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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
News / Biz / Democratic National Convention 2012 CNN's take on why the Democratic National Convention is good for Charlotte
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:43 AM
The video, which CNN won't allow us to embed here, suggests the Democratic National Committee's Convention will draw 35,000 people (note: an estimated 84,000 showed up in Denver) who may spend up to $200 million, or, in other words, that "opportunity is knocking."
It also featured LYNX in such a way that someone unfamiliar with Charlotte might think that it's something everyone has access to (funny, huh?) and that a lot — but not all — of the likely temporary jobs the convention will create will go to local people.
And, the rest? (NC allows visiting cops to help Charlotte for DNC — WBTV)
The magazine-style news segment also suggested the coming convention has encouraged people and companies to restart stalled projects. Gotta put our best foot forward and all, right? Not a peep about our budget crisis, though, or how our schools, libraries and parks — and a long list of other social services and programs — are suffering while these projects get spit-shined.
WFAE fact-checks CNN's story and finds errors.
What do you think? Will the DNC convention be a good thing for Charlotte? Is it already? Are our citizens ready, or do you think they're going to be surprised by the riot gear? (Personally, I think they're going to have a bad case of reverse culture shock. I'm getting prepared, though. Check out my new Twitter account: @FreeRhi)
And, what do you think about all the money being spent to make our guests feel good about coming here when other areas of our community are desperately seeking funds? What does that say to the citizens of Charlotte? Our guests get first dibs? They're better than you? Naneenanabooboo, go rich politicians? WTF?
Here's Amy Goodman (whose column we carry online every week) from Democracy Now!, talking about the AT&T sponsored* DNC Convention in Denver in 2008:
And this is a Democracy Now! montage on the arrests and protests at Denver's convention — and her report on them with eyewitness accounts, theorizing that people were mass-arrested so they could be held in jail, and thus unable to return to the streets. They also noticed that the police weren't wearing identification, which makes it difficult to identify them should they do something out of line. (Amy was also arrested during the convention, as was Asa Eslocker, a reporter from ABC.)
* Apparently the 2012 DNC convention is Duke Energy sponsored.
Here is a link to KGNU, an independent Denver-based radio station with more on what the last DNC convention was like: http://dnc.kgnu.org/
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