blog post 9

As seen in Chapter 14, government institutions opposing a social movement will often tactfully use their resources in order to stop a social movement from progressing. Thing such as arrests, which proceed to court cases, slow down and sometimes completely stop a movement from happening. Arrests of people in the movement can set an example for others that they will be punished for helping the movement. This scares off further support. Court hearings can often also drain a movement of its money and ultimately slow down the movement. Media is another source that governments institutions will try to manipulate to their liking in order to suppress a social movement. When there is little to no coverage of an event, people are uninformed and the social movement can not grow.  An example of an institution trying to hold back a social movement is when President Richard Nixon tried to suspend the publication of the Pentagon Papers in the New York Times. When the highly classified documents leaked to media and spread nationwide, President Nixon was perceived in a negative light. The severe duplicity witnessed in South Vietnam was documented in these papers as well as secrets about the war. The movement wanted to expose these papers so that they would gain more support to end the war. This matter was taken to the supreme court in the case “ New York Times vs. The United States”.   Daniel Elsberg, the man who released the Pentagon Papers to the Times, was also arrested for treason in 1971. His arrest potentially scared off other anti-war members working for the government, giving off the notion that the government is always in power. The attempted censorship made President Nixon look unreliable and the movement capitalized on that.