Unacceptable from WP: snarky article, brief cross-mowing mention near end

[DeepModem Mom]

Sheehan Feeling the Glare of the Spotlight
Some Are Focusing Anger on Protester
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 17, 2005; Page A03

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 16 -- Cindy Sheehan rode into town 10 days ago, a forlorn mother with a question for her president: Why did my son die in Iraq?

But now the same wave of publicity and political anger that she rode to become a nationally known symbol of the antiwar movement threatens to crash down on Sheehan herself.

Conservative commentators and Web sites are taking aim at Sheehan with the same ferocity she has aimed at President Bush. In part, they are using her own words against her -- reciting such controversial comments as her vow to refuse to pay taxes to a government waging an "illegal" war and her desire to see Bush impeached.

The backlash is becoming a new object lesson in how saturation media coverage and the instinct for personal attack are shaping political debate. Some independent commentators said the pushback on the right has succeeded at scuffing the public sympathy and deference she had earned as the mother of a fallen soldier, and has shown how virtually any subject relating to the Iraq war and Bush's presidency is viewed through a partisan lens.

"Cindy Sheehan has emboldened the progressives who oppose the war and caused the conservative diehards who are behind the war to go into a defensive mode," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, a trade publication for talk radio. "Cindy Sheehan is going to be a target, and they'll probably go through her past to find what they can to discredit her."...

(Near the end, as part of a paragraph: "Also, Monday night a truck dragging chains and a pipe demolished some crosses; the driver, Larry Northern, 46, of Waco, Tex., was charged with criminal mischief.")

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601713.html

[steve2470]

1. the wapo is pretty worthless these days usually, but not always nt

[Bumblebee]

2. There is a nicer one about Ohio parents and what Cindy represents to them

in the same paper (it is an AP story):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601282.htmlThe

Ohio couple have long opposed the war and tried to dissuade their son from joining the Marines, but have made their views public only since his death. On Tuesday, they urged Americans to voice their opposition to the war.

"We want to point out that 30 people have died since our son. Are people listening?" Palmer asked.

More than 1,800 U.S. troops have been killed in the war.

The couple applauded Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier, for bringing the war to the public's attention. Sheehan has camped out in protest near Bush's ranch in Texas.

"We consider her the Rosa Parks of the new movement opposing the Iraq war," Palmer said.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks, Bumblebee -- much better. nt

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. The jokes on the pro-bush-pro-war bastards

their cause is already dead, but not yet in the ground.