Karl Rove Attracts Protestors

Expect protests tonight when Karl Rove appears on the campus of the University of Mary Washington to take part in the first Fredericksburg Forum of the academic year. Virginia Organizing is behind the planned protest. They say that they will focus on controversial roles Rove took on under President George W. Bush, as well as his role as a conservative fundraiser. 

"Our protest is mostly going to be focusing on Mr. Rove's central role in the preparation for and selling of the Iraq War to the U.S. and his activities gathering money from Wall Street executives for secretive campaign donations," wrote Evan McLaughlin of Virginia Organizing in an email.

Virginia Organizing describes itself as a non-partisan grassroots group, however they frequently

McLaughlin says he expects about 50 people to protest, depending on the weather, outside George Washington Hall and the Dodd Auditorium. The protest is planned to begin around 7 p.m. 

The Fredericksburg Forum begins at 8 p.m. Moderating the program is mass media and political expert Stephen Farnsworth, who is also a political analyst, author, and George Mason University communications associate professor.

Farnsworth, a former UMW professor, has extensive education, research, and authorship in mass media and political topics.  A newspaper journalist first, Farnsworth was a professor at UMW for 13 years.  Two books he wrote and co-wrote are “Political Support in a Frustrated America,” and “The Nightly News Nightmare: Television’s Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2004.”  He is slated to return to UMW in January to teach in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs as a new Center for Leadership and Media Studies is launched.

Virginia Organizing is active in the Fredericksburg area, but their protest events tend to be on the small side. A More recently, drew only a small number of participants and seemed to make little impact on passerby.