A video is going around that is being used as right-wing propaganda by those such as Michelle Malkin to try to convince convince people that the AARP ended their health care reform town hall meeting prematurely because they supposedly didn't want to hear from those that disagree with them. This took place at the AARP Town Hall Meeting in Dallas, TX on August 4, 2009.
The video they present as evidence is heavily edited and suspiciously contains multiple jump cuts that seem to occur whenever the crowd is about to - or has just finished - bursting into the typical jeers and screams that have been heard at many similar meetings recently as an organized attempt to subvert civil discussions on much-needed health care reform.
I will break down exactly how this video distorts the truth and actually proves that it was the unreasonable and boisterous crowd that caused the meeting to be ended, not the false claim that the AARP simply refused to hear from their members because they disagreed.
The edits in this video are done for a plainly obvious reason: To distort what actually happened and how the crowd was really behaving. This is evident at the :38 mark of this video when the woman at the podium pleads for the crowd to be civil, but the actions of the crowd that prompted her response is suspiciously edited out. At the 1:08 mark the same woman responds to being interrupted, but again what causes her response is edited out.
At the 1:45 mark the video cuts to a man who is obviously not even old enough to be a AARP member who asks about Danny Glover - an AARP spokesperson - shaking hands with Hugo Chavez. This wingnut believes that since the ACTOR Danny Glover shakes hands with a foreign dictator then the AARP is somehow anti-American? If that's the kind of 'disagreement' this crowd had with healthcare reform, then the organizers did the right thing in shutting the meeting down. Bringing up such a ridiculous claim that has nothing whatsoever to do with healthcare reform is an obvious attempt to disrupt the meeting, not contribute to the debate.
Finally, at about 2:00, the video shows the AARP volunteer ending the meeting, but AGAIN does NOT show what preceded this clip. This is obviously a dishonest attempt to fool people with a video edited with only the bits and pieces that supports the editor's claims that the AARP didn't want to hear from their members. The video shows more of exactly the opposite. The AARP volunteers were doing the best they could to deal with a hostile crowd that didn't want to hear anything the AARP had to say, so the organizers eventually and JUSTIFIABLY ended it.
After that bit of video when the meeting is 'officially' ended, there are several more jump cuts as the crowd grows more and more angry. If the author of this video was interested in representing what was really going on at this meeting, then why does he cut away every time the crowd is about to erupt in another outburst? The answer is obvious: this is pure propaganda.
This crowd was so unreasonable that the AARP representatives had to keep telling them over and over that the AARP has NOT endorsed any specific legislation. The crowd wasn't hearing the truth and yelled uncontrollably so she took the microphone away. She was in the right. After that the wingnuts preach to each other what they want to hear and they agree to cancel their memberships. One even claims the healthcare reform debate isn't about health care, it's about liberty and freedom? LOL By that argument Dems are pushing healthcare reform just to take away your liberty and freedom... Seriously! That's how delusional these people are and that's why the meeting was ended. Not because the AARP didn't want to hear from those that disagree. Simply because the crowd was unreasonable and out of control. With the recent increase in violence at such meetings, I don't blame them one bit.
The fact of the matter is that there is indeed an organized attempt by the right-wingers to disrupt these type of meetings to ensure no civil debate or discussion occurs. Whether this specific incident was an organized attempt to disrupt the meeting or not is unknown. If so, unfortunately it appears as if they succeeded.
NOTE: I would very much like to hear from anyone who attended this AARP meeting to get an eyewitness account, or if you know of any alternative (preferably unedited) video of the event, please post in the comments.