platform. Actually, in most local stations you may see two express tracks, one for each direction, which nobody can get to in that station because they are not adjacent to waiting platforms. Whatever you do, don’t try to walk out there or onto any track. The electric rails are at ankle level and they are very deadly. By the way, many waiting platforms, which are generally several feet above the track, have abrasive materials at the edge of the platform to make it harder to slip off the platform onto the track. Don’t let this give you a false sense of confidence. On rare occasions people have been killed falling off and touching the third rail. Stay away from the edge of the platform until your train comes in. Native New Yorkers are completely at ease about this and know how to be safe but if you are from out of town, be careful and watch your step on the waiting platform. Remember, it’s safer than air and auto travel and it’s definitely the greatest subway system in the world. All the other subway systems in the world are just toys by comparison.)
You can see on the “pdf” subway map that under the name of each station is a list of the numbered and lettered trains that stop at that station. For instance, you can see that the A, C and E trains are all blue line trains. Along the blue line you can see blue circles with white letters in them, A, C and E. You’ll see those blue circles with the white A, C and E letters just south of the blue line 14th Street station. As you note the trains that stop at each station along that blue line you will see that the A train does not stop at all the stations the C and E trains stop at, just some. The A, C and E trains all stop at the white circle (or white dot) express stops. But the A train does not stop at the other blue line stops, since they are merely local stops (denoted by a black dot or circle). From this you can see that the A train is the express train on the blue line. Also note that a detailed table in the lower right section of the “pdf” subway map tells you exactly which trains (by letter or number) are local trains and which are express trains. The table also gives much other important information. Incidentally, for purposes of clarity and simplicity, we are speaking of train lines here by their color on the map. However, as you can see in that table, each train/route actually has a name such as the (red) “3 Seventh Avenue Express.” Conductors don’t refer to a train line by its color although it is very helpful to refer to it that way here for explanatory purposes.
Subway service is very frequent in New York except very late at night when there are longer waits for trains (maybe every 20 minutes very late at night, depending). For most hours of the day and evening trains run very frequently. There are no schedules. Just every few minutes another train arrives on each track.
Also note that in some cases there is more than one train on the same track. For instance, take a look at the green line. It runs north-south along Lexington Avenue on the east side of Manhattan. You will see both in the table at the lower right corner of the map and also by studying the green line, that two trains on that line are express trains, the 4 and the 5. (The 6 train on the green line is a local train.) The map doesn’t show it actually, but for much of their journey, the 4 and 5 trains actually run on the same track. People may generally refer to them both as the “Lexington Avenue Express,” and in fact, that is how both the 4 and 5 are referred to in the table at the lower right. One is called “4 Lexington Av Express” and the other is called “5 Lexington Av Express.” In fact, all through Manhattan, both of those express trains, the 4 and 5, stop in the same express stations on the same exact track and there is no discernable difference between them. However, if you follow the 4 and 5 lines south and east all the way into Brooklyn or far north into the Bronx, you will see that out there the 4 and 5 trains separate and follow different routes. (Otherwise there would be no need to give the two trains two separate numbers. Only their slightly different routes makes that necessary.) So depending on where you want to go, not just the line, direction, track and fact that the train is a local or express, is important, but the number (or letter) of the train/route as well.
Incidentally, inside almost every subway car (as well as in most stations) there is a complete subway map on the wall. Also note that for added safety you can sit in the car with the conductor, usually at the center of the train. He can answer your questions. If you’re not sure where the conductor is, lean your head out the car door just before the doors close at a station and either up the train or down the train you will see the conductor lean his head out to check the train just before the doors close.
As mentioned, on the subway map, stations signified by white circles/dots have both local and express trains stopping there. (They’re called “express stops.”) Stations signified by black circles or dots are stations where only local trains stop. (They’re called “local stops.”) Many subway stations have numerous different subway lines running through them in different colors. If you want to switch lines, get off there and walk underground to the other line to make the switch. Signs in the station will direct you to the other lines there.
