What does the press focus on in a Hong Kong rally for freedom?

Here's another prime example of why you should ignore the mainstream media - (and for goodness' sake, stop thinking of it as 'news' as if you're getting relevant information).

Hundreds of thousands of protestors show up in Hong Kong, demanding democracy (coincidentally, the shift toward democracy is going on this very minute under the vision of our very own president...), and what does the New York Times focus shift to by the third paragraph?

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Huge Rally in Hong Kong Calls for Democratic Elections:

"Wearing white T-shirts that soon became plastered to their bodies with sweat, the demonstrators carried many placards with fairly broad slogans like 'Democracy for Hong Kong.' But also visible were a variety of bolder signs, including: 'End One-Party Rule. Establish a Democratic China.' Organizers said 530,000 people had made the two-mile march from palm-fringed Victoria Park to the high steel fences ringing the main government offices here. The police estimated the crowd at 200,000.

Whatever the exact figure, the crowd included a substantial number of the city's 6.8 million inhabitants. The turnout was even more surprising because the march was mostly limited to fairly fit adults who felt they could withstand several hours packed together on a 95-degree day with very high humidity, no breeze and severe air pollution."

Oh my goodness, that must have been the very most important substantial information about this march - whether people could bear the weather - and, of course, the horrific pollution caused by such a laissez faire attitude toward business - (so similar to the eeeeeevil American system, I might add).

By contrast, what is the focus of the third paragraph in a Channel NewsAsia story on the very same subject?

"We would note that the United States respects the right of the people of Hong Kong to express their commitment to democracy and political reform peacefully," Adam Ereli, the deputy spokesman of the US State Department, told reporters.

He said that while it was up to the people and government of Hong Kong to determine the pace and scope of democratization, the United States would back calls for political reforms.

"It is our longstanding policy to support Hong Kong's move toward electoral reform and universal suffrage as provided for in the Basic Law," he said.

Hong Kong partly elects its legislature, the Legislative Council, but the territory's leader is chosen by an 800-member electoral college handpicked by Beijing.

How very interesting - they seem to be focusing on the actual substance behind the march. Sort of like, actually reporting factual news that has meaning...

These Asian people need to take a lesson from the New York Times and start talking about the stickiness of marchers' t-shirts on a hot, polluted day. You know, the stuff people really want to see in a newspaper - not the fact that people are demanding the freedoms that George W. Bush wants to foster around the world.