Loaded words painted wrong picture of protest

I liked the picture of the worker protest at the McDonald's headquarters published on May 22. It was a nice illustration of workers standing together in solidarity while facing police in full riot gear. Were there people with clubs or other weapons in the crowd? Protest chants hardly seem to rise to the level of a menacing threat.

Obviously the police were well-informed ahead of the demonstration to be so fully armored. And I suppose that's necessary to protect our sacred corporations from people who don't make a living wage while the McDonald's CEO, Donald Thompson, made the equivalent last year of $4,500 an hour and this year has a proposed pay package of $9.5 million ($6,600 an hour). That's quite a chunk of change for a guy with a poor corporate earnings showing and who failed to meet the company's own financial performance targets by more than 50 percent.

While a picture speaks a thousand words, sometimes just a few words will paint a distorted picture. I believe that is the case here when your story uses such loaded phrasing such as "Protesters storm Oak Brook facility." The news media need to be more responsible in their reporting and characterization of events such as the one last week. I may be only 81 years old, but I remember a time when there was a more balanced coverage of stories from our newsprint media.

Lila Hangey

Arlington Heights