Those wacky media types!
Interesting how those at St. Pete Times recall events...
They zero in on a juggler at the vigil for Terri, and remember it as a symbol of media circus. But who created that circus atmosphere??
The juggler was hired to be there and was on the edge of what was happening, by himself except for media taping him. At the same time, the protesters on behalf of Mikey, extra noisy and capturing the view of the cameras were also, like the juggler, PAID to be there to demonstrate. Otherwise, the atmosphere would have been very peaceful, reverent, made up of ordinary decent citizens from across America. That wasn't the story the media wanted. So they shaped it into a circus. If south Florida is a circus scene, it is fabricated as well to be so.
Miami humorist Dave Barry attributes all the strangeness - O.J. Simpson, Elian Gonzalez, Versace's broad-daylight South Beach killing - to a South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet.
"It's buried here somewhere," he wrote in his weekly column that ran Friday. "It has to be. How else can you explain why so many major freak-show news stories either happen, or end up, in South Florida?"
It's not just South Florida, pal. Don't forget Terri Schiavo's dying days in Pinellas Park that were marked by a full-blown media frenzy, including a juggler, outside her hospice.
If it gets headlines around the world, it probably happened in Florida.
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Elanore loves John, In this clift hanger, she loves him with all her
maybe might.
At least she recognizes what the ersatz conservative soothsayers miss, the influence still held by us religious extremists who believe in justice and decency.
Jeb’s ambition, his intellect and his tenacity have not dimmed. Combine these personal characteristics with his ability to raise money and you’ve got a potent political force, says S.V. Dáte, the Tallahassee bureau chief for the Palm Beach Post and author of “Jeb: America’s Next Bush.” The book is not particularly flattering. Dáte says Bush governed with the openness and transparency of the Politburo; that his tax cuts went to the top 4.7 percent of Floridians and that he created the lowest number of jobs of any governor since 1970. Despite that record, polls show a consistent high regard for him, especially among social conservatives who remember his tireless efforts to sustain Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose survival in a vegetative state—in the face of her husband’s efforts to end life supports because of the grim prognosis—became a cause célèbre for the religious right.
The Christian Right’s Dream Candidate... His name is Jeb Bush, and unfortunately for them, he seems serious about not running.
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>> That wasn't the story the media wanted. So they shaped it into a circus.
But of course. News is manufactured. It's street theater. Here's a routine example: one scrofulous rock thrower wearing a Che Guevara tee shirt. On his own, he will have no effect. The rock won't hit anything and nobody will see it anyway. But his real job is theatrics -- he is the model for these photographers who are manufacturing a hate message for their agencies. It's a sure thing that the photographers put him up to it in the first place. Why else would at least 12 of them be congregated here?
