CNN Cowers, Afraid of Tea Party Critics

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/4/8/11366/04712

CNN Cowers, Afraid of Tea Party Critics

by Steven D
Thu Apr 8th, 2010 at 11:36:06 AM EST


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.

snip//

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.

[EXneoCON]

1. Right on the money!

+1! To borrow a much-used phrase of late, we are losing the "Hearts and Minds" of the people. If you don't believe my use of this tactical/strategic phrase appropriate, think again. If you don't believe that a significant segment of the population considers themselves under siege, buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride unless the decent folk of this country rise up, denounce the corporatists and fascists that have instilled such hate in our brothers and sisters, and put a stop to this lunacy.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RKP5637]

3. CNN = Crappy News Network n/t

[blogslut]

4. What if the corporations funded a revolution

...and only the suckers came?

[Papa Boule]

5. I've forgotten which election it was when the media became afraid of and deferent to the right

I can't remember the specific election. But it was a night of blanched faces, when the media was stunned and realized Limbaugh and "flyover country" (they used that term a lot) were a political force.

Since that time, the moderates who had gathered to Limbaugh's movement and gave it its voting power realized what he and it was, and abandoned it.

What remains is an ideologically purified, extremist, thin-skinned, easily duped, bullying minority.

But the media's fear of and deference to that group remains. It became their habit, somehow. Maybe it's actually a fear of Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, right wing bloggers, etc., and their ability to stir shit up within their minority, more than a fear of the minority itself.

I'm just trying to remember which election night was the turning point.

Incidentally, it only takes one bully to terrorize and intimidate a whole playground. A bullying, threatening, tantrum-throwing minority can intimidate and silence the majority, once the majority gets drawn into a pattern of increasingly giving ground for the sake of appeasement. It has been done before.

[Supersedeas]

6. Cowers into a fighting stance to advocate for and become the campaign arm of the

Tea Party