Viral videos changing the health care debate

Yesterday morning, I tweeted a prediction that appears to have already come true:

Thursday night, a town hall event in Tampa, Florida quickly got out of control as angry constituents protested the Democrats' health care plan to Congresswoman Kathy Castor who hosted the event. Videos of the riots quickly surfaced on YouTube Thursday night and Friday morning and by mid-morning The Huffington Post and other major blogs and cable news networks had picked up the videos showcasing the growing grassroots discontent with the President's health care agenda. This morning, the story is in The New York Times and most major daily newspapers across the country.

The explosion of news coverage surrounding this event was undoubtedly fueled by the emotional videos taken by these now citizen journalists at the meeting who were able to rapidly get their content posted to YouTube. This video of protesters screaming "You work for us!" to Congresswoman Castor as she exited the meeting has been widely circulated on the web over the last 24 hours, already receiving more than 280,000 views:

Some events can not be put into words. This is a perfect example. Without online video, this story would have been far less impactful on the health care debate. But with it, these videos are able to tell a story written words can not and properly display the grassroots anger brewing towards the President and the Democrats' health care agenda.

Democrats have attempted to discount the protests by calling the demonstrators "angry wingnuts", but the fact of the matter is that these viral videos are shaping the health care debate across the country and spurring on similar protests. The St. Petersburg Times' star Political Editor, Adam Smith, says it best:

As much as Democratic leaders try to cast the protests as events manufactured by political groups or the Republican Party, it's clear that, when 1,500 people show up in Ybor City on a weeknight, there is plenty of grass roots anger boiling about the health care plan and perception of expanding government.