News organizations continue to cover contentious town hall meetings.
NPR: "Many of the events this week appear to have been organized by conservative groups. A new Web site is called 'Operation Embarrass Your Congressman.' A widely circulated memo tells right-wing protesters how to treat their representative: 'Make him uneasy... stand up and shout out, and sit right back down... rattle him.'" The man who wrote the memo belongs to the conservative group Tea Party Patriots.
"But the memo makes clear what the protesters are aiming for — press coverage of voter outrage, even as polls continue to show that a majority of Americans support overhauling the health care system. (Journalism professor Alan) Schroeder says viewers should not take these angry scenes at face value. … For now, several lawmakers have switched to phone conferences or what they call tele-town halls to try to connect with their constituents in a more controlled environment" (Seabrook, 8/4).
In Texas, "about a hundred people demonstrated recently outside Republican Senator John Cornyn's Dallas office. It was part of a national effort organized by opponents of President Obama," NPR reports in a separate story. But "at Dallas's Democratic headquarters, phone volunteers are seeking support for a health plan that promises to insure more, if not all Americans, a plan many Congressional Democrats support. ... The group operating the phone bank, Organizing for America, used to be Obama for America during the presidential campaign. Now it's part of the Democratic National Committee. The DNC says this is the first big national policy effort since Obama took office. Eight organizers have been sent to Texas alone" (Zeeble, 8/4).