It's clear to practically all Americans that disrupting town hall meetings is not part of an American tradition--it's an aberration, an attempt to undermine one of the most treasured traditions of democracy. There is no real defense for a political strategy based on discouraging people from attending town hall meetings. (continued)
But that's what we are all looking at here, now, this summer. An excerpt from a columnby New York Daily News columnist Errol Lewis:
...especially abhorrent is the fact that some of the mob behavior appears to be the work of corporate lobbying groups that are spending an estimated $1.4 million a day to block (health care) reform.
One such group, FreedomWorks, is chaired by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey and has a corporate board that includes billionaire Steve Forbes, who was a GOP candidate for President.
Bob MacGuffie, a Connecticut-based activist with FreedomWorks, wrote a memo detailing the best ways to disrupt health care town hall meetings.
"Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half," the memo reads. Other pointers include: "Be Disruptive Early And Often." "Try To Rattle Him, Not Have An Intelligent Debate . . . stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."
It's not news to Kos readers; this organized attempt to disrupt town halls and undermine a great American institution. The news here is that CBS is now trying to equate "people who show up at town hall meetings to dissent and debate" with "people who show up at town hall meetings to prevent debate from taking place."
Town hall tempers were already rising before Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer wrote in USA Today on Monday that "drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."
And then the CBS correspondent pointedly changes the subject from "whether it's alright to drown out opposing views at a town hall meeting" to "whether people have always called each other un-American."
His implication is that Dems can't fairly criticize these creeps who disrupt of town hall meetings because prominent Dem leaders like Hillary Clinton have spoken out in the past about the right to debate and dissent. In support of that, this CBS author cites Michele Malkin and RedState.com
This is a CBS correspondent actively deceiving his readers about what's going on at town hall meetings this summer. The right of Americans to debate and dissent on health care reform isn't being questioned by anyone. What's being questioned is their strategy of attempting to prevent debate by disrupting live town halls.
That doesn't interest CBS. Their argument is that "all that's going on here is that Americans have always called each other un-American, so that's no big deal." In itself, that's a pretty stupid argument. But that's not "all that's going on here." What's going on here is an attempt to discourage people from going to live town hall meetings, an attempt to harass elected officials to the point where they won't want to hold town hall meetings. And the excerpt from "FreedomWorks" demonstrates--that's not spontaneous outbursts anger, it's an organized strategy developed by activists on the right to prevent a real discussion of the issues.
And setting out to disrupt meetings to prevent real discussion of the issues is un-American.
UPDATE: I wrote CBS correspondent Declan McCullagh and he replied. And I replied:
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 5:03:15 PM
Subject: Re: Spam: you're in the Kos
Thanks for the courtesy of sending me a link.
I think, however, you misread my piece. The primary point of it was to look at the use of "un-American," and I pointed out that both liberals and conservatives like to employ that phrase against their political opponents. I suspect my readers who might object the most are the outliers, who believe their side is the only one able to dispense the ultimate truth. Others may, reasonably, disagree.
-Declan
No, I didn't misread your piece. The primary point of it was "the use of un-American," as you say. But that's not why people are upset about what's going on at town hall meetings this summer. They're upset because there's an intentional right wing policy of disrupting town hall meetings, and that's being carried out, now. You presumably read the memo about "how to disrupt a town hall meeting" from FreedomWorks. (It's in the link I sent you.) If you write about town hall meetings and ignore the fact that people have set out to deliberately prevent debate and dissent--you're spinning, not reporting. And setting out to disrupt town hall meetings and prevent debate is not just a "charge of anti-Americanism"--it is anti-American: whether you're right, left, whatever.
That's very patronizing for you to say that people who object are "outliers" who "believe that their side is the only one able to dispense the ultimate truth." It's not the health care reform advocates who wrote the disruption strategies set out for you and others to read in the FreedomWorks memo. You cite Michele Malkin and RedState in your piece--where are the quotes from health care reform supporters who can explain why it's "unAmerican" to disrupt town hall meetings? Did you get quotes from them about why they use the word "un-American" to describe the behavior at town hall meetings this summer? If you didn't, your editorial amounts to a one-sided distortion about why people are using the word, now.
Thank you for the reply, but I don't understand why the word "Spam" is in the header of your reply. Sending you an email objecting to CBS news coverage is not "spam."
First, it's clearly marked as an opinion piece (in the URL, at the top of the page, at the bottom of the page). I'm not sure how you missed that.
