UPDATE: Protests over health care reform disrupted Rep. Russ Carnahan’s  town hall forum on aging Thursday night in south St. Louis County. Six people were arrested outside after the forum, including St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Jake Wagman. Here’s a link to developments to that story.

UPDATE: The University City School District, citing safety reasons, has canceled Sen. Claire McCaskill’s health care reform forum that had been scheduled for Tuesday evening. As a result, reporter Jake Wagman’s live blogging from that event won’t take place. However, Wagman will report live on the Political Fix blog from McCaskill’s town hall meeting Tuesday afternoon in Hillsboro.

Al Tompkins of the Poynter journalism training center suggests that the press cover the town hall protests over President Barack Obama’s efforts to reform health care, even though some Democratic lawmakers are calling the protests “fake.”

In an article titled “Why It’s Worth Covering the Protests over Obama’s Health Care Plan,” Tompkins writes:

In my more than 30 years in the journalism industry, I can’t remember a time when Congress’ summer adjournment has produced more news…

I recommend that journalists cover these protests and not write them off as the actions of a select few. Protests are an important part of democracies. It was not long ago when those who protested the Iraq War were being written off as lunatic fringe groups.

But I am less interested in the protests themselves than I am in what people are protesting about.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch plans to cover some local town hall meetings, including Sen. Claire McCaskill’s health care forum Tuesday afternoon in Hillsboro. Reporter Jake Wagman plans to offer live coverage on the Political Fix blog.

In his article, Tompkins writes:

Members of Congress are having to face angry crowds who are protesting government spending, bailouts and health care reform, and who don’t like the direction the country is heading in.

Some lawmakers say the protests that are popping up around the country are “fake.” But a new national poll said the sentiments expressed in the protests are real:

“American voters, by a 55 — 35 percent margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit than it will not act to overhaul the health care system, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. By a similar 57 — 37 percent margin, voters say health care reform should be dropped if it adds ’significantly’ to the deficit.”

A group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, which published a schedule of Congress members’ Town Hall meetings around the country, said the new poll is proof that the protests are not manufactured.

But, as Tompkins noted, many in Congress have a different view of the protests. Here’s a synopsis of a Real Clear Politics article, courtesy of the Daily Beast Cheat Sheet:

A series of town-hall meetings disrupted by anti-reform citizens has Democratic leadership crying foul. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid characterized town-hall dissenters as “loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt” and “throw a monkey wrench into everything.” Both the White House and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi say the dissent is being “manufactured” by political and corporate organizations; Pelosi dismisses town-hall dissent as “astroturf,” or artificially generated faux-grassroots movements. Regardless of their inspiration, however, the citizen protesters mean business: ABC’s Steven Portnoy reports that, at a town-hall event for freshman Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD), the congressman faced an image of himself, hung in effigy, and enraged, booing crowds. Portnoy reports that a visibly unnerved Kratovil “pleaded” with constituents; a Blue Dog Democrat, Kratovil is officially “undecided” on his health-care position. At least one congressman-Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC)-has been forced to forgo the town-hall format after a threat on his life forced staffers to clamp down on public access to the congressman.