On Wed, 3 Apr 1996, David Harvey wrote:

> I saw that short report on NBC news last night (on the Phoenix Flag
Exhibit) and I found it to be an excellent example of journalism.
>
> It always amuses me that those who profess to know so much about History
> (such as Newt) repeat it so very often.  Everytime there is either a
> controversial movie, book, or exhibit, inevitably those who haven't seen it,
> indignant and so-filled with moral outrage, picket, protest, and vilify the
> object of their rage...only to lead, inevitably again, into getting more
> exposure and popularity for that very movie, exhibit, or thing which they
> so-rail against.
>

Yes, that's true, in a mass audience kind of context.  But the aim of
these vilifiers is not to create a universal condemnation of an art
product, but to rally the forces who do agree with them, so as to
mobilize activist sentiment.  If Newt Gingrich gets more people to see
the exhibit BUT ALSO mobilizes conservative opposers to put it on the
political agenda, while those who support the exhibit concept are not so
mobilized, then the political decisionmaking is swayed by the
opposition in a manner out of proportion to their actual strength in numbers.


Richard Perry
UC San Diego
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