What if you were a “hypothetical” corporate news organization and a significant group of the population (i.e., the Tea Party movement) was angry with you about the fact that you had told the truth about their angry attitudes and the often disturbing and racist rhetoric of their members that has been repeatedly and openly on display at their rallies, what would you do? Specifically what would your bosses, ever concerned about losing ad revenues, tell you to do?
Well here’s what CNN did do recently in an attempt to assuage the negative response of Tea Partiers to their previous reporting about the movement.
“When it comes to the Tea Party movement, the stereotypes don’t tell the whole story,” CNN’s Shannon Travis writes. “Here’s what you don’t often see. … Patriotic signs professing a love for country; mothers and fathers with their children; African-Americans proudly participating; and senior citizens bopping to a hip-hop rapper.”
Even more startling than this image of wholesome family outings, however, is Travis’s claim that he has seen no signs of racism at the rallies. “There were a few signs that could be seen as offensive to African-Americans,” he writes. “But by and large, no one I spoke with or I heard from on stage said anything that was approaching racist. Almost everyone I met was welcoming to this African-American television news producer.”
Now, anyone who has seen the footage of participants at tea party rallies, from their first attempts to hijack and disrupt Congressional town hall meetings to their most recent ugly, homophobic and racist verbal attacks on members of Congress in the days leading up to the passing of health care reform know this to be a wildly inaccurate portrayal of the behavior of the people who show up at these tea party gatherings. It’s not like they’ve tried to hide the nasty, crazy and hateful side of their supporters. Far from it.
So why is CNN suddenly trying to portray “Tea Party” supporters as good wholesome Americans? Here’s a possible clue:
Dave Weigel, who is now the Washington Post’s resident expert on the right, adds that CNN’s decision has “befuddled the right and left alike. He suggests that CNN is attempting to assuage the anger of the Tea Parties last year when “CNN’s Susan Roesgen became tea party public enemy No. 1 for a combative segment she filmed at an event in Chicago.”
Too bad CNN is afraid to speak the truth. The Tea Party is filled with bigots, white supremacists, confederate flag supporters, and people who feel bringing guns to a political rally is a good idea. Too bad they can’t simply report what they see, rather than try to sugar coat what is becoming a virulent and dangerous reaction against the first African American President in our history. Too bad they don’t have Keith Olbermann’s guts:
Let me ask the Tea Party leaders (whoever they are) these questions. Before their movement came to prominence and received substantial backing from Fox News, were there large scale disruptions at Congressional town hall meetings? Did people go into the street claiming Obama was a fascist or communist or marxist or Muslim terrorist or someone who was establishing a secret civilian police force or wanted to kill old people or hated white people or was going to send conservatives to concentration camps or [insert stupid wild assed right wing conspiracy theory here]? Were Democratic Congressman and Senators and their families receiving death threats and having their offices and relatives homes vandalized over the votes in support of health care reform?
I don’t think so. CNN’s cowardly attempt to walk away from the truth of the Tea Party’s true appeal is one more sad instance that demonstrates our corporate media in this country is easily intimidated by those in the minority who would shut down all voices and all opinions in this country but their own.
Shame on you CNN. I can’t say I expected better from the network that first hired Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs and now employees serial right wing defamation artist and shotgun census worker shooter Erik Erikson, but for the company that claims its the most “Trusted Name in News” this is only more evidence of the hypocrisy of that boast.