{"id":1495,"date":"2007-09-06T12:41:50","date_gmt":"2007-09-06T17:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/09\/06\/cbs-is-a-giant-douche\/"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:08:41","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:08:41","slug":"cbs-is-a-giant-douche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/09\/06\/cbs-is-a-giant-douche\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS is a Giant Douche"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Text:<\/strong><\/p>\n

O<\/span>n August 10, the CBS Early Show came to Kansas City, Missouri.<\/p>\n

Using Liberty Memorial Park, the Early Show was featuring the country western band Big & Rich, which is famous for \u201cSave a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)\u201d and for leading audiences in the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n

When the local peace community heard that the Early Show was coming to the park, activists hoped to get their message to a national audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI received an e-mail about the event and a flier from the Early Show inviting people to attend,\u201d says Ira Harritt, Kansas City area program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). \u201cI rsvp\u2019d, saying some people from the AFSC would be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harritt recruited people to come and carry some AFSC \u201cCost of War\u201d banners. These are seven feet long and three feet high, and they all give different answers to the question: \u201cOne Day of the Iraq War Equals.\u201d (Such as $720 million, or 84 elementary schools, etc.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started assembling the banners in the park,\u201d Harritt says, \u201cand immediately, a CBS staff person said, \u2018You can\u2019t be here. You can\u2019t have those here.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Harritt and the other activists challenged her, saying, \u201cThis is a public park. We have a right to be here,\u201d he recalls. And the anti-war activists had a lawyer with them who defended their right to be there.<\/p>\n

They reached a compromise. The CBS employee, along with security, allowed them to stay in the park so long as they did not get into camera view.<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise you the TV cameras will not span this area,\u201d the CBS employee said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not exactly what the protesters had hoped for.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very disappointed,\u201d says Harritt. \u201cCBS was censoring what messages Kansas Cityans were bringing to the Early Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harritt says other signs were allowed to be seen on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne was supporting the Navy,\u201d he says. \u201cOne said, \u2018Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.\u2019 There were signs for things for sale, and commercial signs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harritt finds that inconsistent and troubling.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that the Iraq War is the most important issue on people\u2019s minds,\u201d he says, \u201cthat they wouldn\u2019t allow this opinion to be on the public airwaves means that they want to make sure that the messages don\u2019t conflict with the large multinationals that are profiting from this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

CBS wouldn\u2019t 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 refund human needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been circulating through the crowd of about 1,000 people collecting signatures,\u201d he says, \u201cwhen this same CBS staffer came by and said, \u2018You can\u2019t do that.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t even in camera view. But she reported me to a security officer. He told me I had to leave. A person was signing the petition at that moment. When he finished, the security officer threatened to arrest me if I didn\u2019t move. So I moved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corva Murphy wasn\u2019t so lucky. She got handcuffed.<\/p>\n

The 60-year-old activist is a member of Peace Works, an anti-nuclear-weapons group.<\/p>\n

She and her husband, Everett, often join the AFSC members at peace rallies. And so they came to Liberty Memorial at 5:00 a.m. on August 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had our anti-war signs,\u201d she says. \u201cMy husband\u2019s is bright yellow with red letters. It says: ‘Out of Iraq Now.\u2019 Mine says: \u2018If you like this war, you\u2019re going to love the draft,\u2019 and the words \u2018war\u2019 and \u2018draft\u2019 are in red letters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corva and Everett Murphy\u2019s son served in Iraq in 2005 as a Navy corpsman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in Mosul,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s OK, but if this war keeps going, he\u2019ll have to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corva Murphy says that\u2019s not the sole reason they are protesting. \u201cWe do it for all our sons and daughters, and all the innocent Iraqi people,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re out there every chance we get.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Liberty Memorial, Corva and Everett Murphy decided to stand near where Harry Smith was going to be broadcasting.<\/p>\n

She says other people were holding signs, including ones that said, \u201cI Love Big and Rich,\u201d and \u201cHey Dad, We Made It!\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was only their sign that was verboten.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a few minutes, somebody from security came and said, \u2018You can\u2019t be here.\u2019<\/p>\n

Then someone from CBS said: \u2018You have to put your signs down. CBS doesn\u2019t want any political signs.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Corva and Everett Murphy insisted that this was a public park, but they were told it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband said, \u2018Yes it is. Our tax dollars pay for this.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

But a police officer responded:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll really have to go. I\u2019ll escort you. Your friends are down below,\u201d referring to the AFSC demonstrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe escorted us to where the Cost of War banners were,\u201d Corva says. \u201cThen, my husband and I moved about ten feet back 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\u2019d have to move back and stand in the line with our friends. We couldn\u2019t stand where we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corva had, by this time, had enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Look, I\u2019m standing here. I\u2019m not moving. This is my right as a citizen.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019ll have to call the police.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018You just call the police then. I\u2019m not moving.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo police officers arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne said, \u2018If you don\u2019t leave now, I\u2019ll have to arrest you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018You\u2019ll have to arrest me then because I\u2019m not moving back.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to put the cuffs on you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018OK.\u2019<\/p>\n

She was not prepared for the cuffing, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas that ever a shock! They pull your arms behind you real hard, and put those cuffs on you immediately. Your arms are kind of jerked behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Murphy was handcuffed, she was not arrested.<\/p>\n

She says she even asked the police officer to arrest her. \u201cThis will do our cause a lot of good if you do,\u201d she says she told him.<\/p>\n

But she says he responded: \u201cI\u2019m not going to arrest you because I\u2019m off duty and that would mean a lot of work for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a while, the police officer took the cuffs off of her, but \u201che was always keeping his eyes on me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

He was nice, though. \u201cHe even came by with a nice cold bottle of water for me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

CBS said in a statement, \u201cWe had a huge, enthusiastic crowd that was
\nvery well behaved and appeared to be having a good time. We are unaware of any incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Vincent, who is on the local AFSC program committee and is a founding member of the Kansas City Iraq Task Force, says there is no doubt that CBS was clearing the field of anti-war signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a woman with a CBS badge on who kept going back to the CBS
\ntrailer. And she told us, \u2018If those things get on the air, I\u2019m going to lose my job.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The Link<\/a><\/p>\n

The Breakdown:<\/strong> One could wax philosophical all day about the erosion of civil liberties, or debate the nuances of public space. We could spend 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 well documented and obviously played out.<\/p>\n

If CBS comes to your city for any kind of coverage. Take some time for active dissent. Get on that camera and do anything you can that would make the Disney<\/strike> Westinghouse<\/a> corporation furious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Text: On August 10, the CBS Early Show came to Kansas City, Missouri. Using Liberty Memorial Park, the Early Show was featuring the country western band Big & Rich, which is famous for \u201cSave a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)\u201d and for leading audiences in the Pledge of Allegiance. When the local peace community heard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCBS is a Giant Douche - Prose Before Hos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Text: On August 10, the CBS Early Show came to Kansas City, Missouri. 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