Do you think a petition generating only 150 signatures in a year’s time to protest the naming of a center in honor of a former Democratic Vice President in his home state would have generated an AP article and led Yahoo! news?
In reporting on the University of Wyoming’s naming “a new center for international students” for the former Vice President who represented the state in Congress for a decade before serving as the nation’s Defense Secretary, AP Reporter Mead Gruyer breathlessly focuses on the protest:
The university’s decision to name the center after Cheney, a former Wyoming congressman, prompted a petition that collected more than 150 signatures. The petition said polices of the Bush administration were “very controversial” and the name will affect how people perceive the center.
Cheney’s support for harsh interrogations — torture, some say — is one reason to oppose naming the center after him, said Suzanne Pelican, who began circulating the petition a year ago.
Emphasis added. 150 signatures in a year? Wow, we got thrice that in an afternoon at a Tea Party in Santa Monica, one of the most left-wing bastions in the Golden State. And we didn’t have a an AP report from that grassroots protest leading Yahoo!’s news.
UPDATE: Linked on Newsbusters where a smart young blogger offers: “Ill will against former Vice President Dick Cheney still runs high in some circles.” Read the whole thing.
150 signatures is an embarrassment