There are also very thin black lines connecting the white and/or black circles in some places on the map. This means that it is two separate stations but they were close enough to each other that the builders of the subway system made underground walkway tunnels between them so you can switch from one line to the other. These underground strolls aren’t very long.
You can do all of this train and line switching and underground subway travel without ever paying a second fare. You could ride around the subways all over the city for hours, even days, on a single fare, just so long as you don’t exit the system or fall asleep (in which case a police officer will probably kick you out of the system).
Be sure the subway train you take has the correct number or letter on the front and side that the map says you need to take or you could wind up taking the wrong route.
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOUR TRIP MIGHT PROCEED:
Let’s say you are coming to the city by Amtrak train. Your ticket will probably say “New York — Penn Station.” When you arrive in Penn Station, come up a level (still underground) and look for signs directing you to the subway system. Pay the fare for a subway ride at the ticket booth or buy a subway pass from one of the vending machines. (Ticket booths also provide printed maps for free and they are clear and contain all the information in the “pdf” version, although you can’t enlarge them like you can with the “pdf” version. Also, sometimes the ticket booths are out of maps. Try to get them to give you more than one, “for a friend” or “for a relative” so you can share it with another activist who may need it.)
So if you are arriving in the city by Amtrak at Penn Station, that means that the subway line there is the one shown on the subway map in blue (the blue line) and the subway station is labeled “34 St Penn Station.” That is the nearest subway station to Amtrak’s Penn Station. And in fact it’s right there just a short walk underground from the Amtrak Penn Station to the subway station. So go through the subway turnstile using your subway pass. (It’s a paper pass but has an electronic strip on it and you swipe it through the turnstile. If you purchased a multiple ride pass that information will be on the electronic strip. Save the pass in your wallet for additional rides until the pass runs out. Mentally keep track of how many rides you bought on that pass and how many you have left because the pass doesn’t tell you. It just runs out when it runs out.)
When you get past the turnstiles into the train station, look for signs referring to the train you want to take. Note that on the map “34 St Penn Station” is on the blue-colored line. You will also see further down the blue line some blue circles with white letters in them, A, C, and E (again, trains are labeled with numbers or letters. “The 7 Train,” “The E Train,” etc.). This means that along that portion of the blue line the A, C and E trains run, each in both directions. Now let your eye follow upward (northward) along the blue line. You will see that the blue line splits into two blue lines, one of which continues further north past a huge green rectangle. That’s Central Park. (It says so on the subway map.)
(New York’s famed Central Park is one of the great marvels of that dang, blasted socialist urban planning. New York urban planners did it all to persecute Rush Limbaugh. With its endless array of bridges, parks and mass transit, New York is one of the most heavily planned cities in the world. A living monument to the genius of liberalism. Poor Rush. He can never get a break. Just when you’re trying to ruin the world minding your lonesome, along comes: A liberal. That’s probably why Rush is on drugs. Anyway, the way Central Park was created and modeled is brilliant and legendary. Even the roads running across it are set deep below ground level so that in the park you don’t hear or see the traffic unless you are literally on the edge of the road.)
So immediately to the left of Central Park you’ll see the blue line running. You will see there two blue circles with white letters in them, A and C. This means that after the blue line split in two, the portion of the blue line running up past Central Park carries A and C trains. But not the E train anymore since it split off eastward. You can also tell this by examining each individual station in that part of the blue line (left of Central Park), because by each individual station on the “pdf” and paper maps it tells you which trains stop at each individual stop. So you’ll see that the E train is the blue line train that doesn’t go up there by Central Park and instead splits off and heads east.
You can also see an orange line right next to the blue line there left of Central Park, with orange letters B and D. That means that the A, C, B and D trains all stop at the stations along that part of the map, but check each station there since some of those trains function as express trains and won’t stop until they reach the 125 St station (north of Central Park), which you can see by the white circle is an express stop.
