Posted by
Crispian on Thursday, April 16, 2009 11:14:30 AM
At the Chicago Tea Party, I observed hundreds of signs, flags and banners. I walk around the perimeter of the crowd and through the middle of it. I listened to the speakers on the stage and to conversations in the crowd. I was shocked to see Susan Roesgen's
characterization of the protest on the news later in the day. When she began "I have to say that this is not entirely representative..." I was sure she was going to say "of all the protesters here," but instead she said "of everybody in America."
I missed her rant while at the Tea Party but heard the protesters around her chanting "CNN GO HOME" and saw them blocking the camera. The signs around her were more inflammatory than any others in the crowd. Half a dozen police officers were summoned and a plainclothes officer stood nearby but they soon left since nothing was happening. At that point she and her cameraman decided to leave. She had a pretty sour look on her face and I caught her eye for a moment but she showed no sort of regret for her report (the substance of which I was unaware at that point).
Here she is, with one of the inflammatory signs she decided to stand in front of:
Immediately behind Ms. Roesgen, were "anonymous" protesters holding anti-Scientology signs. She might as well have pretended them to be representative of the protest.
