The August recess jobs protests, punctuated by dramatic moments like police removing Eric Cantor protesters from a hotel ballroom they rented, Rep. Steve Chabot banning cameras at public events, and a week-long confrontation between Rep. Paul Ryan and his unemployed constituents, ended up totaling more than 400 actions in all. Most, but not all, of these actions targeted Republicans and members of the House of Representatives.
While the protests did not become a major national news story, they did receive huge local press. The following eight-minute video shows just a few dozen of the hundreds of local television reports on the actions:
Even now, local media is still what the majority of members of Congress are most concerned with, so the relatively subdued national coverage is not a tragedy.
Anyway, we should only expect more national media coverage when progressive media even remotely approaches the size of the conservative media empire, and also when the groups and people involved in these protests start demonstrating more influence over the actions of members of Congress. That last bit may seem like a bit of a chicken and egg problem, since increased national media coverage is one path to increased influence over congressional action. However, as long as our public policy goals go against the wishes of the powers-that-be, we simply can never expect equal treatment from the powers-that-be. We are going to have to keep building our own networks, and eventually score meaningful victories, on our own. Thousands of people attending over 400 protests around the country in one month is an important step in that direction.