She's Baaaaack
Did you know Cindy Sheehan is back in Crawford, Texas?
Don't worry; you will soon. The media machine is ginning up again. There are 31 pictures on the wire photo desk tonight with her name in the caption and 40 stories have moved since Thanksgiving.
What's amusing -- well, one of many things -- is that the AP slugs on her story in the first round of the media circus were "PEACEMOM." AP always keeps the same slugs on a story in a cycle; Supreme Court stories always are SCOTUS. Even if the story changes in nature, the slug generally stays the same for the sake of editors finding it again. If two children don't come home from school it will be MISSINGKIDS or something, even as the case evolves into a murder, a trial, a conviction.
So the AP dubbed this woman "Peace Mom." This time around, "Peace Mom" isn't in the slug -- it's in the headlines. 'Peace Mom' Cindy Sheehan returns to Texas for war protest. It was the Associated Press that gave her that name, now they're quoting it, unattributed, in their headines. They're working overtime to nail down the public perception on this.
I've said it before: It's a very inaccurate description of who she is and what she wants.
Some people who devote their waking ours to whipping up their own indignation over the pecadillos -- some not so minor -- of the White House wonder why some of the rest of us would rather tone that down while there are wars to be won, but will take aim at the Sheehans and Joe Wilsons and Michael Moores.
Think of it like this. Every protest march, every labor strike, draws a lot of people who come for the right reason -- to express an honest and sincere dissent. And every such action also draws people who will be there to stir up chaos, avenge a grudge, wave the demagogue banner.
If you care about the process, if you care about the dissent, the right to express such feelings even when they do potentially terrible damage, it's just as important to call out the phonies and the anarchists. And since the dissenters in the current situation often seem too distracted to undertake the work, the rest of us will gladly cover for them. Take it, Willie:
Don't worry; you will soon. The media machine is ginning up again. There are 31 pictures on the wire photo desk tonight with her name in the caption and 40 stories have moved since Thanksgiving.
What's amusing -- well, one of many things -- is that the AP slugs on her story in the first round of the media circus were "PEACEMOM." AP always keeps the same slugs on a story in a cycle; Supreme Court stories always are SCOTUS. Even if the story changes in nature, the slug generally stays the same for the sake of editors finding it again. If two children don't come home from school it will be MISSINGKIDS or something, even as the case evolves into a murder, a trial, a conviction.
So the AP dubbed this woman "Peace Mom." This time around, "Peace Mom" isn't in the slug -- it's in the headlines. 'Peace Mom' Cindy Sheehan returns to Texas for war protest. It was the Associated Press that gave her that name, now they're quoting it, unattributed, in their headines. They're working overtime to nail down the public perception on this.
I've said it before: It's a very inaccurate description of who she is and what she wants.
Some people who devote their waking ours to whipping up their own indignation over the pecadillos -- some not so minor -- of the White House wonder why some of the rest of us would rather tone that down while there are wars to be won, but will take aim at the Sheehans and Joe Wilsons and Michael Moores.
Think of it like this. Every protest march, every labor strike, draws a lot of people who come for the right reason -- to express an honest and sincere dissent. And every such action also draws people who will be there to stir up chaos, avenge a grudge, wave the demagogue banner.
If you care about the process, if you care about the dissent, the right to express such feelings even when they do potentially terrible damage, it's just as important to call out the phonies and the anarchists. And since the dissenters in the current situation often seem too distracted to undertake the work, the rest of us will gladly cover for them. Take it, Willie:
Parnell came down the road, he said to a cheering man:
Ireland shall get her freedom and you still break stone
Labels: Cindy Sheehan
