Snopes And The Media On The Bozeman Town Hall

Occasionally, circumstances work to create a good teaching point, and I hope you can hang on to the end because I have a point to make here.

A good friend forwarded an e-mail that had an account of President Obama's recent Town Hall in Bozeman, Montana. No problem so far. To research, I googled and ran across several links like this link in a TownHallBlog Post that had the letter posted in full form. Following is an example of the letter:

This was sent to me by a friend in Bozeman , MT who was there.
Hello All,
By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.
On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.
On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport. (This is only because Bill knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public.
FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums). All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$
During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$
Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday.
Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm......900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.
This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.
On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be.
A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.
The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)
Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.
So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.
If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds.
We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho . Speaking of the local media...they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.
It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes........the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!
I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America , more like the USSR !! I was physically nauseous. Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC . Scary!!
K
Bozeman , Montana

Further, I checked out Snopes. Their rating came back as mixed (some truth-some fiction). You can follow this here and make up your own mind.

Here is what I think from what I read on Snopes and their conclusions:

• Like many forwarded e-mails, Snopes finds that this one has variations on authorship, but was unable to find even early-variation clues as to the author. (I noted from my e-mail that the author requested anonymity. Anonymity only matters or is credible when someone like the CIA releases something that is detrimental to the Bush Administration).
• No confirmation was available for the lobster shipment.
• Nothing was conclusive as to the breakdown of tickets due to varying accounts and how they were distributed. Even so, Snopes believes that the "audience packing" was not a "majority" as the letter writer insinuated.
• The media had coverage of rallies and protests outside the town hall, but was not covered as heavily as the questioning of the president inside at the meeting.
• The crowd outside, though loud and raucous, was adequately controlled by police and authorities.

Now, let me bring up the letter items about which I still had questions not covered at Snopes (with my own thoughts included):

• Did the items in the letter get covered by larger media outlets? (Nothing other than happy natives)
• Why was a remote hangar chosen instead of using a local gymnasium or auditorium as the meeting place? (Stagecraft requires an open pallet)
• Why were the local officials excluded from planning? (I dunno. Secret Service concerns possibly. But this certainly cuts local officials out from selling their city. Folks where I live would want to have the ability to put on a good show)
• How much did shipping all the extra stuff due to the remote location cost and why was this not covered by the press? (They weren't using private planes)
• Nothing on the lobsters, was local beef brought in to feed the attendees? Was there any catering? (People paid to protest gotta eat)
• What about the SEIU protesters that were bussed in? (They were probably deputized)
• Did the SEIU protesters encroach on the town hall protesters permitted area and push them out?
• Did the local authorities enforce check out the SEIU protesters' permit?
• The letter states that there was local media coverage, but where was the major media covering the rallies outside? (Access limited and probably did not fit the narrative anyway)
• Were the questioners in the meeting screened prior to the town hall meeting? (You betcha)
• These are not hard questions. And there sure were a lot of different accounts.

Seriously, I have a lot of faith in Snopes, and in their defense, this event just occurred recently so this mixed-rating report may be product-in-work. Googling, I found this from Hoguenews with people using their own names describing the events outside of the town hall. You can, on your own, keep looking further if you want to, but I want to stress the following:

• I did this on a lark using the Snopes bibliography and what I could google. Research on your own.
• This takes a ton of time. I'm glad I am not Snopes.
• The major media reporting covered the "show" inside the hangar, but did not spend too much time on the protesters outside or the preparations for the event.
• Snopes and Factcheck are not infallible. Investigation can limit meanings and the Snopes' investigation appears to be limited because the reporting was so selective.
• The major media outlets have no credibility. This event obviously was a dog and pony show. Even Snopes could not find where any major press reported with great depth on town hall protesters and what went on here. To see what I mean, check this.
• For right now, I figure this is one of those e-mails that just went viral and can't be disproved.

I went a lot further on this than I originally intended, but it dawned on me while googling that I sure was running into a lot of things that I could not find. As the official scribe to the great unwashed, there is danger here and let me let you in it. Nope, not President Obama and his fantastic stagecraft of which we already have formed our own narrative. But instead, I want to rag on the press because that is the underlying theme message of the letter. Read it again from the start if you have to, but the major press sources did not fully report this story. One or the other, this letter is either true as written or it is so masterfully written that it cannot be disproved by the folks that we normally depend on to disprove these things. Either way, I am glad that the letter author is on my side and I am not a reporter who fell on his ass with this story.