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How much more popular would Tea Parties be if not for MSM’s jaundiced narrative?

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A couple of days ago, a college classmate posted Paul Krugman’s angry and dishonest screed against Republican opponents of the recently enacted, unpopular health care overhaul.  Last night at Seder, a woman, unaware of my political leanings, talked about the extremist Tea Party folk.

Both are sensible folk, the former slightly to the left of center, the other more in the liberal mainstream.  Neither a foam-at-the-mouth left-wing activist, regularly spouting venom at Republicans and others on the right.

Yet, each, while well-informed on the issues of the day, has a jaundiced view of the Tea Party phenomenon.  This has little to do with the reality of said phenomenon, but with the coverage these protests have received in the media.  Even as the mainstream media are losing their audience, they still have some sway over public opinion.

At the same time the three broadcast networks and major East Coast dailies trumpet stories of right-wing extremists and “report” unsubstantiated allegations of racist behavior at Tea Party protests, they downplay or downright ignore evidence of similar behavior on the left.  Today, for example, Jim Hoft observes that while Code Pink radicals shut down a Karl Rove book signing in Beverly Hills, the national media are silent.  This event was covered only by local media.

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds alerts us to their ignorance of other stories at odds with their narrative:

AFTER COVERING BOGUS “THREAT” STORIES LAST WEEK, ABC and CBS Skip Arrest of Man Targeting GOP’s Cantor. It’s all about the narrative. Besides, if they’d covered it, they might have slipped up and mentioned that he was a two-time Obama donor.

And yet, despite the press’s full-court press to demonize the Tea Parties, a majority of Americans believe Tea Parties are more in touch with reality than Congress.

Can you imagine what those numbers would be like if the media covered the Tea Parties more fairly and instead of focusing on their most extreme elements focused on the shared ideas and diverse backgrounds of the protesters?  And if instead of running with wild allegations from the movement’s critics, actually investigated them before reporting?

Comments

  1. Liberals are society “fixers” and they see government as the structure to do the fixing.

    Conservatives know that society has to have guardrails, infrastructure, protection and fundamental organization.

    The TEA party people want less government intrusion, sane taxation and open accounting for tax dollars spent. That neither feeds the liberal’s imagination nor his basic belief system. The liberals see these TEA party people as alien crazies who want to travel in reverse and are motivated by gaining the power to scold people.

    I listened to Howard Fineman circle around and try to figure our the mysterious cult that is the TEA party. I believe him. He truly “doesn’t get it” and to think outside of the socialist box is impossible for him.

    TEA party people and conservatives look at the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the belief system that motivated the founders and they see a perfect road map and operating system. Liberals see it all as something from which to digress.

    I am not certain that liberals can understand the concept of Constitutional government with any more clarity than a TEA party person or conservative can understand the fundamental transformative scheme motivated by socialism.

  2. There’s an old story that talks about the guy that believes his own press clippings. In the case of the media they not only write the stuff they believe it with a passion that would make the most religious types blush. They who build an idol on the sand……

  3. There are only a handful of liberals out there who DON”T spout hateful speech about Republicans.
    The kindest most mild mannered person who, ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’, will come out and say the nastiest things about Republicans and of course any teapartier is the devil incarnate.

    When I from time to time meet an open minded liberal I find myself quite shocked. It doesn’t happen often these days.

  4. I remember the old school liberals who encouraged the publics participation in current events and politics. Get involved, be a part of history, speak truth to power, the govenment will listen to the people.
    Now the Democrat liberals are just corrupt crooks who have much disdain for regular people. The revolution has begun and the majority will be heard in November. VA NJ MA were not mistakes, but a rolling tide.

  5. OMG! Just watched Alan Colmes on O’Reilly say that any opposition to Obama is racist. He had nothing to back up his statements, just racism. How can any discussion continue after the race card is played. It certainly stopped the discussion on the show. I know its intentional, but how do we overcome the race baiting strategy and further the discussion?

  7. #6: It’s disappointing that Colmes would resort to the cheap trick.

    When someone plays the race card, I stop taking them seriously. The race card demonstrates to me that they 1) have no substantive argument and 2) are utterly lacking in creativity (how original is it to yell “racist”?).

    When someone in a debate coughs up the race card, his/her interlocutors need to just shake their heads, get up, and walk away.

  8. MFS – that video is infuriating. The media repeats the same lies over and over – with no shame whatsoever. At least the shills at the Soviet-era Pravda had a good reason to parrot the party line.

    Has anyone met Andrew Breitbart’s challenge to produce one scintilla of evidence to back up the charges that protestors called John Lewis a n-word of Barney Frank a fag?

  11. Uhm – gillie – have you no memory?

    There are wingnuts in every movement – we have ours and you have yours (and there are many – some of whom have their own TV shows).