(Incidentally, you’ll notice in this general area of the subway map tiny symbols looking like a black airplane on a yellow background. Some of these have a designation like “M60.” That’s a bus that goes to an airport, such as LaGuardia Airport, and there are also special subway trains that go to an airport. Understand that the little black and yellow airplane insignia does not mean that the airport is there, only that a bus or special subway there can take you to the airport. LaGuardia and JFK airports are far to the east and they are not in Manhattan.)
Now, notice the “59 St Columbus Circle” subway station. Just as an example. (Columbus Circle is a big famous motor vehicle traffic circle in the city at the lower left corner of Central Park.) The “59 St Columbus Circle” station also has a white circle. That means that that station is an express station too. You can see that blue, orange and red train lines all run through that station. You will notice that really there are two circles there, one black and one white. So technically it’s two separate stations, one express and one local. But there’s a little black line connecting both circles. That means there is a short underground walkway connecting the two stations so you really have full access to both stations. “Officially” it’s two separate stations and probably one was built long before the other since different subway lines were built originally in different eras. In this case both stations have the same name, “59 St Columbus Circle.” In some cases two different but connected stations will have different names and be aware of that because when you get to that station the signs you see in the station as your train comes in will have only one of those station names, not the other one. But in the case of “59 St Columbus Circle” the red, orange and blue lines all have some trains that stop at a station, called “59 St Columbus Circle.” And although it is technically more than one station, since there is a thin black line connecting a white circle and a black circle there, in real experience it is really just one giant station with passageways and staircases connecting up several different trains that stop there for all three train lines.
The actual layout of that station is enormous. It has multiple levels and you can walk from one waiting platform to another, all labeled with signs directing you and telling you which trains stop on which tracks. This is typical of many subway stations in New York. Don’t be overwhelmed by the enormous size of some stations. Some are like Xanadu’s Castle but they’re just stations with several lines running through them. Just follow the signs for the next train you need to get. And if you want, say, the “uptown A” train (the A train that heads north), follow the signs in the station that direct you to the “uptown A” train, not the “downtown A” train.
Now, as mentioned, along the left side of Central Park there are the blue A and C trains (although the only stop by Central Park that the A train makes is at “59 St Columbus Circle” because the A train is an express train). But on the left side of Central Park there is no mention of the blue E train anymore. As mentioned, that’s because from where the blue line splits into two blue lines, the E train goes east and on across the East river and into the borough of Queens. You can see the letter E clearly along that eastern branch of the blue line.
Now, notice that the E train also stops at “34 St Penn Station.” Consequently, since the E train (as we stated earlier) is an express train, and since we see now that it stops at “34 St Penn Station,” therefore, “34 St Penn Station” must be an express stop. We know this also because the “34 St Penn Station” stop has a white circle. Now, imagine that you left the Amtrak Penn Station (Amtrak Railroad) and then you took the E train subway train in the “34 St Penn Station” subway station. Imagine that you took it “Uptown,” that is, north. You could stay on that train without any switching all the way to the “5 Av/53 St” station and get off and get out of the subway system entirely. You would now be at 53rd Street, which is only about 5 blocks north of Rupert Murdoch’s offices (since that building is between 47th and 48th Streets). You would also have to walk a block west since that station is at 5th Avenue (as its name implies) and Murdoch’s offices are on 6th Avenue. (Enlarge the map enough and you will see much information about streets and avenues in very fine gray print.)
Now, if you want to get even closer by subway (less walking), here’s what to do. Get off the E train one stop earlier. That’s called the “7 Av” station. SWITCH train lines in that station to the orange line B or D train. Signs must say that that particular train is heading east, south or downtown. That is, you want the “downtown B” train or the “downtown D” train. Take either one. Take that one stop — to the “47-50 Sts/Rockefeller Ctr” station as it’s called. Notice that it also says there in fine gray lettering that the orange line there runs along 6th Avenue — Murdoch’s avenue. And we also said that Murdoch’s offices are located on 6th Avenue between 47th Street and 48th Street. So if you get out at that station — “47-50 Sts/Rockefeller Ctr” station — you are practically spitting distance from the building in which are Murdoch and Co.’s offices. And you only changed subway trains once. And yes, the offices of Murdoch and Co. are in a building that is part of Rockefeller Center, although on the outer edge of Rockefeller Center, facing 6th Avenue. (Such nice company. The Rockefellers were illegally shipping oil to Hitler during World War II.)
