Can we all just agree the tired tactic of holding AstroTurf protests about [fill-in-the-blank topic] outside of [fill-in-the-blank Republican Congressional office] is worn out and ineffective?
Yes, Liberals, we know you’re trying to get a news story out of it. There is always going to be a lazy reporter who can’t resist covering something so easy (we’re looking at you Greeley Tribune). The problem with these faux protests is that they’re purely politically motivated, and they give a disproportionately loud voice to a small minority of people. The same people who represent everything that is wrong with our political system.
Reporters need to start asking themselves if covering this kind of nonsense is really advancing public debate or just reinforcing bad behavior.
For example, The Greeley Tribune covered the recent “protest” outside of Rep. Cory Gardner’s Greeley office over global warming. Based on the pictures of the event, it looks like maybe a handful of people showed up, at best. They were brought there by Organizing for Action, a 501(c)4 that was created to keep Obama political operatives employed after the campaign ended developed out of Obama’s last campaign.
Rep. Mike Coffman experienced a similar type of AstroTurf protesting on a fairly regular basis in 2011 and 2012 when his race was one of the top targeted in the country. News flash liberals: it didn’t work then, and it isn’t going to work now.
To be fair, there are legitimate protests that are born out of legitimate outrage. We saw an example of this in 2009 when genuine morale outrage over Obamacare led to the creation of the Tea Party.
The important thing is for reporters to be able to recognize the difference between a real movement and what took place outside of Gardner’s office. That way they can stop taking the bait and tell AstroTurf protesters to buzz off. These protests aren’t accomplishing anything besides giving the unemployed and the retired something to do during the day.
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