Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: FBI Accused of Intimidating Would-be-Protesters Leading Up to Political Conventions, 08/23/04
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec04/protest_8-23.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Have you ever gotten in trouble for speaking your mind? What were the circumstances?

2. What is more important, the right to speak freely and criticize one's government or the right to be free from harm? Why?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What debate, according to the article, has intensified since Sept. 11, 2001? What direct evidence is there of the debate?

Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the debate between the needs of the nation to protect its citizens from harm and the rights of citizens to express their thoughts and opinions has intensified.

In the run up to the Republican National Convention in New York City, local and national law enforcement are investigating people they say may be planning violent acts; protesters say that police are going too far and infringing on free speech rights.

2. What has the FBI been doing prior to the Democratic and Republican political conventions?

On the national level the FBI has been questioning would-be-demonstrators from around the country about potential violence at the Republican convention as the agency did before the Democratic convention held in Boston in July.

Many of those contacted and questioned are known to the FBI for having participated in past political demonstrations in at least six states: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri and New York.

3. Who is critical of the FBI? Why? Be specific.

Critics of these tactics, including Democratic members of Congress and the American Civil Liberties Union, argue that questioning would-be demonstrators may violate the First Amendment right to free speech.

"Political interrogation without suspicion of criminal activity hearkens back to the bad old days of the McCarthy era," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The FBI does not have a right to intimidate people for criticizing the government."

4. How do activists feel about the FBI's actions? Find a quote that expresses this.

Many activists say that the mere presence of an FBI agent is intimidating.

"Just a visit by the FBI has overtones," said 68-year-old activist John Young who claims the government has been monitoring his Web site since last year. "Whether you've done anything wrong or not, you think, 'Oh no.'"

or

Nate Hoffman, a 21-year-old economics student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told the Associated Press that FBI agents first approached him and another student on July 23. Hoffman, who said he used to consider himself an anarchist, agreed to meet with agents at a coffee shop but wouldn't answer any questions without a lawyer.

"They told me that in their experience that when somebody didn't want to talk to them that meant they probably had something to hide," he said.

"You always hear that when you become politically active, you're put on some list. But it doesn't become real until you get a visit from the FBI," Hoffman added.

5. How does the FBI respond to its critics?

Justice Department and FBI officials defended their efforts to question potential protesters, saying they are trying to detect and prevent violence at the Republican convention and other important political events.

"Violent acts are not protected by the U.S. Constitution," Cassandra Chandler, an assistant director of the bureau, said in statement on Aug. 16. "The FBI has a duty to prevent such acts and to identify and bring to justice those who commit them," she added.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. How can a government in a democracy balance the need to keep people safe with the right of its citizens to criticize the government itself? Where do you draw a line? Should you draw a line? Is one more important than the other? Explain your reasoning.

2. Do you agree with the activists in the story that a visit from the FBI is intimidating? Research the details of these "visits" to activists. Does knowing more information change your opinion? Why or why not?

3. Read the quote from Donna Lieberman below. What was the McCarthy era? How does it apply to the current situation? Do you think that the two situations are similar? Why or why not?

"Political interrogation without suspicion of criminal activity hearkens back to the bad old days of the McCarthy era," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The FBI does not have a right to intimidate people for criticizing the government."

Write a 500-800 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.