Worldwide Woodstock

"Something's happening here.
What it is, ain't exactly clear." -- Buffalo Springfield

   Just as promoters of the Woodstock Folk Festival in 1969 were surprised by the massive (and peaceful) turnout, so the women's rights rally planned for Washington took on a life of its own and spread worldwide.
   An estimated half million people showed up in the nation's capital, plus many thousands more in dozens of cities across the country and around the world to advocate for women's rights, and it quickly became a protest movement over plans to cut back on health care programs and women's rights issues.
   Already, President Donald Trump has told federal agencies to trim health care expenditures where possible. Within hours of his inauguration on Friday, he signed executive orders to start eliminating many portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Trump's signings also included reductions in aid to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps subsidize educational programs like Sesame Street.
   Trump himself, however, blamed "dishonest media" for overplaying Saturday's rally, and claimed that "a million and a half people" showed up for his inauguration. But TV networks, however, "showed an empty field" instead of accurately describing the turnout. Various estimates put the crowd at 250,000.
   Later, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer assailed what he called "false reporting" by news outlets of the size of inauguration crowds, and labeled it "shameful."
   In a statement in the White House briefing room late Saturday, in which he barely mentioned the women's issues rallies in Washington and other American cities as well as cities around the world, Spicer read his comments and immediately left the room, without taking any questions from reporters. 
   Spicer's attitude struck some listeners as petty and childish, an attempt to demand that reporters do what they're told, to handle all stories in ways that favor the President, and not ask questions.
   But it's a journalist's job to ask questions, and ignoring reporters doesn't make the questions go away.
   Note to Spicer: Reporters have long memories and thick skins, as well as sharp pencils.