Second, if you don't like your email being marked as spam, take it up with CBS Corporation's anti-spam software. Unless you think it's discriminating against, ah, outliers.
-Declan
Declan, I do know it's an opinion piece--I knew that when I wrote about it. But opinion pieces can distort issues and mislead the public by leaving out the most important facts, too, right?
Since I've got you on the line now, please give me your opinion (as a CBS correspondent) on the following burning issue :
You, personally, do agree that it's un-American for a citizen to go into a town hall meeting with the intention of disrupting the debate (as these guys are being advised in the FreedomWorks memo: "Be Disruptive Early And Often." "Try To Rattle (the speaker), Not Have An Intelligent Debate . .)
You do agree that doing that, at a town hall meeting, is un-American--don't you?
Let me ask you this: Do you, personally, agree that it's un-American for a citizen to go to a political meeting with the intention of disrupting the debate?
If so, I presume you'd have to disavow plans to disrupt the Republican National Convention, such as these, unless you suddenly believe that in the case of anti-Republican activism, the ends necessarily justify the means:
http://www.nysun.com/...
Also, why do you call it a "FreedomWorks memo?" I haven't investigated the topic myself, but it looks like the only connection is a post that MacGuffie made on ning.com. That's not the same as the memo being prepared by FreedomWorks, as I'm sure you know.
-Declan
Jeez, Declan--I asked you one, very straightforward question, and instead of a straightforward answer--I get questions coming back to me.
I'll answer all the questions you just asked me, as soon as you answer my single question to you to you. Please--you're a CBS correspondent, you write opinion pieces, you influence people: you can answer a straightforward question.
Here it is again:
You, Declan, personally, do agree that it's un-American for a citizen to go into a town hall meeting with the intention of disrupting the debate (as these guys are being advised in the FreedomWorks memo: "Be Disruptive Early And Often." "Try To Rattle (the speaker), Not Have An Intelligent Debate . .)
You do agree that doing that, at a town hall meeting, is un-American--don't you?
I sent that last attempt to get an answer from this CBS correspondent just after 6pm.
It's a half hour later, as I write this. No answer from Declan, yet. I guess he's still mulling over whether he wants to commit to that "outlier" position on the record.
Ahah--an hour later, Declan wrote back. But not to condemn people to disrupt town hall meetings...
Ah, but this isn't a deposition where I must answer your questions upon
pain of obloquy.
If you want me to reply, answer my question, honestly and forthrightly,
without a knee-jerk response. The more straightforward your reply, the
more inclined I will be to take the time to reply.
-Declan
Oh, now you're just being absurd as well as cowardly. No, you're right, it's not a deposition--I didn't think I was asking you anything controversial or adversarial when I asked you if it was un-American to break up town hall meetings with shouting and interruptions. I can't believe that CBS employs a correspondent and opinion writer who is afraid to say that doing that is un-American; trying to shut down and prevent debate at a town hall meeting. Condemning that kind of behavior is not a controversial position, it's basic civics and American history--the idea that debate and discussion shouldn't be broken up by hecklers trying to keep opponents from speaking.
That just astonishes me, that someone associated with a major news network would hesitate when given a chance to condemn that kind of behavior. That's just plain cowardly. And so is evading an honest answer to an honest question by trying to pigeonhole me (and others) as some kind of "outlier." I'm not an "outlier," I'm an American voter who listens to people on different sides of issues--and I don't go around heckling political opponents, breaking up public meetings, or supporting people who do. Those people are the "outliers."
Since you're a CBS journalist who refuses to go record identifying disruption of town hall meetings as "un-American," I see no point in continuing this exchange. I gave a CBS newsman the opportunity to denounce people who break up town hall meetings, and he refused and replied with evasions and suggestions that I was some kind of "outlier" for questioning him. Thanks for representing the integrity of our professional media, in your half of the discussion.
So fuck him, and fuck CBS for hiring an evasive little worm like this and keeping him on staff. For the record, since Declan seemed to find my point and personality elusive and incomprehensible:
YES, I, Bill, condemn people who would show up at town hall meetings with the intention of disrupting them--I would condemn them as "un-American," and I do. Even if a CBS correspondent is afraid to condemn them, given every opportunity.
Okay, I got my story now: the sad state of CBS these days, when correspondents are afraid to condemn disruption of town hall meetings as un-American.