Posted on 08/26/2005 11:28:51 AM PDT by Michael Hagan
With the President back at his Crawford ranch, the anti-war protest right outside his ranch is getting a lot more media attention. ABC7 looks at who is financing the operation and who's providing on-the-ground support.
The camp at Crawford is full of Cindy Sheehan supporters, people from all walks of life. But off to the side are a small group of professionals, skilled in politics and public relations who are marketing her message.
Cindy Sheehan kneels before a cross with her son's name on it, touches his picture, wipes her tears. It's an outpouring of emotion that is part of a scheduled news event organized daily for the television radio and print reporters who crowd in to capture a mother's grief.
Cindy Sheehan: "And I'm never going to see him again, I'm never going to hold him again, I'm never going to hear his voice again."
Sheehan's message hasn't changed since she got here but the support staff interested in getting that message out to the world has grown considerably.
Organizers are set up in this house trailer. Their meetings are closed to reporters.
Leading the group is Fenton Communications employee Michele Mulkey, based in San Francisco. Fenton specializes in public relations for liberal non profits.
Their bills are being paid by True Majority, a non-profit set up by Ben Cohen, of Ben and Jerry's ice cream fame.
Ben Cohen: "People are willing to listen to her and we want to do as much as we can to make her voice heard."
Cohen's liberal group has teamed up with Berkeley-based moveon.org, an anti-Bush group co-founded by Joan Blades.
Earlier this month, MoveOn.org helped organize anti-war vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan. Current Democratic National Party chair Howard Dean's organization, Democracy for America, is also involved. As is the more radical anti-war group Code Pink, organized by San Francisco's Medea Benjamin.
Money donated through these groups and others is helping to pay for Gold Star families whose children have been killed in Iraq to attend anti-Bush protests.
This week, Simi Valley, California Gold Star wife Melanie House flew to Idaho for a protest and then flew to Crawford.
Reporter: "Can you tell us if you're getting help in airfare to come down here?"
Melanie House: "What difference does that make?"
There is real reluctance to talk about whose paying. And the PR machine that's promoting Cindy Sheehan. But not everyone here is completely comfortable with it.
Gold Star mother Karen Meredith went to Crawford from Mt. View. Her son Ken Ballard died last year.
Karen Meredith: "Sometimes things don't feel quite right to me. They don't feel wrong but maybe that's how they do it in the marketing business."
ABC7's Mark Matthew: "You feel you're part of a marketing business?"
Karen Meredith: "Possibly. Yeah I think so."
Cindy Sheehan is such a phony she makes me sick. She is using her son's death politically. Her act of being a grief stricken mother died when she used her son's death as a political catalyst.
Yep.
Sometimes I think Bush should do that. While it is transparent and shallow, it seems to work.
It would be a good answer to Cindy Sheehan's question.
"Why did Casey die?
If we had not listened to the Cindy Sheehans of the world in 1936 and taken Hitler out when we had the chance, most of these graves would not be here.
We have to learn from history. A tyrant left to grow more dangerous is a more dangerous tyrant."
Yeah ... good ol' Ben & Jerry's headquartered in their home state of Vermont (near Stowe). Also the home state of Dean & jumpin' Joe Jeffords. Surprised?
If your looking for a great ice cream and live in Ohio try Graters, it's the best.
And let's not forget..
It's an all volunteer military..
There is no Draft..
( regardless of what the Dems tell you..)
It becomes more obvious every day he enlisted ( and re-enlisted ) to "get away"...
Wow, that's plutonium! Do you have a reference for that?
I just read on drudge (well her blog) that they have caterers now. Is this thing growing?
"Organizers are set up in this house trailer. Their meetings are closed to reporters"
there should be a fire
Doesn't the media have access to equipment that could detect at long ranges what was going on in that trailer. Sure would be interesting to hear.
Anyone remember Klintoon and the little pebbles on the beach (in Normandy, I think)? No pebbles anywhere on that beach except where he was walking...
I can say that Ive never ate B&Js icecream. and now that I know this I never will.
Evidently you don't understand the media business. They have a product life cycle the same as any other business. Once the product becomes stale, one either has to move it off the shelf or re-purpose it in some other manner.
The MSM has never played for the fool in this (or any other) story. What's happening here is that once initial interest begins to wane, they have to re-package it from another direction to get the last bit of mileage.
Once the MSM begins to contemplate its own 'participation' in a story, you can be sure that the story has reached its expiration date.
Uhm what's that old expression?
Oh Yeah. FOLLOW THE MONEY!
Wait, didn't she already say that he was talking to her from heaven, calling Bush an idiot? Surely she heard his voice then!
Thanks for posting this. Besides the maggots, Ben and Jerry, with their heart killing ice cream, George $oreA$$ should be a suspect in any well coordinated trashing of GW.
The money will come from his various hate America NGO's who target GW with lies and vile hate spew 24/7.
I also heard that most of the "protesters" are professionals, paid by these sleazy organizations. And I was wondering how people could go down there for days/weeks on end! They are getting paid!!!!
I got this stupid MSN upgrade and can no longer post links. However, if you cut and paste the title below in the Search function on Free Republic's home page, the thread title is listed below, you can read about it.
Protesting mother back at Crawford - Sheehan returns as opposing camp gains
I got this stupid MSN upgrade and can no longer post links. However, if you cut and paste the title below in the Search function on Free Republic's home page, the thread title is listed below, you can read about it.
Protesting mother back at Crawford - Sheehan returns as opposing camp gains
Mr Fenton of Fenton communications was on c-span yesterday peddling his book of photos from the Vietnam war protests and praising it as a very creative period. He is also coordinating with Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden, he said. They remember that protests started out small and built. I remember that period well, and it was not all frolicking nude in the fountains. That's for sure. We'd better start reviving the other side of the romantic history they have painted in our colleges.
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