    You know what? To hell with it. Debating fools is a waste of time.

  12. And let’s not forget that the lilly white a-holes at PMSNBC found a black man to be a raaaaacist!.

    Images like the above and others are the pattern of hate and bigotry that the media sees and reports.

    “Congress = Slave Owner” and “Tax payers = (sic)Nigger”

    Where’s the bigotry, again? Furthermore, what “others”?

  13. The media is frustrated by the Tea Party because they really don’t know how to control public perception of it. In the first round, the MSM ignored it, and the Tea Party won. In round two, they confronted it directly and with an uncharacteristic lack of guile, sending gibbering reporters down into the crowd to insult the “baggers” in person. Round two: Tea Party. In round three, the media has finally settled on a strategy: marginalization. Only time will tell if they’re successful.

  14. Here is what the radical, activist media are attempting to do to the Tea Party:

    RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy.

    Straight outta Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

    They are not journalists, they are propagandists.

    $100,000 for anyone who can back up the lying Democrats false accusations with video proof. Shouldnt be hard since the Democrats themselves were filming the event with several cameras — yet no one can provide the evidence for their BASELESS claim.

    They are liars. John Lewis is a liar.

  15. #10: The media reports? Since when is Charles Johnson the media?

    For those who don’t like to give LGF any traffic, it’s a photo of a tea-partier in February of 2009(!) Near as I can guess, he’s trying to make a point about “The Road to Serfdom” using American instead of European history. But, who can even tell with the spelling errors and everything?

    You’ll note that the handmade sign calls himself the n-word. Tacky? You bet. Which would be why he was ejected from the event as reported by Dave Weigel. A gold star is due for the Houston Tea Parties who point out that – contra Johnson – the man is not a “Tea Party Leader” just a guy with a URL.

    So, we’re left with a lone man who exposed himself as tone-deaf more than a year ago and was shunned for it. Is this a pattern of hate? Or is this a genuine grassroots movement handling a prickly situation in an adult manner?

    But lacking the storied history of leftist protest, perhaps I don’t have a sense of perspective on these things.

    Best wishes,
    -MFS

  17. That LGF pic isn’t actually of a “Tea Partier”… he’s some crank who ginned up attention by claiming to be a “Tea Party Leader” but was called out by people who, you know, are actually in the Tea Parties.

    As for the media’s jaundiced narrative… not sure it matters. Obama’s biggest problem, according to him, is that “four times as many people watch FOX as watch CNN.”

    Indeed.

  19. GayPatriots:

    I doubt you went to the Charles Johnson link gillie laid on us. For shame! Here is the whole thing in a nutshell:

    You may remember Dale Robertson, because in January we posted this picture of him at the February 27, 2009 Houston Tea Party — wearing a cap declaring himself a “Man of Faith,” while carrying a sign containing a racist slur.

    Get it? Charles Johnson has ONE picture which is over a year old and he has chosen to re-run it as …………

    Being Charles Johnson, his biggest hang up is the man’s hat.

    Being gillie, this sorry bit of web “proof” from one of the web’s sickest puppies is holy writ.

    gillie, have you no shame ……. or do you play at the top of your game?

  20. I don’t need to have the media tell me you guys are a bunch of pants-sh*tting toddlers, you’ve been this way for far longer than Obama’s been President abd before you started throwing these public hissy fits. Your criticisms of 0Bama are as over-the-top and incoherent as were your reflective defenses for Bush. There isn’t anything special about the tea party movement, you’re just the whiniest part of what remains of the GOP. Is there a single difference between the teabaggers of today and the war cheerleaders of 2003? You’re a slobbering, screaming horde that goes around yelling at whatever your masters command you to.

    The media is actually helping you guys out – at least they’re recognizing your band change and calling you tea-partiers instead of ‘same old sore loser Republicans.’

  21. I don’t need to have the media tell me you guys are a bunch of pants-sh*tting toddlers, you’ve been this way for far longer than Obama’s been President abd before you started throwing these public hissy fits. Your criticisms of 0Bama are as over-the-top and incoherent as were your reflective defenses for Bush. There isn’t anything special about the tea party movement, you’re just the whiniest part of what remains of the GOP. Is there a single difference between the teabaggers of today and the war cheerleaders of 2003? You’re a slobbering, screaming horde that goes around yelling at whatever your masters command you to.

    Speaking of hissy fits, Levi should wear a bib to soak up his sputtering spittle.

    Levi, take two aspirin and call us on Thursday. The bill is in the mail. Also, suck a lemon drop. (No charge.)

  24. Last year on April 15 we turned out 3500-4000 people in a small park in Pleasanton California for a tea party. This year’s even has been moved to the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, with an expected crowd of 25,000 to 40,000. Can you hear us yet OBAMA, PELOSI, REID and MCNERNEY?