I just looked at the calendar. Today is November 22nd, the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. It’s almost noon. Kennedy was shot at 12:30. My previous blog, closely related to this one and mentioned above, was finished on the evening of November 9, almost to the hour of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” — the start of the Holocaust in 1938. Not my intention in either case. But it would seem that history is reminding us of lessons past.
Again, if you are on a local train and you want to reverse your direction (not that you would unless you screwed up) you will need to take the local train to the next express stop, since there you will find the walkways that allow you to cross over from the uptown direction to the downtown direction (or to reverse from going eastward to going westward, if that train line runs east-west).
You usually won’t need to take a staircase to switch from a local to an express track going in the same direction on the same line because they are usually right next to each other and accessible to each other. A local train is usually against the wall of the station and the express track is usually a few feet across the waiting platform more into the middle of the station. That is, if you are in an express station, both the local and express tracks for trains of a given line going in the direction you want to take will be right next to each other, separated only by a single, relatively narrow waiting platform. Which makes it extremely easy to switch from a local train to an express train or vice versa at an express station.
Why are some New York subway trains “express” trains?
Express trains stop at fewer stations so they go faster. Take a local train until you get to a station with express service (called an “express station”). Get off the local train and wait for the express train (usually on the same waiting platform, generally on a separate track on the other side of the same waiting platform — like, maybe 20 feet from where you got off the local train). Take the express train for most of your journey. It will go very fast. If your exact destination is only a local stop (where express trains don’t stop) finish your subway trip by switching back to the local track at an express station just ahead of your destination. You’ll get there a lot quicker if you make use of the express trains. Depending on conditions you can sometimes cut your travel time in half. Generally express and local trains run side by side through many of the same tunnels and you can often see the other train if you look out your subway car window. But the express train skips a lot of stations for speed because it runs on a track that is separate from the local train track. That is, in most parts of the subway system, express trains have their own exclusive tracks. In the station signs at each track will tell you what trains run on that track. Again, local trains are usually against the wall of the station and express trains are usually toward the middle of the station and not against any wall.
Aggressive train switching to make use of express trains is highly recommended in order to shorten your travel time tremendously. The only time you don’t want to make aggressive use of train switching is late at night when trains run much less frequently. In that case, if you happen to be on a local train that will get you to your destination, stay on it and don’t switch to the express train along the way, since you might have a long wait on a platform till the express train shows up. But that’s only relevant late at night, like maybe 11 pm.
(If you are in a local station depending on which one, you may notice an extra track there that does not run past a pedestrian waiting platform so no one on a train running on that track would be able to get off even if that train stopped in that station, which it doesn’t. So you may see a train come through on that track, without stopping in that local station. That’s the express train. It rushes right through the local station but doesn’t stop and can’t stop because its track is not adjacent to any waiting pedestrian platform. Actually, in most local stations you may see two express tracks, one for each direction, which nobody can get to in that station because they are not adjacent to waiting platforms. Whatever you do, don’t try to walk out there or onto any track. The electric rails are at ankle level and they are very deadly. By the way, many waiting platforms, which are generally several feet above the track, have abrasive materials at the edge of the platform to make it harder to slip off the platform onto the track. Don’t let this give you a false sense of confidence. On rare occasions people have been killed falling off and touching the third rail. Stay away from the edge of the platform until your train comes in. Native New Yorkers are completely at ease about this and know how to be safe but if you are from out of town, be careful and watch your step on the waiting platform. Remember, it’s safer than air and auto travel and it’s definitely the greatest subway system in the world. All the other subway systems in the world are just toys by comparison.)
