School of Communications students Scott Myrick and Liz Nagy were joined by Elon Television Director Linda Lashendock in Washington, D.C. Sept. 23-26 to cover a large anti-war protest for Phoenix14News.
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and United for Peace and Justice Groups hosted the event, bringing in approximately 300,000 demonstrators from around the country.
Nagy and Myrick conducted one-on-one interviews with national figures, including Reverend Jesse Jackson and Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who received media attention during the summer for her protest at President Bush’s Texas ranch.
Nagy and Myrick also interviewed former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and activist singer Joan Baez about their viewpoints on the Iraq war.
The protest began on the mall between the Washington Monument and the White House. It was billed as the largest anti-war gathering since the war began in 2003.
More than thirty Elon students and faculty participated in the protest, representing the campus organization Students for Peace and Justice. Ocek Eke, assistant professor of communications, attended the protest and told Nagy in an interview, “you cannot learn this in a classroom. You have to go and experience it for yourself. This is what democracy looks like.”
At the end of the weekend, Myrick said, “I’ve covered big events before, but this was the first time I felt like I was really a member of the media and not just a student.”