One strategy for protest, and how to get the most media attention

[hangloose]

I have read several very good ideas on putting out the word that involves protests of the nations capital, the inauguration, various state and federal buildings, election offices, all are good and effective approaches.

The amount of media coverage will depend on the media itself and whether they will choose to cover the story. A constant consideration will be, does the story agree with the corporate agenda, will it cause to much strife for the administration, will we get slapped if we thoughtfully cover the story.

So lets not give them a choice. Make them a participant. Focus our effort on the main media outlets across the nation. We will be at their front door laying charges of fraud, cover-up and their complicity to the entire matter.

I can't believe that the media will look the other way when they are challenged. We will get air time in the main stream media, thereby reaching the largest segment of the population.

We can manipulate them!! They are the biggest impediment to the truth.

Any takers?

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. I think sending groups of protesters to major media outlets everyday

is the only way to wake them up.

[liberalnurse]

5. I have been saying this since the Democratic Convention.

I say give them mass presence......

[lynintenn]

2. Protest in front of CNN or MSNBC

[wtmusic]

3. Last year we had 6,000 people in front of the CNN building in Hollywood

and they ignored it. Not a word.

[murielm99]

4. Screw getting their attention!

Face it -- it is not going to happen!

We need to turn out in large numbers anyway. * will know. I think he knows already that we hate him.

Many of us have already given up on cable news and the print media whores. We will have to continue to communicate and inform each other through forums like this, the alternative press and media like AAR.

Turn your backs on them as they have on us. Organize without their attention. Find other ways to educate people. We already have two countries, a red one and a blue one. We will just have to continue to develop a blue way to communicate, too.

[hangloose]

6. Your comments have merit, but before I trash this approach lets

take it one step further. Will a coordinated national effort help to effect (media coverage)what we want, prime time coverage on the three major networks and cable broadcasts? Organize to hit them all at the same time.

[wtmusic]

7. Yes -- if it's coordinated

MoveOn is about the only org which is capable of pulling anything off on that scale

[murielm99]

8. And where

the fuck is MoveOn now?

I don't see them doing anything.

[hangloose]

9. Yes where are all the national organizations. I'll tell you where

sitting back till the dust settles, then they will step in an offer to take over.

Do you feel it? We have power. We have power because were not protecting a position or covering our ass. We have freedom of movement and thought and expression. With this we can make a difference!!

Power to the blogger!~!

[illuminaughty]

15. They didn't disappear

Hang on.

[Oak2004]

13. Yes: we cannot demonstrate to get attention anymore

They've ignored enormous demonstrations in recent years -- giant, newsworthy ones have gotten almost no attention. They don't want to see us.

We need to aim our protests at the people in power. We need to intimidate them with the force of popular will. When called for, we need to obstruct their misdeeds with civil disobedience. We need to fill their mailboxes and clog their telephones. Sometimes we need to take a page or two out of the Karl Rove handbook and throw some dirt around and pull a few dirty tricks. We need to breathe down their necks, dog them at every opportunity, enlist the people of the world to make their every step in any corner of this planet unbearable, give them no peace until they give up.

We need to do this at the local electoral level, at the county clerks and the elections commissioners, perhaps even more so than at Washington. We have got to get them to give up their Diebold because its the only way they'll ever be able to shop for groceries without attracting a crowd.

All this means that, yes, we need to get the message out to every Kerry supporter and every third party supporter and everyone who has given up on the system because it seemed so corrupt and every traditional Republican filled with doubt. We've got the Internet, we've got Air America, and we should be using that tried and true left wing mass media, the 8 1/2 X 11 street poster. We need to start using everything we've got now before people get lulled back to sleep. I've designed one poster/leaflet already, about wearing a black armband, and I have it at mt new website, http://www.americanresistance.info -- which is, of course, itself my contribution to getting the word out. In fact, each and every one of us needs to become our own mass media.

I think we need to organize a demonstration soon -- just a simple no-frills one that doesn't require a permit. I've proposed elsewhere that Nov 12 we should demonstrate in front of our county government office (or, as I think about it, whatever unit handles your elections. This idea is subject to adjustment). All it takes for that to happen is to spread the word. But I haven't gotten any responses to this idea yet, and unlike * I think I ought to listen to other people's views before going off and doing something.

(BTW, yes, you can organize a simple demonstration that fast. We did it all the time like that in the 60's/early 70s. We didn't even have the Internet then. All you need is motivated people and a way to communicate with them.)

Demonstrating at the media, using the "breathe down their neck" strategy, is the only way I'd even begin to factor in the media these days.

[noamnety]

10. What about a sit in?

If those high school kids can do it, so can we.

A massive inconvenient as hell sit in at a place like Grand Central Station, someplace open 24 hours so we don't legally have to leave, and we fill the whole damn place so we can't be ignored, and we won't leave til we get air time on predetermined media channels.

And we use the airtime to discuss election fraud.

[hangloose]

11. I like it I guess when it comes down to it someone has to get off

there ass and organize it, right!

[Silver Gaia]

16. If it's going to get any media attention at all...

it's got to be something that disrupts the flow. I like the subway sit-in idea. It's GOT to be something that is 1) big enough to be noticed, and 2) disrupts the flow of everyday life. Small demonstrations here and there aren't going to do anything. A march on Washington and sit-in. Something BIG in New York. It needs to be peaceful, but massive and forceful. I'm old. We did this stuff in the 60s and early 70s. If we were gathered in a park somewhere, well, big deal, but when we linked arms and marched down a major thoroughfare, blocking traffic, they paid attention. I'm not saying to do THAT, I'm just saying that was one thing I remember doing back then that got attention. I hope I added something here. Maybe not. Keep the ideas coming...

[Carolab]

12. Yes--right and

how to do that?

Through meetups???

[Oak2004]

14. Yes! Has anyone started an election fraud meetup?

I'm going to start one for Burlington VT, if no one has beat me to it, right this minute.

[inmania]

17. what about the foreign media?

Seems like we should be able to get coverage from some of the countries who can't quite believe that so many Americans could be so dumb as to reelect **