Look, anybody who hasn't heard that Cindy Sheehan is saying "out now" is not paying attention, MoveOn or no MoveOn. Even if MoveOn finesses the point, George W. Bush is making it quite clear. So what's the problem? That MoveOn will convince Sheehan to change her position? I doubt it, but if that happens it happens. She's the catalyst not The Cause.
During my 15 minutes of fame in the 1970s, we had the newsmagazines and the networks waiting in line. I know precisely how the media plays the personality/message game and I saw no fewer than three of my erstwhile "comrades" succumb to the seductions. The networks and the newsmagazines were panting after any draft dodger they could find who would embrace Gerald Ford's phony "pardon" and denounce war resisters who kept talking about the war as a bunch of neurotics and extremists. Anyone who took the bait got two inches in Newsweek to sound whiney with a tiny photo where you could hardly see their face before they disappeared because they just weren't interesting anymore. They had nothing to say. The media chewed 'em up and spit 'em out. On the whole, our message got out in spite of the weasels and the media manipulation. You either play the game, you stay home or you got to a bar and shout at the tv.
My take on Cindy Sheehan is that she's a tough mother who can handle herself, even with the sheep-dog consultants.
Sandwichman
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>/As you mentioned in another message, Tom, I also believe that "Cindy />/Sheehan is a catalyst, not The Cause." In this case, though, I />/think that what's interesting about Doug's gossip is not so much />/Sheehan per se as the nature of modern political communication />/(especially political communication in the United States), which />/political consultants and public relations experts dominate, unless />/activists resist it. How we can resist it, however, is far from />/clear. This is not one of those things for which typical political />/mobilizations -- usually organized around Do's and Don't's -- can at />/all become effective. It's one of those things for which we need to />/keep eyes out, while chipping away at it with unorthodox weapons -- />/such as gossip and humor. / Doug Henwood wrote,
I couldn't agree more. I'm not opposed in principle to having some expert publicists involved in a political campaign. But what I think is going on in this case is that Fenton is trying to assure that Sheehan maintains a moderate image - though the quotes I've seen from her are quite sharp. (Thus MoveOn, as Rahul Mahajan pointed out over dinner the other night, doesn't include her "Out Now" message in their email blasts.) I don't know if Fenton would pursue it, but professional publicists would have to feel a temptation to frame her as a grieving Mom at the expense of seeing her as a political figure. That would be the way to "broaden" her appeal.