The use of the media to gain public acceptance of a group's ideology and policies is usually unsuccessful unless the group can create a newsworthy event, especially one that is unusual or that involves conflict. In the case of the Indian movement, the brief, superficial television coverage of the American Indian Movement's (AIM) take-over of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington in 1972, following years of negative filmic stereotyping of Indians, accomplished very little for the Indian cause. The take-over symbol simply reinforced the Hollywood image of the Indian as a wanton evildoer. Instead, AIM might have used creative disorders such as restaging the first Thanksgiving and serving broken treaties instead of turkey. To succeed rhetorically, the Indian movement must concern itself with its image as well as with its grievances and demands. (JM)