re: #532 Talking Point Detective

Maybe not.

Then again, it is reasonable for them to have concerns about media seeking to gain audience through sensationalizing anything that might come across as negative - or by capitalizing on those elements that are unambiguously negative.

The issues are real. Imagine a civil rights protest from the 60s, and media went around seeking to portray people like MLK in a negative light - or seeking to focus on the relative minority of civil rights protestors who advocated a violence.

Of course that happened, and of course it was a problem for civil rights advocates - who had a primary goal of gaining media exposure for racial injustice.

Of course, what they actually chose to do has not exactly burnished their reputation with the local media. They need the media, whether they like it or not.

Also, whether they like it or not, they cannot claim a public space as private space, simply by pitching tents there. They, I, and the KRONTV lady, all have open access to what I still like to call Frank H. Ogawa Plaza.

Now, maybe Dr. King would have called this a victory in media relations, but I tend to doubt it.