The mainstream media went crazy covering the teabaggers and noisemakers at town halls. They SHOULD be covering protests against the war and protests FOR health care as a civil right too.

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The mainstream media went crazy covering the teabaggers and noisemakers at town halls. They SHOULD be covering protests against the war and protests FOR health care as a civil right too.

It took a conversation with Dennis Kucinich a few weeks ago, on my radio show to gel the idea for me. Access to health care is a civil right.

Then I brought up the idea of health care as a civil right in a two hour interview I did with Wendell Potter, in front of a town hall with about 250 people, in Philly, and how it might take the kinds of civil disobedience that Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks engaged in to get equality for Blacks. Potter agreed.

Already, courageous protesters like Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese had been arrested at Senate hearings, earlier in the year, when Max Baucus excluded single payer supporters from health care hearings of the senate finance committee.

I watched more arrests happen, had more conversations with Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGOvern, Debra Sweet, Elaine Brower, Kevin Zeese, David Swanson, Jodi Evans, Cheryl Biren-- and a few things gradually dawned on me.

There are heros in America-- people who are doing today what the Freedom Ridersdid in the 1960's-- challenging unjust laws and face arrest for taking a stand. In the 60's they were fighting for racial equality. Today, they fight against inequality in access to health care and against an out of control military adventurism and wars that shouldn't have been started and that should not be continued.

I've learned the hard way, having one of my reporters arrested, that the police and their government supervisors attempt to repress the press and the coverage of arrests.

After a demonstration against the Army Experience Center in Philadelphia, I met Joan Pleune, who was arrested at that protest. She'd also been arrested as a Freedom Rider in the sixties. Talk about 40 year old football players with 20 year careers. Joan's a protester with a "career" going on 50 years. She is a profile in courage.

These conversations and insights have made me even more conscious that arrests are powerful elements in protests that increase the potential for increased exposure of the protesters' message. And they've made me realize that right now, at this time, the strategies of MLK and Ghandi have incredible potential to make a difference in a Washington that appears to have been taken over and entranced into obedience by corporations and their lobbyist Svengalis, waving campaign donations instead of swaying hypnotic watch fobs.

Imagine how much less effective Martin Luther King jr., Rosa Parks and John Lewis would have been if there was no media coverage of their civil disobedience. Believe me, they planned those acts carefully to maximize media coverage.

Media coverage amplifies the effectiveness of the protests. Police threats and intimidation make it harder for the media to cover protests and cover the arrests. That sabotages the effectiveness of the demonstrators who are literally putting their freedom on the line, going through the process of getting arrested, handcuffed, put in a police van or bus, fingerprinted, mug-shotted, fined and sometimes charged with crimes-- usually charges that are unsupportable and ultimately dropped.

Now, with major decisions being made about whether or not to continue the Afghan war and whether or not to give health care to all Americans, it is time of incredible opportunity to employ the non-violent political strategies used so effectively by MLK and Ghandi. And the mainstream media can help or throw away this opportunity.

I've written to some of the most visible protesters, asking them about the coverage they're getting, particularly on the network that is most friendly to progressives-- MSNBC.

So I wrote this letter to some of the most active activists I know personally;

What kind of TV news coverage are you seeing for the protest arrests?

Are the MSNBC people covering them, tying them to the conversation on the wars or healthcare?

We should start working in a targeted way at getting Ed Schultz, Rachel Maddow, Dylan Ratigan and Keith Olbermann to start covering the rise in civil disobedience, get the idea out that there is a new wave of freedom riders fighting for peace and health care for all.

I haven't heard these supposed left wing news reporters talk about the protests and arrests. We need to get them to see that showing YOUR protests is a major part of pushing the legislators.

We need to start writing about these anchors, in particular, not criticizing, but rather, cajoling them to be sure to let the world know that people are taking risks, making sacrifices.

It's really important not to attack them, but to mention them, to let them know the potential importance of their mentioning these protests and arrests.

There should be a daily count of protesters arrested, where and what for.

The failure of the Obama Administration to remove the Bush appointed DOJ attorneys after 10 months should also be addressed daily. These are the rogue criminals who engaged in prosecutorial misconduct, going after Don Siegelman and Cyril Wecht, to name just two of hundreds. These prosecutors, left unpunished, will work with police in the future to abuse the constitution when it comes to protesters.

So, my question is, are the MSNBC anchors covering the arrests. Did I miss something? Let's get a campaign going to have them cover these arrests. That effort will make a massive difference in the effectiveness of the protests.

Actually, I'm posting this as an article. Please pass this email along to other protesters who've been arrested and the organizations they are associated with and ask them to comment on the article.

If you're not among those who received my email and you've been arrested as a protester, please add a comment about your experience.

Last night I interviewed David Swanson on my radio show. He has been arrested about six times. He told me that now is the time to go to your elected representative's offices and sit there, demanding single payer health insurance and an end to the war.

David told me that when Physicians and single payer protesters went to the beginning senate hearings on health care, where single payer advocates were excluded, and they were arrested, Ed Schultz reported on their arrests and even interviewed Dr. Flowers.

We need to see a lot more of that coverage now. The MNSBC progressive anchors are trying to put pressure on congress to pass the public option.

If they report on demonstrations and arrests, members of congress will have to pay attention.

If they report on the protests and arrests, other activists will be inspired and will see that the activism is getting visible coverage and that means far more likelyhood of results.

The mainstream media went crazy covering the teabaggers and noisemakers at town halls. They SHOULD be coveringprotests against the war and protests FOR health care as a civil right too. I'll be posting this article on other sites. If you comment here, that will signify your permission for me to select it to include as part of the revised article on other sites.

I am particularly seeking comments from those who have been arrested.

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

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His quotes are here

Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.

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