Do You Want To Be The Next Cable News Star? Start Screaming

by Steve Krakauer | 3:39 pm, August 7th, 2009

» 10 comments

fnc_8-7 Are you disillusioned with the path President Barack Obama and the current administration is taking this country? Do you want to see yourself on TV?

In the past, if you had complaints about the government people would tell you to write a letter. But letter-writing is so pre-24-hour-cablers. Here’s a step-by-step plan to get you your face all over your favorite, and least favorite, cable news shows:

Find out where a local meeting is: It doesn’t just have to be an official “town hall.” You can go to any sort of meeting where they may be talking health care. Try to find a Democratic Congressman who is running this. If not, settle for a Republican.

cnn_8-7 Find a camera and a friend: Make sure it’s not too high quality, or else it will look fake and everyone (well, everyone not on Fox News) will think you’re a plant. A Flip cam is good, or a regular cell phone that has video. Make sure you have a friend who won’t get too angry him/herself, or else the camera will shake and the quality will suffer.

Go to the meeting: This is very important. You don’t want to get so angry you blow all your energy on the car ride over. Do not listen to conservative talk radio at all the day of the meeting.

Get angry: Be loud. Be combative. Interrupt. If the person running the meeting tells you to wait your turn, say things like “you work for us!” and “why won’t you listen to the public?!” Boo often. During the official Q&A section, make sure you don’t ask a question, and instead just give that person a piece of your mind. Do not look at the camera.

Upload the video to YouTube: Do this very quickly, preferably that night. Give it a title like “Town Hall Meeting Explodes” or “Free Speech Silenced.”

msnbc_8-7 Send the video to every cable news network: Do not just stop at Fox News. There will be some news networks (CNN and MSNBC) that may suggest, or at least imply, you may be planted by the insurance companies or right-wing organizations. But they will still play your clip over and over again. Meanwhile, make sure in your email to Fox you give all your contact information, because they may ask you to come on and ‘tell your side of the story.’

Watch cable news the next day, and every day: If you’re loud enough and abrasive enough, that means you get to be replayed constantly on every cable news network. Get that DVR ready.

Bonus points if you’re very old, a minority or a veteran. Also, if you cause a riot. Good luck!

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SFPhoto

Steve Krakauer, this snarky bit of pseudo-journalism flies well below the level of even high school reporting. American citizens have every right to protest any government action whatsoever. As a reader in the NYT pointed out: “As much as I disagree with these crowds of agitators, I fully support their right to agitate, and to agitate loudly. Dissent is paramount in a free society. The President’s response has been almost Nixonian , complete with an enemy’s list and a ” snitch on your neighbor ” program.”

I believe that the about quote is about as close to the Times as you will ever get.
http://www.abramsresearch.com/ Dan Abrams

SfPhoto who said anything about denying anyone the “right to protest?” Sure you have the right to agitate and Steve has the right to agitate the agitators. Lighten up Francis.
SFPhoto

Mr. Abrams, Steve Krakauer’s piece of was a nasty bit of pseudo-journalism making fun of older Americans exercising their right to protest a program which will probably destroy Medicare. Although your roots are with MSNBC (probably the worst swill on TV), maybe you should take a lesson from your father about First Amendment rights. Maybe you are simply so sated with Matthews and Olbermann that you now confuse bitter sophomoric humor with satire. Whatever, Mary, I don’t care what you think of me.
ChrisNH

I’m quite pleased that Libs are getting torqued up over this. Imagine the hilarity of calling these ‘mobs’ when the very essence of a ‘manufactured mob’ was the infamous ‘million-man march.’ Of course, Andrea Mitchell whining that ‘people don’t know what’s good for them’ helps to diffuse this sort of thing significantly (roll eyes). It also helps when the people in the audience can accurately cite pages and passages from a bill that the members of the House haven’t even bothered to read. But why bother reading something that is so resoundingly ‘good for us?’ There’s too much else for members of the House to do: like pick out the fabric choices for their new fleet of Gulfstreams and 737s. Yeah, these Town Meetings are a fad and they’ll quiet down (another ‘roll eyes’).
ChrisNH

I think it was Hillary Clinton, who shrieked in her wife-like voice that it was ‘patriotic to challenge the administration.’ Said the shrill Lib: “I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic.” I guess it’s OK for us to proceed, then.
TfT

According to the clowns at NBC/MSNBC, if you oppose the Won/One, you are a domestic terrorist or a racist, or both!

The folks on that station have truly lost it — they are so desperate to support Obama (recall, Matthews advised his viewers it was “his job to make sure Obama succeeded”) that they have gone off the deep end.

Between Matthews stupidity, Maddows over serious facial expressions when addressing this, and Olberman’s rantings the network has become unwatchable.
TfT

Oh and PS: At least the people that are being shown are smart enough not to provide their full names to the “media”. After the media went after Joe the Plumber and saw the politics of personal destruction in full force by MSM, they know better. We still know more about Joe than we will ever know about Obama’s background!
http://mediaite.com Steve Krakauer

SFPhoto,

This piece may be snarky, but it is by no means meant to discourage or take a knock at people who protest. I’m also not making any comment about “plants” or “astroturf” that you may find elsewhere.

But there is a difference between protesting and speaking up at a town hall meeting, and that protest getting posted up on YouTube for the cable news networks to replay constantly. What is the reason for broadcasting it out to the world?

That’s part of our culture now – people do things, and instead of leaving it there they want to become a mini-celebrity in whatever online community they’re in. I’m only making a comment on the people who put this up online, and the media who picks the videos up.

-Steve
libra blue

I think I can appreciate where Steve is coming from, but even after a few readings it still sounds like a put down of the protesters. Why is it that when non-whites or gays (BTW, I am totally in favor of gay rights) protest it is taken seriously, but when whites protest it is seen as a joke? Don’t they deserve the same respect?

One has to wonder if the “tea parties” had been organized by minorities or if the people questioning the government officials at these town hall meetings had been black or gay would people like Anderson Cooper and Keith Olbermann have ridiculed them?

Even on Anderson’s FB page blacks are complaining that CNN is defending the protesters at the town hall meetings when in fact the 360 blog is calling them “ugly.” CNN ignored the intimidation in November by thugs from the New Black Panther Party who stood in front of the voting booths with clubs and they barely spoke about the Obama administration dropping the charges against them recently.

I will be interested to see how Mediaite and the rest of the MSM cover the next protest organized by Al “Tawana Brawley” Sharpton or any other minority leader. Will they have the courage to ridicule them as well?
Pam1151

I think Hillary may have been right years ago when she claimed that there was a “vast right wing conspiracy” out to get Bill. I think they have crawled out of that dark hole again. I suppose it just takes a Democrat in the Whitehouse for them to get a voice again. LOL