Non-news rivals news in importance

The week in politics gets all the attention. But the week that wasn’t can also be noteworthy — even if not as newsworthy by editorial convention.

- MARTIN REGG COHN

Pro-Palestinian activists scuffle with police outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago on Tuesday. But fears of mass protests during the Democratic convention didn't materialize just one of several notable things that didn't happen this week, Martin Regg Cohn writes.

Consider this week’s big news out of Chicago: Kamala Harris laid claim to the presidential ticket with her vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz at the Democratic National Convention with two explosive speeches that set the hall on fire.

Yet the non-news out of Chicago also stood out: Democrats who had braced for the battle of the Middle East landing on the home front — playing out on television screens across America — breathed a collective sigh of relief this week.

Chicago 2024 wasn’t Chicago 1968. Different year, different week.

Despite non-stop media scare stories, there were no mass protests on the city streets and no mass sit-ins on the convention floor. Predictions of a pro-Palestinian, anti-establishment groundswell led by tens of thousands of protesters never came to pass.

Outside, specially trained police reined in pockets of disruptive protesters or provocateurs, never losing control — or their cool. They stopped unauthorized demonstrations by pro-Israel groups and arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian activists who ignored orders to back off or disperse.