E.J. Dionne has a good column in the Washington Post today (4/19/10) looking at the Tea Party movement, and pinning a fair amount of blame on the press: “The news media’s incessant focus on the Tea Party is creating a badly distorted picture of what most Americans think and is warping our policy debates.” Looking at the most recent poll of Tea Party supporters, Dionne concludes that racism is clearly a factor in motivating many of these activists.
And he makes this point:
This must be the first “populist” movement driven by a television network: Sixty-three percent of the Tea Party folks say they most watch Fox News “for information about politics and current events,” compared with 23 percent of the country as a whole.
The right-wing fifth of America deserves news coverage like everyone else, and Fox is perfectly free to pander to its viewers. What makes no sense is allowing a sliver of opinion to dominate the media and distort our political discourse.
I was not a Bush supporter…but there does seem to be a double standard when it comes to MSM reporting protests.
Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621
Barb: Where have you heard of death threats against Bush? I think if that was generally known at the time of his presidency the media would’ve been on it like a goose on a June bug.
Maybe Barb, but with the Tea Party the support for violent rhetoric and sympathy toward domestic terrorists is more mainstream with the Republicans (Steve King, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty) than it ever was with Democrats. There weren’t a lot of Bush protestors brandishing weapons at rallies, either.
Of course, this is besides the point of the article – which is about how views of the Tea Party are both influenced by Right-wing media, and again amplified by mainstream media so that, for instance, the argument about Health Care is not so much – “What do you think should be done about health care in the U.S.?” but is framed “Do you agree with the Tea Partiers that Obamacare will bankrupt the nation and crush our freedom”?
I do believe the word we’re looking for here is ASTROTURF!
In the free marketplace of ideas, money can often win the argument. There has been a flood of it from bank bailouts, health insurance proceeds, wealthy ‘conservatives’, oil companies and other corporations. Lobbyists handle massive amounts. The Chamber of Commerce can funnel it to media to hide the actual source and a lot goes to Rupert Murdoch’s minions.
Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich are highly paid Fox News political analysts. So are Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity. These are the people that initiated and nurtured the tea party movement. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, has all of them on his payroll.
Given Murdoch’s role, it is no surprise that the tea party message is corporate. Denying global warming is good for oil companies, opposing health care reform benefits insurance companies and pharma, blocking renewed regulation of the financial sector satisfies banks and sets the stage for another even worse collapse of the economy, privatization removes activities from public oversight, deficit mongering that leads to cuts in government spending could devastate the economy. (Economists like Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman and James Galbraith opine that the stimulus was much too small and that, given the amount of joblessness, more is needed.) This is not time to balance the Federal Budget. If tea partiers have their way, we are in for much worse.
more at http://www.seconnecticut.com/TeaParty.htm
Teabaggers are Republicans AND Democrats (who want to be on television). I say, FOX ought to be “fair and balanced” and give the station over to them full time. Moderate improvement in FOX’s bias, more speaking power to the little guy.
As MediaMatters points out:
Media Matters: Fox News’ ever-expanding ethics nightmare
April 23, 2010 6:33 pm ET
Another week, another handful of ethical scandals that should permanently sink Fox’s claim of being a legitimate news organization.
To recap: Last week, they gave us twin scandals starring Fox News stalwarts Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity. “Furious” Fox News execs pulled Sean Hannity from his planned show filming/fundraiser for the Cincinnati Tea Party after numerous news veterans and watchdogs called foul.
O’Reilly spent last week reminding us of his willful ignorance by repeatedly falsely asserting that “no one” on Fox promoted the falsehood that “jail time” was a penalty for not buying insurance under the health care reform bill. He was outrageously wrong.
Though Howard Kurtz reported that Fox plans to “keep a tighter rein on Hannity and others” in the wake of the tea party scandal, we remain skeptical. Fox has a long history of promising change in the wake of damaging ethics scandals, then failing to deliver on those promises.
Indeed, despite cancelling Hannity’s tea party event, Fox News has yet to cancel a planned appearance by Fox Business host John Stossel at a paid event for a nonprofit organization with very close ties to the energy industry. If history is any indicator, Fox will hold its breath and hope that everyone forgets about the Stossel fundraiser.
Of course, this being Fox News, Stossel’s planned fundraiser wasn’t even the cable channel’s biggest ethics scandal this week.
