Causing a stir on the Internet and throughout Capitol Hill, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted “you lie” during Pres. Obama’s health care speech to a joint session of Congress. Rep. Wilson, who claims that his emotions got the best of him, made the inappropriate outburst as Pres. Obama stated that people who immigrated into the country illegally would not be covered under his health care plan. From CNN:

Two words, delivered with index finger punctuating the air and directed at the president of the United States, made a little-known South Carolina congressman one of the most controversial men on the Internet -- at least Wednesday heading into Thursday.

Following the initial outburst, after Pres. Obama stated “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions,” Rep. Wilson then shouted out “not true.”

People For the American Way President Michael B. Keegan issued the following statement:

“Representative Wilson’s behavior last night was inappropriate and deeply disrespectful of the President, the Congress, and the millions of Americans who want to hear a reasoned discussion of health care reform. Mr. Wilson was right to apologize, and GOP leaders were right to distance themselves from his behavior.

Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing this as a skit on Saturday Night Live.

A must read, today’s E.J. Dionne column in the Washington Post “The Real Town Hall Story,” recounts a side of the town halls that was missing from television news coverage: that the “highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion” and “most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt.”

According to the Dionne, many television networks have sent stringers to scout boisterous and hostile town halls:

The most disturbing account came from Rep. David Price of North Carolina, who spoke with a stringer for one of the television networks at a large town-hall meeting he held in Durham.

The stringer said he was one of 10 people around the country assigned to watch such encounters. Price said he was told flatly: "Your meeting doesn't get covered unless it blows up." As it happens, the Durham audience was broadly sympathetic to reform efforts. No "news" there.

Virginia Rep. Tom Perriello (D), who represents the district formerly held by conservative Virgil Goode for more than a decade, described three different groups that he’s encountered in his 17 townhalls:

When I reached Rep. Tom Perriello last week, he divided the crowds at the 17 town halls he had held to that point in his largely rural Virginia district into three groups: conservatives, for whom the health-care battle is "about big government, socialism and all that"; the left, for whom "it's about corporate accountability"; and a "middle" for whom "it's about health care costs" and the problems with their coverage.

But the only citizens who commanded widespread media coverage last month were the right-wingers. And I bet you thought the media were “liberal.”

Have you looked at the news coverage of the health care debate and wondered where are the ordinary Americans in town hall meetings who support health care reform? They’re in the cities and suburbs, and rural America too. Or maybe you’ve been to a town hall meeting, and prepared yourself for loud, angry, violent opposition only to find reasonable voices on both sides of the debate willing to hear what their representatives had to say. Unfortunately, the media has ignored those voices in favor of tabloid TV.

“You think its hot now, wait until we turn up the heat on [Congress] with our activism on health care reform.” - Rev. Timothy McDonald, Pastor of First Iconium BaptistChurch in Atlanta.

Rev. Timothy McDonald, chair of our African American Ministers In Action, closed out yesterday’s Interfaith Prayer Service for Healthcare Reform with a message inspiring hundreds of participants in yesterday’s Congressional lobby visits and march to continue to ring the alarm in their churches and communities on the urgent need for healthcare for 46 million uninsured Americans.

He reminded those in attendance of the book by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “Why We Can’t Wait” and why we absolutely cannot wait for health care for our brothers and sisters. Rev. McDonald said our country could no longer look at the healthcare system as a profitable institution, we must see it as a civil right for all Americans. Under the theme “Believing Together,” he called for all of us – rabbis, pastors, priests, ministers, community leaders, laypersons, concerned citizens – to build bridges and take the message and the energy from the day to our neighborhoods, communities, churches, and everywhere else to demand healthcare for all Americans.

He implored us to not remember this moment as just an event, but an event that sparked a movement.