Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mom who had transformed the area near George Bush's vacation retreat into a major antiwar protest site has left camp -- perhaps temporarily -- to be with her sick mother.
Sheehan leaves But even before her departure, the story -- as all longrunning sagas eventually do -- had begun to evolve from being about her to being about the media's coverage of her. Was it excessive? Were people getting tired of it? Were the media being exploited?
See Jon Friedman's take Here's a theory as to why Sheehan became such a media phenomenon, aside from the fact that she's a compelling human interest story and that Bush greatly prolonged what could have been a one-day story by choosing not to meet with her. In this country, the mainstream media are fundamentally followers, not leaders. That translates into a reluctance to get out in front on big public policy issues and a willingness instead to wait until some official, organized debate erupts. When it comes to the war in Iraq and other Bush policies, journalists are much more comfortable when they can shove their pens and microphones in front of some opposition pol attacking the White House and its occupant.
Given the innate complexities of the situation in Iraq and the general failure of the Democrats to find a coherent voice on anything, you really don't have that argument taking place in the political establishment. So Cindy Sheehan, with her message of protest and personal loss, became a powerful vehicle for growing grassroots discomfort with the war and a surrogate for a largely non-existent political debate. The media flocked to Texas because she's provided the missing voice they've been looking for. (See "Home on the Range" by Barry Crimmins in this week's Phoenix.)