Comments on: Two Protests Each Attract 4,000–Only One Makes MSM

By: Peter Hughes

Peter Hughes — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:47:07 +0000

#14 – Now that was a total PWN of the Nutty Yankee. You go, Dan!

Regards,
Peter H.

By: The Livewire

The Livewire — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:53:35 +0000

Dan,

Who are you going to believe? bnl or your own lying eyes!

By: GayPatriotWest

GayPatriotWest — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:44:13 +0000

buckeyenutlover, wow, you’re so committed to smearing things that you’ll make things up. I grew up in Cincinnati. I know Fountain Square. I saw the pictures. Based on crowds I had seen there, I guessed 5-6,000. But, I used not the Enquirer’s estimate, but the police estimate. So, I used the lower number.

The pictures are on the web. And they show a pretty substantial crowd.

By: buckeyenutlover

buckeyenutlover — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:04:20 +0000

i was at the cincy tea party, and the crowd was tremendously smaller than 4k…probably more in the 500 -600 range. note: the cincy enquirer is decidedly conservative and promoted the event for several days leading up to it.

By: bazasho

bazasho — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:12:51 +0000

Let’s see how much coverage the tax day tea parties get….

By: ThatGayConservative

ThatGayConservative — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:16:13 +0000

They are intoxicated by all things that are not your average American.

Unless their ACORN or union “average Americans” who fall for Chairman Obama’s bullshit and threaten/harass private citizens. In that case, they’re representatives of ALL Americans.

By: Ignatius

Ignatius — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:16:01 +0000

The tea parties need to hire Palin.

By: V the K

V the K — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:29:46 +0000

Best. Sarcastic. Headline. Evah!

By: HCN

HCN — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:08:37 +0000

SDN – In today’s litigious environment and the fact we don’t really want to go there, I suggest that we don’t tar and feather anyone. Instead, let’s use another sticky substance (Maple Syrup, etc) that doesn’t require it to be heated to be used. Also, much safer for the tar & featherer. Maybe Syrup and Tea leaves, that would be cool too.

By: The double standard of media covering protests | A Soft Answer

The double standard of media covering protests | A Soft Answer — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:02:15 +0000

[...] you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!The double standard of media covering protests. Again, nothing shocking but it’s one of the more egregious examples that has long bothered [...]

By: Scottland

Scottland — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:44:11 +0000

I think it’s a bit of a critical mass thing, really. Think about it, the tea parties attract a lot of people, but they’re very diffuse, they’re attracting local media outlets and forging a grassroots network based around an anti-tax initiative. It’s the ghost of Howard Jarvis! Very interesting topic, but it is not figuring as dramatically in the public discourse, yet.

As for the G-20 protests, check this report:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aswd_sAnCbLA&refer=uk

Its the 28th march, 4 days before the report you linked to, and there were 12-15 thousand in that particular protest. As populist anger flashpoints go, for a single place to be attracting thousands of people over a 4 or 5 day period outranks a tea party. The interest will pass, and adjustments to the narrative of the G-20 event will be made. The tea party phenomena will probably endure longer than these particular protests will, pending some sort of police overreaction and (more) people dying.

By: heliotrope

heliotrope — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:53:23 +0000

Certainly the tea party theme is far to complex and nuanced for the MSM to figure out. Perhaps the participants should all ride bicycles in the nude and carry signs reading: “Don’t Stimulate Me!”

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:45:34 +0000

Man I gotsta’ represent Orlando. Orlando Sentinel reported there were 4200 people so that would make me think there was probably about 5,000+

I was there .

Good job on doing the comparison contrast. Another reason is that the elites of the USA dismiss the everyday person here. They are intoxicated by all things that are not your average American.

By: Houndentenor

Houndentenor — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:45:26 +0000

I think the answer to this puzzle is rather obvious. The international press corps is all at the G20. However, closed door meetings are pretty boring stuff to cover for television, so they went to the most dramatic pictures which are the protests. And moreover they focus on the handful of violent protesters.

Maybe these “tea party” protesters should have headed to London?

The sad truth is that the MSM are lazy and kind of dumb. The story needs to be prepackaged for them and you need to be able to explain everything in 10 words or less.

By: HatlessHessian

HatlessHessian — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:28:56 +0000

When I was a foolish journalism intern for the Omaha metro’s second largest paper (now owned by the largest), I was sent out on an assignment called Street Beat to get the “perspective of the common man out on the street.” They gave that to the lowest flunky since it was as much fun as shaving the leg hair of bagladies. Usually work like this:

boss: Ed gave me the new Street topic. How do you feel about the proposed sign height ordinance the city council is reviewing.

me: Umm… you do realize the few souls I can track down in the Center Pointe mall that actually still shop and will answer my question and let me get a mug shot don’t care about sign laws?

boss: Oh good point. Big Ed told Little Ed that it has to be against the ordinance. Let one or two be for it or better yet, stupid fool answers, but keep asking until you get five or six against the ordinance. Big Ed owns a muffler shop on Main he doesn’t want to have to pay to change his sign.

And so I’d be thrown out there creating fiction, seeking my 5-6 people against the ordinance to get a quote and a mugshot, and 1-2 to say something for it but acting really stupid. The point was to make them come across as blathering fools you wouldn’t want to identify with. Then the newspaper created the news, the council would feel like the public was against them, and Ed and the newspaper’s special friends would pocket the money. Big Media is nothing more than a collection of special interests that manufacturer news that reflects what profits them most. Our #1 daily is no different, nor would I expect those that cover the London Protests yet don’t spend a word on the domestic tax rebellions.

Which makes it ok, I guess, when the tax rebellion expands and radicalizes. If they don’t enact modest reforms now, the balance comes due later with great interest.

By: SDN

SDN — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:14:14 +0000

We’ve been seeing for years with Islam that violence works. After all, no one is concerned with Tibet because the likelihood of Buddhist suicide bombers in your local pizzeria is pretty low compared with Pali splodeydopes.

Maybe it’s time for the Tea Parties to get back to the tactics used by the original partyer: I’m sure that if a few reporters and politicians were dipped in boiling tar and rolled in feathers that attention would be paid. Of course, that isn’t as likely to be fatal as it was in the days before burn units, but you can’t have everything…….

There’s a real tendency for people to sugarcoat the tactics used by the Founders; to suggest that they were somehow less violent and radical than the French Revolution. Bullshit. The difference between the French and American Revolutions was in strategic goals, not in tactics.