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 [log in to unmask]