They Doth Protest Too Much PDF Print E-mail
Written by Mitch   
Monday, 08 September 2008 08:18

Predictably, the local lefty “alternative” media (for those of you for whom the Strib, WCCO and MPR aren’t left enough) is up in a snit over the treatment journalists got at the convention…

…er, wait.  Look at the coverage the Sorosphere gives the convention; see how often the term “media professional” pops up.  Interesting turn of phrase.

But I digress.  It’s interesting  the number of “Journalists” whose only “story” at the convention involved tramping around with a bunch of people whose primary mission (at a high level, not necessarily among any individual protester) was to “shut down the convention” and provoke a police overreaction.

Among “journalists” who seem institutionally incapable of recognizing, much less “reporting”, a couple of key facts; that…:

  1. …if you’re protesting in a group of over 25 or so, and you have no permit, you have an illegal assembly.  And no, that doesn’t chill free speech, because…
  2. …permits are issued pretty much for the asking in Saint Paul, except when EVERYONE wants one, in which case there’s a lottery. As there was, last spring.  Permits are issued so that groups of, say, klansmen don’t get to demonstrate at the same time and place as, say, Holocaust survivors.    And…
  3. …if your “demonstration” goes outside the time and place specified on the permit, your assembly is illegal.  And…
  4. …when you’re at an illegal assembly, the Police have every right to tell you to leave. And…
  5. … when the police tell you to leave, it’s called a “lawful order”.  You have no more business arguing with cop about an order to disperse than you do to try to try to talk your way out of showing one your drivers license when you’ve been pulled over.  It’s the law.  And…
  6. …if you resist, stall or dink around with lawful orders, you can be warned - and then force can be used to enforce the order.

Now - if any of you “media professionals can show me any stories where…:

  1. …the police regulated the content of any of the legal protests, or…
  2. …regulated the content of any “media professional”’s coverage of any event, or…
  3. …broke up a legal, permitted protest where nobody was committing violence,

…then let’s talk.

And then we’ll talk about the double standard you “media professionals” practice; you condemn the police for treating “media professionals” (and dipsticks with video cameras who claimed to be “journalists”) who were standing around at illegal assemblies as what they were - poeple who are breaking the law.  And then you turn around and support the Obama campaign, an administration that will make the “Fairness” Doctrine a matter of policy, which will suppress genuine, legal speech with the full weight of the federal government.

So maybe if we conservatives peed in buckets, slept under  bridges and didn’t shower for a few weeks…?

Cross-posted at Shot in the Dark. Comments welcome.