misleading headline in coverage of *supportive* town hall in California:

here's the headline:

"Crowd heckles, shouts, lobs insults at Farr's health care town hall"

By Kurtis Alexander

then you can read that, aside from a few rightwing disruptors, the crowd was mostly supportive, some even asking for "Medicare for All (!)" The bolds below are mine:


SANTA CRUZ - The nation's health care debate descended upon Santa Cruz on Tuesday night when hundreds turned out to address Central Coast Rep. Sam Farr on the issue of the day.

"We need a public health reform, and we're hoping you can continue to fight for it," Aptos resident Anne Marie Sorcenelli told the Carmel Democrat on summer recess from Washington.

Urging the congressman to help lower her family's growing insurance premiums, Sorcenelli was among an estimated 800 who poured into the First Congregational Church for the much-anticipated town hall meeting.

The event, as was expected, came with the passion that has characterized many of the recent health care forums across the country: heckling, shouting, personal insults - "democracy" as Farr at one point called it.

The boos, though limited to a minority of the crowd, were emphatic when Farr spoke of plans to provide Americans a government-run insurance option. One woman, who declined to give her name, greeted people at the door with literature reading, "Act now to stop Obama's Nazi health plan."

On the other side of the debate, several urged Farr to go a step further than what is being proposed in Congress and provide a "single-payer" plan in which the government provides insurance to everyone.

"I want Medicare for all," said Jo Allen, who came from Salinas and arrived early enough to get a seat in the front row of the chapel.

On whole, the crowd appeared more supportive of the reform effort than not. Farr estimated that at the previous night's town hall meeting in Monterey, the 700-person audience tipped in favor of a new federal plan by eight to one.


Town halls, or "town brawls" as some have called them this month, have been a traditional way for members of Congress to connect with constituents. But rarely have the events been so consumed by a singular cause and had the force of media, from cable television to online social networking, fanning the debate.

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http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_13039350