Politics
Network Tea Party Coverage a 'Travesty'
Around the State
America's broadcast television networks brand the Tea Party movement as an insignificant assortment of cranks and reactionaries. Members are also portrayed -- when they're covered at all -- as tools for self-serving corporate interests and racists dragooned by the Republican Party.
Those are among the conclusions of a Media Research Center study, which tracked network coverage of the Tea Party movement since it burst onto the political scene a year ago.
Reviewing every mention of the Tea Party on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening newscasts, Sunday talk shows and ABC’s "Nightline" from Feb. 19, 2009 (when CNBC contributor Rick Santelli first suggested throwing a “Tea Party” to protest government takeovers) through March 31, 2010, MRC researchers found:
- ABC, CBS and NBC aired 61 stories or segments on Tea Parties. Another 141 items included brief references to the movement.
- After broadcasting 19 stories in 2009, the level of coverage increased in the wake of independent Scott Brown’s upset victory in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.
- Network reporters were "dismissive" of the first Tea Party events in 2009. “There’s been some grassroots conservatives who have organized so-called Tea Parties around the country,” NBC’s Chuck Todd noted on the April 15, 2009 "Today" show. "The idea hasn’t really caught on.”
- After the Sept. 12 rallies, the networks suggested the Tea Party was an extreme or racist putsch. On CBS, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer decried the “angry” and “nasty” Capitol Hill rally.
Bad press may be preferable to no press, the MRC study says.
"Coverage is piddling compared to that lavished on protests serving liberal objectives," stated the MRC report. "The Nation of Islam’s 'Million Man March' in 1995, for example, was featured in 21 evening news stories on just the night of that march — more than the Tea Party received in all of 2009.
"The anti-gun 'Million Mom March' in 2000 was preceded by 41 broadcast network reports heralding its message, including a dozen positive pre-march interviews with organizers and participants, a favor the networks never granted the Tea Party."
In Florida, the Tea Party movement has been anything but predictable or unified. Groups in the state have splintered -- and even sued each other -- over the right to use the name.
And while the national media have attempted to portray Tea Parties as a GOP subsidiary, Tea Partiers in Florida have not moved in lockstep.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Paula Dockery -- who has pointedly criticized the state's GOP leadership -- is supported by some Tea Party factions, but opposed by others.
GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio -- who campaigns as a rock-ribbed, anti-tax conservative -- has not been universally endorsed by local Tea Party organizations.
"There's wide disparity in interests and agendas," said Karl Zimmermann, a board member of the Indian River County Tea Party. Despite those differences, negativity remains "the mainstream media's attitude toward most conservatives," he observed.
Doug Guetzloe, consultant to the Florida Tea Party, said the report "confirms what all Tea Party supporters have seen for themselves -- the wide disparity between the truth and what appears in the liberal media.
"When we attend a Tea Party, we know for a fact the reality of that event. When we watch the same event on the evening news, every network, except for Fox, appears to be at an event in a parallel universe -- not reporting the reality of the event, but creating images to match their socialist agenda."
News pundits defended the networks' overall coverage and characterization of the Tea Party movement.
Blogging on the Washington Post Web site, David Weigel wrote:
Comments (3)
The amazing aspect to blogging and commenting is that anyone can say anything without any foundation.
As for my 'tea party activism,' my Ax the Tax group was having tea parties 20 years ago. There is photo of one on our website intro at www.AxTheTax.org. In addition to that, I am the Co-Chair of the Central Florida Tea Party (over 160 members on Facebook) and I've attended every tea party in Orlando area for over a year. I was the keynote speaker at the Tallahassee Tea Party on the steps of the Old Capitol last December -- which can be seen at the Florida Tea Party site www.FloridaTeaParty.us.
I have never worked professionally for a Democrat candidate for office -- certainly not for Mr. Grayson -- since his reports are public record that would be very easy to validate. The TEA party has also just launched the www.DefeatGraysonNow.com website to raise funds to defeat Grayson. Most reasonable people would clearly notice the "anti-Grayson" theme and probably conclude that "stopping Grayson" would not help Grayson.
As a tea party activist and advisor to the Florida Tea Party, I am reluctant to put too much emphasis on anonymous blog entries that seek to disrupt those who support tea party values and tea party candidates. Most likely, an infiltrator, since every single comment can be disputed with original source documentation.
The Obama administration has a Goldman Sachs Treasury secretary, wants to outsource space ventures to private concerns, and mine accidents keep happening even as Congress, the White House and regulatory agencies are "run" by Democrats.
Corporate control remains intact, using the "two-party" system to give the masses the illusion of "choice" while politically connected plutocrats loot the public till. (Remember those bailouts? That's the very definition of fascism.)