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If the comments of samcol are deemed appropriate by the TFP Mods as a "thread starter", IMO there is now justification to argue that the TFP Political thread is becomeing the TFP Propaganda thread.
<b>"This group was facing 47 years for absolutely nothing"</b>
There appears to be no basis for the "47 years" reference, outside of PR
widely distributed by Michael Marcavage, apparently the leader of the group that was accused by Philadelphia police of attempting to disrupt the Oct. 10, 2004 Outfest gay pride event. Other reports about the incident indicated that samcol's "for absolutely nothing" is opinion contradicted by media coverage that includes statements by police and prosecutors, and even by the contents of a video record of the event that was edited by Repent America,
a Marcavage entity.

<b>"They got arrested for no reason"</b>
There is a record of media coverage, including statements by police and prosecutors, and information contained in both the edited and unedited video that was recorded by a camera crew that accompanied Michael Marcavage and his group of fellow accused, to the Outfest event, that refutes the above statement.

In addtion to samcol's comments, the souce of information cited to start this thread in the first place, appears to be barely re-written PR that originated from Michael Marcavage and his supporters.
Here is a link to this "news" source's first report of this story, on Oct. 13, 2004. It is simply a PR from Michael Marcavage's lawyer:
<a href="http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/132004a.asp">http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/132004a.asp</a>
There is no mention of efforts to obtain statements from Philadelphia officials or from Outfest organizers, yet the title of the web page reads "News From Agape Press".

The following is the link to the "news" story that is referenced by samcol in this thread starter. It states that "Those five were charged with criminal conspiracy, "ethnic intimidation," and riot. In a case that brought national attention, each of the five faced as much as 47 years in prison if convicted."
I can only find oither reports that only Marcavage was charged with "ethnic intimidation". I can find no independent reports to corroborate the "47 years" referenced in every Marcavage connected release.
<a href="http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/172005a.asp">http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/2/172005a.asp</a>
Agape Press claims to be displaying "news" on it's site. No article it presents as "news" makes any mention of attempts to obtain information or statements from anyone other than Marcavage, his lawyer, Repent America, and American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (CLP). The Agape Press indirectly quotes Judge Dembe in the Feb. 17 court decision.

As presented in the thread starter, this issue did not appear to be substantiated well enough to be posted as new thread in TFP politics.

Terry Krepel of conwebwatch probably does a better job of making my points for me in his observations of the biased coverage of this story by WND - worldnetdaily.com <a href="http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2005/wndphilly.html">WorldNetDaily refuses to tell its readers the full story about arrested anti-gay protesters.</a>
<a href="http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/letters/letterwhywnd.html">Why do I pick on WorldNetDaily? - by Terry Krepel</a>

Why do some TFP members ( and even a mod....) accept as little as was offered here in the thread starter, as "news". When you encounter reports that you may find agreeable, but clearly do not contain mention, on the record, of information attributable to opposing principles in the matter reported on, or at least specifics about attempts to contact other principles, I advise you to search for more information so as to avoid exposure only to repackaged PR that originated from only one principle involved in the "news" report.

I hope that the mods will consider using similar criteria to screen new Political thread starters.