Readers should know who is behind the "front"

AUGUSTA -- Supporters of federal health care reform marched Thursday through the streets of Augusta to urge Republican U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to vote for major change to the health care system....The rally and march were organized by Health Care For America Now!, which delivered more than 1,500 postcards to Snowe's Augusta office urging her to support a public option.

SOURCE

Here's yet another example of newspapers doing a story on a demonstration organized by a "front" group that has a fancy name that means nothing to most of the paper's readers. The story never attempts to explain what Health Care for America Now! is.

If a paper is going to do a story on any demonstration, shouldn't it at least identify the real sponsor? Organizers of this type of political show may have an agenda that they feel could alarm people so they prefer to hide behind some carefully concocted cover like Health Care for America Now!

And by failing to do some basic reporting (made so easy these days by Google) the newspaper lets them get away with it.

In this case, Healthcare for Maine Now! turns out to be a coalition of Maine affiliates of far-left groups including the radical MoveOn.org, the outfit behind the notorious "General Be-tray Us" advertisement, and the thuggish Service Employees International Union, best known for its close ties to the ACORN organization which is under investigation in several states for voter fraud.

If readers knew that, they might be better able to judge the motives behind the demonstration. They might also conclude that the protest was orchestrated by professionals and was not the result of grassroots enthusiasm.

The media sells its readers short by failing to provide such information. And that's a cover up, intentional or not, that's been happening too often in Maine lately. If readers come across a bunch of sign-carrying protestors parading in their streets, they should at least be told who really organized the demonstration.

That's an important part of the story.