You can see on the “pdf” subway map that under the name of each station is a list of the numbered and lettered trains that stop at that station. For instance, you can see that the A, C and E trains are all blue line trains. Along the blue line you can see blue circles with white letters in them, A, C and E. You’ll see those blue circles with the white A, C and E letters just south of the blue line 14th Street station. As you note the trains that stop at each station along that blue line you will see that the A train does not stop at all the stations the C and E trains stop at, just some. The A, C and E trains all stop at the white circle (or white dot) express stops. But the A train does not stop at the other blue line stops, since they are merely local stops (denoted by a black dot or circle). From this you can see that the A train is the express train on the blue line. Also note that a detailed table in the lower right section of the “pdf” subway map tells you exactly which trains (by letter or number) are local trains and which are express trains. The table also gives much other important information. Incidentally, for purposes of clarity and simplicity, we are speaking of train lines here by their color on the map. However, as you can see in that table, each train/route actually has a name such as the (red) “3 Seventh Avenue Express.” Conductors don’t refer to a train line by its color although it is very helpful to refer to it that way here for explanatory purposes.
Subway service is very frequent in New York except very late at night when there are longer waits for trains (maybe every 20 minutes very late at night, depending). For most hours of the day and evening trains run very frequently. There are no schedules. Just every few minutes another train arrives on each track.
Also note that in some cases there is more than one train on the same track. For instance, take a look at the green line. It runs north-south along Lexington Avenue on the east side of Manhattan. You will see both in the table at the lower right corner of the map and also by studying the green line, that two trains on that line are express trains, the 4 and the 5. (The 6 train on the green line is a local train.) The map doesn’t show it actually, but for much of their journey, the 4 and 5 trains actually run on the same track. People may generally refer to them both as the “Lexington Avenue Express,” and in fact, that is how both the 4 and 5 are referred to in the table at the lower right. One is called “4 Lexington Av Express” and the other is called “5 Lexington Av Express.” In fact, all through Manhattan, both of those express trains, the 4 and 5, stop in the same express stations on the same exact track and there is no discernable difference between them. However, if you follow the 4 and 5 lines south and east all the way into Brooklyn or far north into the Bronx, you will see that out there the 4 and 5 trains separate and follow different routes. (Otherwise there would be no need to give the two trains two separate numbers. Only their slightly different routes makes that necessary.) So depending on where you want to go, not just the line, direction, track and fact that the train is a local or express, is important, but the number (or letter) of the train/route as well.
Incidentally, inside almost every subway car (as well as in most stations) there is a complete subway map on the wall. Also note that for added safety you can sit in the car with the conductor, usually at the center of the train. He can answer your questions. If you’re not sure where the conductor is, lean your head out the car door just before the doors close at a station and either up the train or down the train you will see the conductor lean his head out to check the train just before the doors close.
As mentioned, on the subway map, stations signified by white circles/dots have both local and express trains stopping there. (They’re called “express stops.”) Stations signified by black circles or dots are stations where only local trains stop. (They’re called “local stops.”) Many subway stations have numerous different subway lines running through them in different colors. If you want to switch lines, get off there and walk underground to the other line to make the switch. Signs in the station will direct you to the other lines there.
There are also very thin black lines connecting the white and/or black circles in some places on the map. This means that it is two separate stations but they were close enough to each other that the builders of the subway system made underground walkway tunnels between them so you can switch from one line to the other. These underground strolls aren’t very long.
You can do all of this train and line switching and underground subway travel without ever paying a second fare. You could ride around the subways all over the city for hours, even days, on a single fare, just so long as you don’t exit the system or fall asleep (in which case a police officer will probably kick you out of the system).
Be sure the subway train you take has the correct number or letter on the front and side that the map says you need to take or you could wind up taking the wrong route.
