Moses’ defeat came when mass media finally covered a local protest

Evidence

It was a tableau that—complete to Isaacs’ presence—might have been lifted intact from a score of earlier Moses battles. But within a few minutes a new element had been added to it, an element that had been conspicuously missing from the earlier tableaus—and that was to make April 17, 1956, the watershed of Moses’ career. Following Isaacs’ instructions, Elliott Sanger had telephoned more than a score of newspapers, radio stations and television stations to ask them to send men to the scene. And they did. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4066

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Thirty years of reputation cracked irreparably in a single day — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4085; The Papp fight converted the New York press from Moses’ protector into his investigator — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 4230; Contemptuous mockery masked Moses’ demolition plans as popular sentiment — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2886 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Massive progressive protest forced mainstream media to air dissenting voices and defeated the Right. #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 761
• Large vocal protests can force mainstream media to platform dissenters #corroborates (0.90)
• Moses’ feared public support had long since evaporated without political insiders noticing #qualifies (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4397
• Moses’ park-defender image survived only through press secrecy #corroborates (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 4061