|
Somehow the scraggly faced man made it up on stage next to Ronald Reagan and smashed a statue before secret service agents even noticed he'd made it into the Las Vegas luncheon. The statue was a Distinguished Service Award about to be presented to the former President by the National Association of Broadcasters. Springer was wrestled to the floor by the agents, and yelled "There's a nuclear test Tuesday... tomorrow afternoon!" as he was led away. Richard Paul Springer is the founder of the 100th Monkey anti-nuclear group. He had been leading a week-long series of events protesting nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles away from the award ceremony. Media Barrier: For several days, mentions of this event were made on national televised news. TV footage showed Springer rush the podium, glass flying (from the smashed award), a slight scuffle between Springer and Reagan and agents knocking the protestor to the floor. News commentators spoke over the footage, so Springer's protestations went unheard. No in-depth news analysis of nuclear testing took place as a result. In addition, though no direct attempt on Reagan's life was made on this particular occasion, one Associated Press article on the protest ended with this red herring:
|
