Paid Protester Movie Clip from MTV

The other day I posted on MTV's PowerGirls where one of the characters, a model wannabe, was fooled into being a paid-protester.

...last night while watching episode 4 I was able to witness something that I've only heard about and read about play out before my eyes. One of the girls, Kelly, is a wannabe model/actress that goes to this modeling gig she's been booked for for months, stating that she was told it was a lingerie shoot for a new line. Well girlfriend gets there and it is not the type of photo shoot she was hoping for. It was an outright protest exhibition, and from what I could gather, for this group. So this Kelly chick is really upset because the media are there taking pictures of them holding these stupid signs; it even shows them being coached on what to chant.

I've heard of this kind of thing, but of course have never witnessed it in action. Oh, what a joy to see no other than MTV documenting this farce! How sweet it is...

Well ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to watch it with your own eyes. Note that she is not just a 'paid protester', but that she had absolutely no idea this was what she had signed on to. I report you decide.

Further research on 'paid protesters' turned up some interesting accounts:
The Beltway Buzz recently posted this tidbit:

“I was walking through the Dallas airport with some colleagues and one of them recognized two of the same protestors we had seen outside the event in Albuquerque. We had some extra time, so we decided to talk to them. They were very polite and explained to us they had just come from protesting an event nearby. One of them very quickly identified themselves as professional protestors.”
“Not that they just liked to protest, but that they actually got paid by liberal interest groups to travel the country protesting. Here they were, sitting in the airport TGI Friday’s having a burger and getting ready to travel to New Orleans for another protest. They were good kids and wanted to talk. We tried discussing some of the benefits of Social Security reform. They listened, but weren’t too interested. Not because they had opposing views, they just said they weren’t too educated on the details. They even admitted they didn’t know who it was they were going to protest in New Orleans.”

Then out of Seattle we have this story:

The investigation by the Seattle Police Department revealed that the nine defendants are members of a highly organized team of paid protesters who traveled to Seattle from various parts of the United States and Canada.

In charging papers, prosecutors allege that on February 19 five of the defendants unlawfully entered the Swinterton Company construction site by cutting through a chain link fence and climbing to the top of a 240-foot crane tower. The five blocked a crane operator from entering the control compartment at the top of the tower, and then unfurled a banner to protest logging practices. The defendants said that the construction firm was not the target of the protest.

And we would never want to leave out the "animal-rights" activists:

Sondag made a couple interesting observation about the protests at the conference. First, most of those who showed up to protest the conference weren’t all that interested in convincing through persuasion. "Ninety percent of what [the protesters said] had nothing to do with animal rights. They said filthy stuff, made remarks about people’s anatomy."
Second, many of the protesters apparently weren’t animal rights activists but paid protesters. Sondag said he found classified ads in the local newspaper offering to pay people $5/day to protest the AALAS.