One of the reason's our nation is divided . . . . . OUR MEDIA HAS TAKEN SIDES !

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS ? NOPE,
now it's:
"THE PRESS IS FREE TO TAKE SIDES AGAINST THE PEOPLE"
If that's the case they should no longer have special protections under the law.

TV's Tea Party Travesty

How ABC, CBS and NBC Have Dismissed and Disparaged the Tea Party Movement

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The Tea Party movement launched one year ago, in response to the unprecedented expansion of government by President Barack Obama and
congressional liberals, a massive increase in spending that will create
economy-crushing fiscal burdens for future generations of taxpayers.

In that relatively brief period, the Tea Party has demonstrated it is a
formidable political force. The pressure the movement brought to bear
at the grassroots level put liberals on the defensive for much of the
health care debate, and nearly succeeded in torpedoing the entire
scheme in spite of Democrats’ overwhelming congressional majorities.
And Tea Party activists proved decisive in a string of electoral
defeats for liberals, culminating in Republican Scott Brown’s victory
in the special election to succeed Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate.

So how have the supposedly objective media covered one of the biggest
political stories in recent years? MRC analysts reviewed every mention
of the Tea Party on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening newscasts,
Sunday talk shows, and ABC’s Nightline from February 19, 2009
(when CNBC contributor Rick Santelli first suggested throwing a “Tea
Party” to protest government takeovers) through March 31, 2010. Among
the major findings:

The networks first attempted to dismiss the Tea Party movement:
■ Given its demonstrated influence, network coverage of the Tea Party has been minuscule. Across all of their major programs, ABC, CBS and
NBC aired a mere 61 stories or segments over a twelve month period,
while another 141 items included brief references to the movement. Most
of that coverage is recent; the networks virtually refused to recognize
the Tea Party in 2009 (just 19 stories), with the level of coverage
increasing only after Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts.

■ Most of the networks’ 2009 coverage was limited to individual Tea Party
rallies: six reports on the April 15, 2009 “tax day” protests, along
with five other brief mentions; just one report on the July 4 rallies;
and six full reports on the September 12 rally on Capitol Hill, plus
eight brief mentions.

■ Such coverage is piddling compared to that lavished on protests serving liberal objectives. 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 (morning, evening,
and Sunday shows) heralding its message, including a dozen positive
pre-march interviews with organizers and participants, a favor the
networks never granted the Tea Party.
■ 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, but “the idea hasn’t really caught on.” On ABC’s World News,
reporter Dan Harris warned viewers that “critics on the Left say this
is not a real grassroots phenomenon at all, that it’s actually largely
orchestrated by people fronting for corporate interests.”

By the fall of 2009, the networks had shifted to disparaging the Tea Party:

■ After the September 12, 2009 rallies, the networks suggested the Tea Party was an extreme or racist movement. On CBS, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer decried the “angry” and “nasty” Capitol Hill rally,
while ABC’s Dan Harris scorned protesters who “waved signs likening
President Obama to Hitler and the devil....Some prominent Obama
supporters are now saying that it paints a picture of an opposition
driven, in part, by a refusal to accept a black President.”

■ Overall, 44 percent of network stories on the Tea Party (27 out of 61)
suggested the movement reflected a fringe or dangerous quality. ABC’s
John Berman was distressed by “a tone of anger and confrontation” he
claimed to find at the Tea Party convention in early February. In
September, NBC’s Brian Williams trumpeted Jimmy Carter’s charge that
the Tea Party was motivated by race: “Signs and images at last
weekend’s big Tea Party march in Washington and at other recent events
have featured racial and other violent themes, and President Carter
today said he is extremely worried by it.”