Press coverage of a scene attracts the crowds that cause a moral panic.

Evidence

In a way, Be-In was a respite. As recently as March, the Village Voice had run two page-one stories on MacDougal Street. Stephanie Harrington’s piece depicted the scene as a Bridge and Tunnel teenage horror show centered on West Third Street around the Night Owl Café (which had incubated such popular bands as the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Blues Magoos) and reported that the new Lindsay administration was considering a curfew for kids under sixteen. In fact, they briefly attempted to ban traffic from the zone. The following week, David Gurin noted that Harrington’s story appeared to have inspired a TV news story that further flooded the Village, leading to a mass demonstration against the police and a Daily News headline: VILLAGE HORDE FOILS CLEANUP: COPS YIELD TO 1500 BEATNIKS. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 880

Categorization

• XREF: Media-driven moral panic over a youth scene—parallels the ‘zine/fanzine’ and moral panic frameworks being tested against gentrification origins.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The moral panic as marketing department’ — documented feedback loop where coverage turned Bridge and Tunnel kids into the mass the police then cracked down on, cementing the neighborhood’s identity.