protest = 'demonstrate in public to draw attention to'

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 2, 2010, at 3:05 PM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
> _All Things Considered_ reported this evening on about 36 teenagers
> who were
> chanting "We need jobs!" outside a municipal agency.
>
> According to the highly paid journalist-narrator, they were
> "protesting the
> need for jobs."

this appears to be "protest" 'protest about' -- yet anoth
transitivizing P-drop, in addition to "protest" 'protest against'.
there might also be some contribution from "protest" + clause, in
examples like "They protested that the noise was
unbearable" (abbreviated as "They protested the noise").

>
> Kind of like Mrs. McCain becoming an "advocate for" migraines.

this looks to me like a very different sort of example.

arnold

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