WACO, Texas — At least they didn't destroy the camera this time.
During the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Chicago police billy-clubbed, teargassed and maced young protesters.
At one point, as onlookers chanted "the whole world is watching," a cop came up to a cameraman filming the brutality and smashed the camera.
That was 40 years ago. We've come so far.
Last week in St. Paul at the Republican National Convention, hundreds of individuals were arrested. Some richly deserved it. But a few were just doing their jobs: reporting the story.
Though not explicitly on the schedule, this was in keeping with an nominously familiar convention theme: "Beat the Press."
Familiar, as with Richard Nixon.
Among those arrested this time were Amy Goodman and two staffers for the progressive television show "Democracy Now." Goodman was in the convention interviewing delegates when she heard that a credentialed "Democracy Now" camerawoman and reporter were arrested for covering events outside.
She came to find her camerawoman cuffed, face bloodied. When she insisted on information, she was arrested. Video of the arrest was one of the most viewed posts on YouTube last week.
Sixty-eight and '08? Nothing in common except an unpopular, undeclared war, seemingly unending. And this: In '68 the Republicans made the villainous press into a campaign issue. And a once-obscure governor served as point person.
Listen, Sarah Palin: I knew Spiro Agnew (from afar). I listened to Spiro Agnew. Sarah, you're no Spiro Agnew. You are better.
Really, if it weren't certain to distract us from real issues of governance, this would be fun.
In the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention, CBS's Dan Rather was roughed up by floor goons. In the 2008 GOP convention, delegates had veritable pitchforks out for anyone with a network decal. Fox News excluded, of course. That's the one with Karl Rove in the analyst's chair.
John McCain pulled out of a scheduled appearance on CNN after anchor Campbell Brown pressed aide Steve Schmidt on the issue of Palin's lack of experience. Just doing her job, Senator. What's Palin's job?
After the convention, the McCain campaign said Palin would have no news conferences. That sounds like the job of a candidate for vice president.
The night of Palin's coming out you could almost see the ghost of Agnew hovering. It was the set-upon hockey mom embodying all forces of righteousness, dueling the evil media. Of course, all the "elite media" did in her case was follow up on matters certain to become part of the public discourse, just as certain as five months of pregnancy becomes nine.
In the '68 campaign, Nixon and Agnew skillfully painted the press as an agent of discord in a time when anti-war passions were overflowing.
To hear Nixon and Agnew, America's problem wasn't the war. The problem was the press fomenting dissatisfaction in the face of a "silent majority" that believed all was hunky dory.
Of course, America in 1968 was a nation torn. The winners of that election turned out to be one of our most corrupt and cutthroat administrations. Honestly, I'd like to hear members of that "silent majority" justify it all today.
Everything old is new, and Sarah Palin is new. And she's going to take on the "elite media."
A story on NewsMax, a right-wing carnival of curious claims, calls Palin especially suited for this for she was a journalist once.
Yes, she used to read sports scores on KTUU, an affiliate of NBC (the enemy!) in Anchorage.
"Palin's experience as a journalist should really come in handy when the mainstream press start brandishing their long knives," reported NewsMax.
As everyone saw Wednesday night, Palin is as good with a TelePrompter as Tom Brokaw, and as the late, great Spiro Agnew.
Herewith the voice of a new silent majority. Herewith a call to arms against an inquisitive press. We shall have none of that.
John Young writes for the Waco Tribune-Herald. E-mail: jyoung AT wacotrib.com.
