Cindy Sheehan's War.
From George F. Will's last column Tone-Deafness Among Democrats:
"Sad yet riveting, like a wreck by the side of the road, Cindy Sheehan,
a plaything of her own sincerities and other people's opportunisms, has
already been largely erased from the national memory by new waves of
media fickleness in the service of the public's summer ennui."
That at least is how George Will wants to see it. Rather than fall
in line with Will's desperate urge to look beyond this let's look right
on for a moment. The deceptively obvious first: Cindy Sheehan is a real
woman with a real life, who had a grown son. This is a reality that
extends beyond in both direction beyond this set of news cycles. The
Vigil at Crawford; her planitive protest and plea for answers began
quietly and with only a modicum of fanfare. She had been there a week
with only local and bored presidential detail press coverage, It
was into the third week of August that this became a Story - in captial
letters.
Jockying over the story brought up the question whether this
was Grass roots or Astroturf. What difference does this make though?
Clearly Democratic, more, liberal agency PR has gotten involved and is
guiding this to a certain extent.The Washington Post did cover that
aspect of it in detail at the outset
Cindy Sheehan's Pitched Battle, and less caustically
for that. Without this guidance and professional assistance, this would
have been taken as a regional thing, not commanding national AlterNet: MediaCulture: The Success of the 'Grieving Mom' and international
The Observer | International | Mother tips the balance against Bush
attention. But, it would exist and with its native sincerity intact in
either case. The greater media campaign has neither added to or
subtracted from her message of personal grief and anguish. The real
test of an issue is whether or not it resonates with the public
Is Sheehan a Spark or a Flicker?.
There are curious apples and issues in this debate. To understand
compare, or grade loss without suffering loss. To understand that sense
of dutiful obligation of the service branch member without having worn
a uniform. This affects what is said and what is not said. My fellow
enlistees were a high school graduates, or less. We were
unsophisticated people. Our sense of duty, a fair nugget of civic
mindness and sentiment, was stiffened greatly by the uniform we wore,
the steel of the ships we cruised in.
The inevitable GOP Counteroffense
AlterNet: MediaCulture: Attacking Cindy Sheehan has
varied not all from the predictable method of Attack | Damn |
Disparage. Relying on the publics deficit of available attention. at
least the phenomenon has a name now Swift Boating:
impuning as a way of proceeding. It has struck me recently that the
particular quality it often has of Reflecting rather than deflecting
the charge or disagreement betrays signs of being a personal
psychological (my guess is we are seeing Karl Rove's nature in all
this) reaction rather than a consensus policy of the administration. At
any rate the media sets an August focus on this issue and has reported
the varieties of counter spin as well as the counter offensive.
. The remaining question is with the future directions for or from
the peace movement now fomally recognized to exist. To engage the
heirarchy of Democratic party - make the case for their agenda of
disengagement. Or to go their own way, taking the lead and letting the
party, congress, and later the nation last of all the administration
President Bush's Loss of Faith - New York Times follow.
11:48:40 PM  ;;
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