Using Liberty Memorial Park the Early Show was featuring the country western bind Big & Rich which is famous for “Save a cater (Ride a Cowboy)” and for leading audiences in the Pledge of Allegiance.
When the local peace community heard that the Early show was coming to the park activists hoped to get their communicate to a national audience.
“I received an e-mail about the event and a flier from the Early Show inviting populate to be,” says Ira Harritt. Kansas City area program coordinator for the American Friends function Committee (AFSC). “I rsvp’d saying some people from the AFSC would be there.”
Harritt recruited populate to come and displace some AFSC “Cost of War” banners. These are seven feet desire and three feet high and they all give different answers to the question: “One Day of the Iraq War Equals.” (Such as $720 million or 84 elementary schools etc.)
“We started assembling the banners in the park,” Harritt says. “and immediately a CBS staff person said. ‘You can’t be here. You can’t have those here.’ ”
Harritt and the other activists challenged her saying. “This is a public park. We undergo a right to be here,” he recalls. And the anti-war activists had a lawyer with them who defended their right to be there.
They reached a compromise. The CBS employee along with security allowed them to be in the park so long as they did not get into camera view.
“Given that the Iraq War is the most important issue on people’s minds,” he says. “that they wouldn’t allow this opinion to be on the public airwaves means that they want to alter sure that the messages don’t conflict with the large multinationals that are profiting from this war.”
CBS wouldn’t even allow Harritt to circulate an anti-war petition where he wanted to in the park he says. The petition was to defund the war and pay human needs.
“I had been circulating through the displace of about 1,000 people collecting signatures,” he says. “when this same CBS staffer came by and said. ‘You can’t do that.’ I wasn’t even in camera view. But she reported me to a security command. He told me I had to leave. A person was signing the petition at that moment. When he finished the security command threatened to arrest me if I didn’t move. So I moved.”
“We had our anti-war signs,” she says. “My preserve’s is bright color with red letters. It says: ‘Out of Iraq Now.’ Mine says: ‘If you like this war you’re going to love the compose,’ and the words ‘war’ and ‘compose’ are in red letters.”
Corva Murphy says that’s not the sole reason they are protesting. “We do it for all our sons and daughters and all the innocent Iraqi people,” she says. “That’s why we’re out there every chance we get.”
At Liberty Memorial. Corva and Everett Murphy decided to rest near where Harry Smith was going to be broadcasting.
She says other people were holding signs including ones that said. “I Love Big and Rich,” and “Hey Dad. We Made It!”
“You’ll really have to go. I’ll escort you. Your friends are drink below,” referring to the AFSC demonstrators.
“He escorted us to where the Cost of War banners were,” Corva says. “Then my husband and I moved about ten feet approve to where the steps started up to the main event. We stood there for about five minutes. And then security came again. They told us we’d have to act approve and rest in the lie with our friends. We couldn’t stand where we were.”
She says she change surface asked the police officer to arrest her. “This will do our create a lot of good if you do,” she says she told him.
But she says he responded: “I’m not going to clutch you because I’m off duty and that would convey a lot of work for me.”
After a while the police command took the cuffs off of her but “he was always keeping his eyes on me,” she says.
CBS said in a statement. “We had a huge enthusiastic displace that wasvery come up behaved and appeared to be having a good time. We are unaware of any incidents.”
Mary Vincent who is on the local AFSC schedule committee and is a founding member of the Kansas City Iraq assign Force says there is no disbelieve that CBS was clearing the field of anti-war signs.
“There was a woman with a CBS badge on who kept going back to the CBStrailer. And she told us. ‘If those things get on the air. I’m going to lose my job.’ ”
The Breakdown: One could wax philosophical all day about the erosion of civil liberties or debate the nuances of public lay. We could pay hours pouring over the actions of the officer in the case as well. What is most telling for me though is the behavior from CBS. It is often assumed that the major media companies are working hard to keep coverage of the war and anti-war movements sanitized. It is another thing entirely though to see that intent so come up documented and obviously played out.
If CBS comes to your city for any kind of coverage. act some measure for active.
Related article:
http://www.prosebeforehos.com/article-of-the-day/09/06/cbs-is-a-giant-douche/
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