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOUR TRIP MIGHT PROCEED:
Let’s say you are coming to the city by Amtrak train. Your ticket will probably say “New York — Penn Station.” When you arrive in Penn Station, come up a level (still underground) and look for signs directing you to the subway system. Pay the fare for a subway ride at the ticket booth or buy a subway pass from one of the vending machines. (Ticket booths also provide printed maps for free and they are clear and contain all the information in the “pdf” version, although you can’t enlarge them like you can with the “pdf” version. Also, sometimes the ticket booths are out of maps. Try to get them to give you more than one, “for a friend” or “for a relative” so you can share it with another activist who may need it.)
So if you are arriving in the city by Amtrak at Penn Station, that means that the subway line there is the one shown on the subway map in blue (the blue line) and the subway station is labeled “34 St Penn Station.” That is the nearest subway station to Amtrak’s Penn Station. And in fact it’s right there just a short walk underground from the Amtrak Penn Station to the subway station. So go through the subway turnstile using your subway pass. (It’s a paper pass but has an electronic strip on it and you swipe it through the turnstile. If you purchased a multiple ride pass that information will be on the electronic strip. Save the pass in your wallet for additional rides until the pass runs out. Mentally keep track of how many rides you bought on that pass and how many you have left because the pass doesn’t tell you. It just runs out when it runs out.)
When you get past the turnstiles into the train station, look for signs referring to the train you want to take. Note that on the map “34 St Penn Station” is on the blue-colored line. You will also see further down the blue line some blue circles with white letters in them, A, C, and E (again, trains are labeled with numbers or letters. “The 7 Train,” “The E Train,” etc.). This means that along that portion of the blue line the A, C and E trains run, each in both directions. Now let your eye follow upward (northward) along the blue line. You will see that the blue line splits into two blue lines, one of which continues further north past a huge green rectangle. That’s Central Park. (It says so on the subway map.)
(New York’s famed Central Park is one of the great marvels of that dang, blasted socialist urban planning. New York urban planners did it all to persecute Rush Limbaugh. With its endless array of bridges, parks and mass transit, New York is one of the most heavily planned cities in the world. A living monument to the genius of liberalism. Poor Rush. He can never get a break. Just when you’re trying to ruin the world minding your lonesome, along comes: A liberal. That’s probably why Rush is on drugs. Anyway, the way Central Park was created and modeled is brilliant and legendary. Even the roads running across it are set deep below ground level so that in the park you don’t hear or see the traffic unless you are literally on the edge of the road.)
So immediately to the left of Central Park you’ll see the blue line running. You will see there two blue circles with white letters in them, A and C. This means that after the blue line split in two, the portion of the blue line running up past Central Park carries A and C trains. But not the E train anymore since it split off eastward. You can also tell this by examining each individual station in that part of the blue line (left of Central Park), because by each individual station on the “pdf” and paper maps it tells you which trains stop at each individual stop. So you’ll see that the E train is the blue line train that doesn’t go up there by Central Park and instead splits off and heads east.
You can also see an orange line right next to the blue line there left of Central Park, with orange letters B and D. That means that the A, C, B and D trains all stop at the stations along that part of the map, but check each station there since some of those trains function as express trains and won’t stop until they reach the 125 St station (north of Central Park), which you can see by the white circle is an express stop.
(Incidentally, you’ll notice in this general area of the subway map tiny symbols looking like a black airplane on a yellow background. Some of these have a designation like “M60.” That’s a bus that goes to an airport, such as LaGuardia Airport, and there are also special subway trains that go to an airport. Understand that the little black and yellow airplane insignia does not mean that the airport is there, only that a bus or special subway there can take you to the airport. LaGuardia and JFK airports are far to the east and they are not in Manhattan.)
