It takes skill to be a professional activist. You have to be creative. Impactful. Memorable.  

Professional activists must constantly think of new and interesting ways to stick it to man in order to create public awareness about the problems they care about most. Strangely enough, this often means throwing staining substances on people. 

One example of this is PETA flour bombing on celebrities who wear fur. Another is throwing milkshakes at political opponents to embarrass them. A third example is using glitter bombs to fight for gay rights. Whatever the method, social cause protests in the Western world have always involved targeted mayhem and vandalism to get their ideas across. 

The most recent protest was staged by climate activists in Great Britain. They rented a firetruck, filled the water tanks with red paint, and then sought to spray it all over the British Treasury. But their plans didn’t quite work out the way they thought they would. Take a look: 

The interesting thing is that Reuters frames this as a successful protest, complete with glowing interviews and pull quotes from the protestors themselves. Watching the video, however, shows a different story.  

If Reuters was interested in providing a neutral account of the protest, then it seems they would have raised the failure of the protestors to do what they set out to do. Instead, they include many flattering pictures and frame this a bold success for the organization.

What does it say when the media’s own video coverage of an event presents a very different story from the article itself? 

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