February 19, 2008
Discovery Protester Paid the Homeless
In case you weren't already convinced that the one-man crusade against Silver Spring's Discovery Channel, which also produced a series of ads promoting the protest in the print edition of Express, was more than a little light on widespread support, take a look at the photo above. Flickr contributor chip py the photo guy snapped this shot yesterday of a man who was paid by the organizer to join the protest.
After a low turnout for the planned protest of the Discovery Channel, homeless people from the nearby Progress Place were paid ten dollars an hour to demonstrate. On Monday when it began to rain many of the demonstrators, such as this man right here, demanded to get paid and left.We previously expressed some skepticism about the "Save the Planet Protest Against the Discovery Channel", which was planned from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for the entire week of February 15—23.
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Is it actually a "for real" protest? Or some sort of "art"?
If it is for real, how did the organizer dude get enough cash to run so many half and full page ads in the Post Express?
OMFG, that's awesome. Lee's protest has been good bar story fodder since January, though it does make me a little sad that he keeps dragging Daniel Quinn's name into it. (I heart Daniel Quinn. Blame my hippie education)
I agree that it's likely the case of an aspiring producer (and a rich kid) who didn't get the job that he wanted and is a little sore about it.
Damn, how many endangered pileated marmots could be saved with the money he's putting down for full-page ads in the Express?
These posts seem so familiar.
Ya know, I think it's funny that the guy is protesting against a for-profit corporation that lies six miles north of the folks who design, implement, and enforce all the environment legislation of the country.
that brotha got paid!!
lol! i love the look on his face in that picture.
Oh, Please. It's much worse than that...
The Carpenter's Union protest at 13th and E has been doing that for weeks now.
No word if the $10/hour (appears to be the going rate) that the homeless got in these cases amounts to the union wages and benefits that the carpenters' union is picketing for.
I saw this guy's ad in the Onion and hoped it was an amazing joke, perfectly complementing the "news" on the other pages. Guess I was wrong.
Given the fact that everyone in the DC "Young Journalism" community seems to know everyone else, I'd like to see DCist call up their buddies over at Express, City Paper, the Onion, the Examiner, etc. and try to come up with a cumulative estimate of how much this guy spent on advertising over the last month. It has to be thousands and thousands of dollars . . .
Companies use money to influence policy everyday. Why are we so against individuals and organizations taking a page out of that playbook to create influence of their own?
i work at Discovery- the guy just got arrested for disorderly conduct and littering. he's been throwing money (literally) around silver spring for the past couple of days. i miss the strange already.