Now, notice the “59 St Columbus Circle” subway station. Just as an example. (Columbus Circle is a big famous motor vehicle traffic circle in the city at the lower left corner of Central Park.) The “59 St Columbus Circle” station also has a white circle. That means that that station is an express station too. You can see that blue, orange and red train lines all run through that station. You will notice that really there are two circles there, one black and one white. So technically it’s two separate stations, one express and one local. But there’s a little black line connecting both circles. That means there is a short underground walkway connecting the two stations so you really have full access to both stations. “Officially” it’s two separate stations and probably one was built long before the other since different subway lines were built originally in different eras. In this case both stations have the same name, “59 St Columbus Circle.” In some cases two different but connected stations will have different names and be aware of that because when you get to that station the signs you see in the station as your train comes in will have only one of those station names, not the other one. But in the case of “59 St Columbus Circle” the red, orange and blue lines all have some trains that stop at a station, called “59 St Columbus Circle.” And although it is technically more than one station, since there is a thin black line connecting a white circle and a black circle there, in real experience it is really just one giant station with passageways and staircases connecting up several different trains that stop there for all three train lines.
The actual layout of that station is enormous. It has multiple levels and you can walk from one waiting platform to another, all labeled with signs directing you and telling you which trains stop on which tracks. This is typical of many subway stations in New York. Don’t be overwhelmed by the enormous size of some stations. Some are like Xanadu’s Castle but they’re just stations with several lines running through them. Just follow the signs for the next train you need to get. And if you want, say, the “uptown A” train (the A train that heads north), follow the signs in the station that direct you to the “uptown A” train, not the “downtown A” train.
Now, as mentioned, along the left side of Central Park there are the blue A and C trains (although the only stop by Central Park that the A train makes is at “59 St Columbus Circle” because the A train is an express train). But on the left side of Central Park there is no mention of the blue E train anymore. As mentioned, that’s because from where the blue line splits into two blue lines, the E train goes east and on across the East river and into the borough of Queens. You can see the letter E clearly along that eastern branch of the blue line.
Now, notice that the E train also stops at “34 St Penn Station.” Consequently, since the E train (as we stated earlier) is an express train, and since we see now that it stops at “34 St Penn Station,” therefore, “34 St Penn Station” must be an express stop. We know this also because the “34 St Penn Station” stop has a white circle. Now, imagine that you left the Amtrak Penn Station (Amtrak Railroad) and then you took the E train subway train in the “34 St Penn Station” subway station. Imagine that you took it “Uptown,” that is, north. You could stay on that train without any switching all the way to the “5 Av/53 St” station and get off and get out of the subway system entirely. You would now be at 53rd Street, which is only about 5 blocks north of Rupert Murdoch’s offices (since that building is between 47th and 48th Streets). You would also have to walk a block west since that station is at 5th Avenue (as its name implies) and Murdoch’s offices are on 6th Avenue. (Enlarge the map enough and you will see much information about streets and avenues in very fine gray print.)
Now, if you want to get even closer by subway (less walking), here’s what to do. Get off the E train one stop earlier. That’s called the “7 Av” station. SWITCH train lines in that station to the orange line B or D train. Signs must say that that particular train is heading east, south or downtown. That is, you want the “downtown B” train or the “downtown D” train. Take either one. Take that one stop — to the “47-50 Sts/Rockefeller Ctr” station as it’s called. Notice that it also says there in fine gray lettering that the orange line there runs along 6th Avenue — Murdoch’s avenue. And we also said that Murdoch’s offices are located on 6th Avenue between 47th Street and 48th Street. So if you get out at that station — “47-50 Sts/Rockefeller Ctr” station — you are practically spitting distance from the building in which are Murdoch and Co.’s offices. And you only changed subway trains once. And yes, the offices of Murdoch and Co. are in a building that is part of Rockefeller Center, although on the outer edge of Rockefeller Center, facing 6th Avenue. (Such nice company. The Rockefellers were illegally shipping oil to Hitler during World War II.)
I just looked at the calendar. Today is November 22nd, the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. It’s almost noon. Kennedy was shot at 12:30. My previous blog, closely related to this one and mentioned above, was finished on the evening of November 9, almost to the hour of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” — the start of the Holocaust in 1938. Not my intention in either case. But it would seem that history is reminding us of lessons past.
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