While a great deal of attention has deservedly been given to Rupert Murdoch’s statement that Fox News “shouldn’t be promoting the tea party,” the rest of his comment — “or any other party” — is equally notable. So, how’s Fox’s supposedly frowned-upon promotion of that “other party” — the GOP — going? In a word: lucratively.
As we detailed last week, Fox News hosts and contributors have raised millions of dollars for Republican candidates and causes using PACs, 527s, and 501(c)(4) organizations.
In a follow-up report this week, we detailed the massive scope of Fox’s fundraising for the GOP:
In recent years, at least twenty Fox News personalities have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or causes, or against Democratic candidates or causes, in more than 300 instances and in at least 49 states. Republican parties and officials have routinely touted these personalities’ affiliations with Fox News to sell and promote their events.
In their defense, they did miss Wyoming.
Were Fox an actual news organization that cared about journalistic standards, all of these ethics scandals would be excellent fodder for its weekly media criticism show, Fox News Watch. Unfortunately, as we noted last weekend, they ignored the O’Reilly and Hannity scandals in favor of such pressing stories as media coverage of the new Oprah bio. Forthcoming coverage of the Fox Newsers’ fundraising seems unlikely.
Media Matters reporter and senior editor Joe Strupp pointed out that while Fox News Watch was once a source of legitimate media criticism, the show has increasingly transformed into yet another megaphone for GOP talking points. Strupp quoted former Fox News Watch host Eric Burns (no relation to Media Matters President Eric Burns) saying: “The show was getting to be more and more of a struggle to do fairly. There was a progression of interference to try to make the show more right-wing. I fought very hard against it.”
As Media Matters President Eric Burns pointed out on MSNBC this week, “When you have a famed, well known Republican hitman — Roger Ailes — running a news network, this is what you’re going to get.”
Fox News has a slightly different take, however. As Fox News Watch put it in the promo for its segment on Ailes’ new ratings high, “Fairness plus balance equals success.”
Take note, CNN.
And Fox panders to the racist elements among its viewers with how it covers things like the draconian and fascist Arizona law on racial profiling:
Numerous Fox Newsers embrace and defend racial profiling aspect of AZ immigration law
April 24, 2010 5:15 pm ET
In recent days, numerous Fox News personalities have voiced support for Arizona’s new controversial immigration law that requires law enforcement to demand immigration papers of those they suspect to be in the country illegally, which many argue will lead to racial profiling. In doing so, these Fox News figures have embraced and defended the law, including the potential for racial profiling, by arguing, among other things, that “people may have to endure some inconvenience.”
Law and “racial profiling … will go hand in hand”
Arizona Republic: Law “will require anyone whom police suspect of being in the country illegally to produce” immigration documents. An April 24 Arizona Republic article reported:
Arizona’s immigration law, now considered the toughest in the nation, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires local police to enforce federal immigration laws. It will require anyone whom police suspect of being in the country illegally to produce “an alien registration document,” such as a green card or other proof of citizenship, such as a passport or Arizona driver’s license.
It also makes it illegal to impede the flow of traffic by picking up day laborers for work. A day laborer who gets picked up for work, and traffic is impeded in the process, would also be committing a criminal act.
NY Times: “Opponents have called it an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics.” As the New York Times noted on April 24: “Opponents have called it an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics regardless of their citizenship status.” The Times added: “It requires police officers, ‘when practicable,’ to detain people they reasonably suspect are in the country without authorization and to verify their status with federal officials, unless doing so would hinder an investigation or emergency medical treatment.”
Arizona Daily Star: “Racial profiling, SB 1070 will go hand in hand.” The Arizona Daily Star wrote in an April 16 editorial that the bill “would turn legal residents into police targets, as well as those who are here illegally. It would foment racial profiling of Hispanics. … Civil libertarians and immigrant-rights groups say the Arizona bill will spur racial profiling. We agree, and we doubt that many of its provisions are constitutional.
To Barb: Every leader in every country in the world since the beginning of civilization has faced death threats every day he/she has held office and beyond. What was almost completely ignored by the media during the eight years Bush & Co. ran the show were the protests against him. Left-wing bias my ass!
Something fishy is going on. Two-hundred-thousand people show up in Washington to advocate immigration reform, and they get few seconds on the news. The tea partiers get wall to wall coverage from the media no matter what their numbers are.