Olympic torch run makes a different kind of history

It's been a rough-and-tumble run for the Olympic torch, and yesterday's swing through San Francisco just added to the mayhem, as Maria La Ganga and Tim Reiterman report. And boy, do we ever have photos to help tell the tale.

Here's the torch relay, here's a pro-Tibet rally, and here are protesters trying to extinguish the Olympic flame.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Getty Images

Comments

[Virginia Hoge]

I would like to see the role Reporters Without Borders has had in motivating the Olympic torch protests investigated!

I have been investigating Reporters without Borders ever since they performed a "media propaganda siege" in my city, Pasadena California, with their ugly, disruptive protests of the Beijing float in the 2008 Rose Parade.

The fact that they are also very involved in the torch rally protests really worries me!

I have written on the matter here:
www.pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com

Note in my post - As it says in the Reporters Without Borders press release, released last summer, Reporters Without Borders did not start out with Tibet as their central issue in their campaign against the Beijing Olympics. In the release announcing their new campaign, they named the issue as human rights abuse and only recently have they attached themselves to the Tibet and Darfur issues.

Also, as a graphic designer, I can't help but notice their wide-spread use of graphics to promote their campaign. This advertising is very effective but I find this a transparent use of media to spread questionable propaganda.

Here is some history of their campaign in my city this January:

Reporters Without Borders media siege of Pasadena
http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2008/01/reporter-without-borders-media-siege-of.html