By Brigitte L. Nacos
Tax Day was a big day for the so-called tea party and its
creators and champions. With the exception of Representative Michele Bachmann
(R-Minnesota) and other hard-core right-wingers the tea partiers displayed a
much gentler face than during the angry confrontations they sought in town hall
meetings at the height of the health care reform debates. This is how Jessica
Jellin reported on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer from the
“Right now, Wolf, we're listening to the hip-hop sounds of the Tea Party rapper Hi-Caliber. And, as you can tell, this is a very calm crowd, a happy crowd. There's a lot made of some of the anger and upset during the protests during the health care bill's passage, very different kind of mood here, polite folks who are just here protesting the fact that there are, in their words, just too many taxes.”
Obviously, Congresswoman Bachmann did not stay on message to display a gentler face of the movement she promotes and, in some observers views, leads. As reported in the same CNN program, Bachmann unleashed another of her frequent outrageous outbursts.“We're on to this gangster government, and we are not going to let them have their way. They don't get to take over any more of our economy. We're done with that game. We're done,” she said. “And I say it's time for these little piggies to go home.”
It seems Representative Bachmann is unaware that the “gangster government” includes the Congress in which she serves and that therefore she is one of the “little piggies” that she says need to go home. Blitzer did not set her straight on this and merely mustered a benign comment: “That is pretty colorful language, I should say….” His guest Alex Castallanos, a Republican strategist, justified Bachmann’s remark and threw in a government-mafia connection. “She's referring to a government that right now -- on all levels -- takes over 40 percent, nearly 50 percent of a country's wealth, of the money we all work for… Not even John Gotti took that much money from people. So that's what she's talking about the gangster government.”
Never mind that Fox News and the network’s stars Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck were involved in the creation of tea party protests and strive on what continues to be a symbiotic relationship, most of the rest of the news media were from the beginning and continue to be compliant propaganda vehicles for what is in reality the tea party wing of the Republican Party.
Ironically, the Sarah Palins and Michele Bachmann’s of the right-wing movement attack the mainstream media on every occasion as being in bed with what they describe in various ways as the unconstitutional, un-American, socialist or communist or fascist president and his supporters. But deep down even Sara and Michele must understand by now that all of the organizations that offer news and infotainment today are their best helpers in stirring the anger that comes along with economic downturns as serious as the current legacy of the Bush years.
Reporting on grass root protests is one thing; over-covering a creation of special interests in their fight against sensible health care reform is another. Even a cursory content news analysis since the beginning of this month attests to the media’s overblown attention to the tea party and its champions that results, as organizers have happily acknowledged, in free media. The table below shows the number of articles in the New York Times and Washington Post and stories in the major TV-networks that were about or mentioned the tea party, Sarah Palin, and/or Michele Bachmann:
|
Tea Party |
Sarah Palin |
Michelle Bachmann |
NY Times |
37 |
22 |
6 |
|
43 |
25 |
8 |
ABC News |
9 |
23 |
- |
CBS News |
15 |
19 |
- |
NBC News |
14 |
16 |
1 |
CNN |
39 |
31 |
11 |
Fox |
107 |
67 |
17 |
MSNBC |
44 |
42 |
23 |
To be sure, not all coverage is benign. Whereas Fox is at minimum the cheerleader-in-chief here, MSNBC’s political prime time talk is most critical and looks for the truth behind the often untruthful statements from these circles. But whatever the approach, the mere fact that the tea party--not really a party but a drummed up wing within the Republican Party—and its female champions receive an extraordinary amount of media attention is a continuous boost for their roles. Even considering that Sarah Palin was the first vice presidential candidate of her party and knows to ride the publicity train does not explain, forget justify, the media attention she gets day-in and day-out.
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