Beijing Float Protest Fails

I missed the first broadcast of the Rose Bowl parade, but the Beijing Olympics float just went by in the re-broadcast, and no signs of protest were evident.

Human rights activists had asked parade-route viewers to stand and turn their backs on the float to protest Beijing's abysmal human rights record, but while I saw impeachment and Ron Paul posters picked up in the TV coverage, but for the several minutes KTLA showed the float, I couldn't pick up a single person along the parade route giving the float his or her backside.

The City of Pasadena, which is careful to discourage politicizing of the parade, denied protesters more public opportunities to protest, so the back-turning was their last-ditch effort to turn the hugely popular and globally broadcast Rose Bowl parade into a statement against Beijing's policy.

It was a good idea, but ultimately, it failed.