A Californian Views With Alarm How Dissenters Are Treated in the Mainstream Media

It was evident that Meyer felt this way, which would explain why he grew agitated in his demands for an answer. Perhaps Meyer got a little too in-yer-face. But those same questions still bother a LOT of us - a LOT. If I had a chance to ask someone like John Kerry a question, I'd push that same overriding two myself, and with a fair amount of gusto, I might add - although I'm not sure I'd stage a public spectacle like Meyer did. That those questions hang in the air, as ignored and unaired as the weekend protests, is indeed the kind of thing likely to make one's blood pressure rise.

Even as I write this, the Andrew Meyer treatment is being replayed on TV. "Don't tase me, bro!" he screams while writhing under the effects of 15-thousand volts of agony. There's plenty of next-day coverage about this. It feels as though they're playing this more than they're rerunning the audio Swiss cheese of the O.J. explosion at the Las Vegas casino hotel. Still nothing on the Monday after the weekend's protests makes air. Maybe we're on such outrage overload that it takes taser strikes on a single unruly student to jolt us into sitting up and paying attention.

Or perhaps it's just the latest reminder of how freedom of speech is still suppressed in this country. The media wouldn't touch the protests all weekend - even when multitudes descended on the nation's Capitol. Maybe their sheer numbers would make them more easily heard, they thought. Fat chance. Many members of this crowd also agreed with, supported or even contributed to the MoveOn.org ad that asked if George Bush's latest Iraq war cheerleader, General Petraeus, would "betray us."

Another question worth asking, in light of years' worth of fact-challenged assertions from this administration that lots of peachy keen progress was being made all the time. That single ad in the New York Times brought armies of harrumphing conservatives and tsk-tsk'ing pundits to pick a fight with a rather pointed pun and try to shout its message down. That is, after all, one recommended tactic listed in the "Presidential Advance Manual," a crowd-management bible for thwarting protesters at GOP events. We saw dissent-suppression application at the David Petraeus hearings in the House of Representatives, when members of Code Pink and Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan were arrested and wrestled out of the room. Another activist, muscled out of the room, suffered broken bones.

We even saw a TV mom, Sally Field, discover that speaking out against the war on this year's Emmys proves that the TV Academy voters may like her, they really like her, but the politically-restrictive censors do not. Curiously, the Emmy telecast was on Fox. So much for all those fine principles of freedom - led by the Freedom of Speech - for which more than 37-hundred of our soldiers have presumably died in Iraq. People who speak uncomfortable truths are still the most widely reviled segments of the population. From the Dixie Chicks to those forced into "First Amendment Zones" blocks away from a Bush stump speech, we've seen this in the growth of the present protest movement. In some respects, it feels almost as though we're witnessing a reincarnation of the rage against the machine during the Vietnam era. Instead of shooting students with bullets from National Guard riflemen, a police pack now zaps 'em with taser guns. Instead of allowing demonstrators and objectors to voice their views, they're bleeped off the TV or ignored completely.

What's most galling to me is how we who object are now herded into a corner of cold comforts. This weekend, while CNN and other media outlets kept their backs turned, the story got out mainly because participants took matters into their own hands, creating a People's Coverage with their own eyewitness accounts and digital photography uploaded on the Internet. At least we can do that, now. And the students shot at Kent State didn't get up again. Ever. At least Andrew Meyer eventually could.

Still, awfully cold comforts. Crumbs from the table. And shockingly so.

Mary Lyon is a veteran broadcaster ad five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations including KRTH-FM/AM, KLOS-FM, KFWB-AM, and KTLA-TV, and occasional media analyst for ABC Radio News. She began her career as a liberal activist with the Student Coalition for Humphrey/Muskie in 1968, and helped spearhead a regional campaign, "The Power 18," to win the right to vote for 18-year-olds. She remains an advocate for liberal causes, responsibility and accountability in media, environmental education and support of the arts for children, and green living. In addition to OpEdNews, Mary writes for Democrats.us, World News Trust, and WeDemocrats.org's "We! The People" webzine. Mary is also a parenting expert, having written and illustrated the book "The Frazzled Working Woman's Practical Guide to Motherhood."