{"id":107949,"date":"2014-02-16T13:35:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T13:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memoryholeblog.com\/2014\/02\/16\/just-another-accidental-activist\/"},"modified":"2014-02-17T14:28:06","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T14:28:06","slug":"just-another-accidental-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/just-another-accidental-activist\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Another \u201cAccidental\u201d Activist"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

B\"\"y James F. Tracy<\/p>\n

Shannon Watts often explains how she\u2019s simply a reluctant activist. The plain ole everyday stay-at-home Midwestern mom founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDA) on December 15, 2012, just a day after the Sandy Hook School massacre. Boasting \u201ctens of thousands of members and over 80 local chapters,\u201d[1] the organization seeks to accomplish for gun control what Mothers Against Drunk Driving did for sobriety behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

MDA joined Michael Bloomberg\u2019s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) on February 12th to issue a new joint study highlighting at least 44 school and college shootings since December 2012. With a total fatality count of 28, the report emphasizes how the tragic events have surpassed that of Newtown itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a developed country,\u201d Shannon declared in a fed-up tone upon the study\u2019s release, \u201cand we have to ask ourselves what is wrong with our culture and laws that\u2019s creating an environment where not only do we have 44 school shootings in the past 14 months \u2014 but we are doing nothing about it.\u201d[2]<\/p>\n

Is it beyond reason to ask, \u201cWho exactly is Shannon Watts?\u201d This is a question major news media outlets have predictably left unexamined. Again, the 43-year-old is a self-styled \u201cmother of five children,\u201d a modest \u201cstay-at-home mom in Zionsville, a suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana.\u201d Watts is also portrayed in glitzy promos and has been wholeheartedly embraced by venues such as MSNBC as simply \u201ca mom who demands action\u201d to stop gun violence\u2014the kind of gal who wants \u201csensible\u201d gun laws, much like Boss Michael Bloomberg, President Obama, and many Congressional Democrats.<\/p>\n

Yet Watts\u2019 public persona was one she has only recently acquired. In fact, she has spent two decades quietly behind the scenes as an extremely ambitious executive at several major public relations firms and Fortune 500 companies. Watts\u2019 Linked In profile indicates that she formally left the PR profession in June 2012, just six months before the Sandy Hook event.<\/p>\n

At that time Watts headed up her own \u201cboutique\u201d firm, VoxPop Public Relations, while working as a freelance consultant for clients of public relations behemoth Fleishman-Hillard. Watts began VoxPop in 2008, the same year she was recognized by the foremost public relations trade journal, PR Week,<\/em> as one of its \u201c40 Under 40,\u201d for notable achievements and future promise in the industry.<\/p>\n

Overall, Shannon Watts, who until only recently went by the last name Troughton, began work fresh out of University of Missouri in 1993 as a public affairs officer for Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, the Missouri House of Representatives, and the Missouri Department of Economic Development.<\/p>\n

In 1998 Watts (Troughton) moved on to further develop her propaganda acumen as Vice President of Corporate and Public Affairs at the major PR firm Fleishman-Hillard, where she remained until 2001. Watts then became Director of Global and Public Affairs at the Monsanto Corporation \u201cwhere she led external initiatives designed to generate positive, proactive media coverage of the company\u2019s agriculture biotechnology products.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n

Between 2004 and 2006 Watts served as Director of Global Communications for GE Healthcare, General Electric\u2019s $15 billion medical and diagnostics device unit. She then joined WellPoint, the nation\u2019s largest health insurance corporation, as its Vice President of Corporate Communications.<\/p>\n

At WellPoint Watts oversaw an impressive \u201c30-person corporate communications team\u201d until 2008, when she stepped down to begin VoxPop Public Relations. Watts \u201cstarted the firm because she saw a need for boutique agencies that can provide the same service at a lower cost during the recession,\u201d PR Week<\/em> observes.[4]<\/p>\n

Watts\u2019 Linked In profile lists numerous proficiencies, including \u201cNew Media,\u201d \u201cCrisis Management,\u201d \u201cCrisis Communications,\u201d \u201cThought Leadership\u201d [sic], \u201cPublicity,\u201d \u201cIntegrated Marketing,\u201d and \u201cMarketing Communications.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, as a very highly-positioned and well-connected public relations maestro, Watts is an especially apt individual to head up MDA\u2013perhaps too apt. Given her talents (that systematically go without mention in news stories) it is perhaps unsurprising that Watts has been embraced by corporate news media outlets that strongly back heightened gun control measures and routinely cite Sandy Hook as a transformative event in this regard.<\/p>\n

For example, here\u2019s Shannon playing reluctant protester at the January 2013 \u201cMarch on Washington for Gun Control.\u201d \u201cI am not a politician. I am a mom from Indiana,\u201d Watts declares. \u201cI am an accidental activist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Shannon on MSNBC, where she is introduced not as a professional flack, but simply as the \u201cFounder\u201d of MDAGS and \u201cMother of Five Kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

