The failure of the nation’s media to question the lies and propaganda of the Bush administration’s push to war is now well known and has been often discussed. The compliance of most of the major news organizations in disseminating the jingoistic talking points of the Rove-Rumsfeld-Cheney cabal is surely one of the major reasons for the nation’s tragic mistake in Iraq. Many in the media have since acknowledged their culpability and have striven to take their responsibility to seek the truth more seriously.

So what do we make of the BDN’s coverage of last weekend’s protest march in Kennebunkport? By all accounts (including estimates by the drivers of the shuttle buses) 4,000 to 6,000 people from a dozen or more states gathered to deliver a forceful message to the administration, the country and the world, that we have had enough of the killing, that we want our military home safely, that we demand that the billions of dollars currently wasted be spent to fulfill our nation’s needs here at home.

There were impassioned speeches from several veterans of the Iraqi conflict, one from a candidate for president of the United States, one from a candidate for the U.S. Congress from California, a couple from parents who have lost their beloved children for no reason but Bush’s lies.

The rally and march appeared to be well covered by the media and was reported prominently in the newspapers and on TV across the country. I was out of state the next day and read it on the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper.

In one edition, The Bangor Daily News printed two paragraphs (BDN Aug. 27) from one of the wire services at the bottom of page B3 and, reported that “hundreds of war protesters … marched …”

You should be ashamed of that kind of service to your readers and to the people of Maine.

Dan Lourie

Bar Harbor