More recently Shannon has appeared on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cThe Ed Show,\u201d where she provides her account of being accosted by a motley pack of \u201cgun bullies\u201d while on a simple coffee date with like-minded moms. Asked by host Ed Shultz whether she had previously been an activist, Watts responds, \u201cNever in my entire life. I became an accidental activist on, uh, December 15, 2012, after Sandy Hook\u2014the day after\u2014and I will never go back \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Watts has also become a de-facto columnist for the Huffington Post<\/em>, having written nine opinion pieces since January 2013\u2013about one every six weeks\u2013as the \u201cstay at home mom\u201d and former \u201ccommunications executive\u201d who has finally found her cause.[5] One piece appearing on Mother\u2019s Day, \u201cKeep Your Flowers on Mothers Day, I want My Rights,\u201d predictably trotted out Sandy Hook as a rallying cry. \u201cTwenty children and six adults had been slaughtered in the sanctity of an elementary school by an assault weapon designed for the battlefield,\u201d Watts tells HuffPo<\/em> readers.<\/p>\n

The horror of it was almost too much to believe or comprehend. This has to be the tipping point, I thought. This has to be what moved us as a country to change. But it wasn\u2019t. Twenty dead first-graders weren\u2019t enough to advance even the weakest of legislative measures.[6]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is yet another especially unusual development closely related to the Sandy Hook massacre. In this instance a highly experienced public relations practitioner apparently quits a very promising career, then just months later happens to start up a prominent non-profit activist organization that echoes the voices of Newtown parents\u2014the day following the incident itself. The organization is also now closely aligned with Bloomberg\u2019s MAIG, a group that similarly clings to Sandy Hook, and will thus have more than ample resources going forward.<\/p>\n

Over the past year MDA has generated publicity by pressuring retail chains Starbucks and Staples to issue policies preventing their law-abiding customers from possessing weapons inside their stores. It will soon be embarking on a campaign against McDonald\u2019s to enact similar measures.[7]<\/p>\n

As an expert PR practitioner Shannon Watts appears to have a great deal in common not only with Sandy Hook\u2019s central players, but also the classic engineers of mass consent. By combining her personal identity and professional forte toward furthering a broader narrative intended to refashion public understanding and will, Watts demonstrates the greatest of moral forfeitures so common to modern governance\u2014specifically, inducing a credulous constituency toward the false notion that a statist monopoly over killing technology will somehow achieve more secure communities and public spaces. History suggests such a concentration of power brings about quite the opposite.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1] \u201cShannon Watts<\/a>,\u201d (Contributor Profile), Huffington Post<\/em>, n.d. See also, \u201c\u2018Grassroots\u2019 Gun Control Org \u201cMoms Demand \u2026\u201d is Utterly Astroturf<\/a>,\u201d DemocraticUnderground, November 8, 2013.<\/p>\n

[2] Ed Pilkington, \u201cTwenty-Eight Killed in 44 US School Shootings Since Newtown, Study Finds<\/a>,\u201d UK Guardian<\/em>, February 12, 2014.<\/p>\n

[3] \u201cLaunce of New Public Relations Agency, VoxPop Public Relations LLC; Shannon Troughton Named 40 Under 40 By PR Week<\/a>,\u201d PRNewsWire.com<\/em>, n.d.<\/p>\n

[4]. Ibid.<\/p>\n

[5] \u201cShannon Watts.\u201d<\/p>\n

[6] Shannon Watts, \u201cKeep Your Flowers on Mothers Day, I Want My Rights<\/a>,\u201d Huffington Post<\/em>, May 8, 2013. The extent to which such \u201cmass shooter\u201d events are authentic requires more serious consideration than it has heretofore received. See, for example, Nona Willis Aronowitz, \u201cFake Blood and Blanks: Schools Stage Active Shooter Drills<\/a>,\u201d NBC News, February 14, 2014; James F. Tracy, \u201cNationwide Post-Sandy Hook Shooter Drills: Real or Fake?<\/a>\u201d MemoryHoleBlog, August 22, 2013.<\/p>\n

[7] Clare O\u2019Connor, \u201cAfter Starbucks Success, Gun Control Advocates Target Staples<\/a>,\u201d Forbes<\/em>, September 26, 2013; Awr Hawkins, \u201cBloomberg Joins Moms Demand Action to Pressure Businesses for Gun Control,\u201d Breitbart.com<\/em>, December 22, 2013.<\/p>\n

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By James F. Tracy Shannon Watts often explains how she\u2019s simply a reluctant activist. The plain ole everyday stay-at-home Midwestern mom founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDA) on December 15, 2012, just a day after the Sandy Hook School massacre. Boasting \u201ctens of thousands of members and over 80 local chapters,\u201d[1] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1238,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-107949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}