| By Michael Ditto - Apr 13th, 2009 at 11:17 pm EDT |
Categories: Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights, Budget Priorities
Noxious talk show host Glenn Beck and his odious cronies at Faux News would like you to believe that these "protests" springing up across the nation are entirely spontaneous occurrences from the grassroots, just fed and watered a bit by Beck.
That's so transparently false that it's amazing any respectable news outlet would cover these things with anything more than the scorn and derision that they deserve.
Case in point, examine a selection of e-mails that have come into my inbox over the past several months hyping their little tea-tantrums... just the subject lines and authors, or this post would be ten miles long.
RSC Update: Monday April 13, 2009
From: Straessle, Brian [(Republcan Study Committee, U.S. House of Representatives), Rush Limbaugh, Chair]Taxpayer Tea Parties Sweeping the Nation
From: Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity [Coal industry, chair]What would your kids say...
From: Erik Telford, Americans for Prosperity [See above, also mentions that Heritage Foundation is cosponsoring, military-industrial complex, chair]Action Alert: Help Defend the Tea Parties!
From: Americans for Limited Government [Right-wing big-business slush fund]
Sent: Thu 4/09/09 11:56 AMWhat you need to know about our national debt but were afraid to ask
From: Donald E. Wildmon, American Family Association [center of the anti-gay universe]One-third of the new budget, or $1.2 trillion, is deficit spending
From: Don Wildmon, American Family Association
Sent: Fri 4/03/09A Way To Lead America Out
From: Offers From AFA [selling "tea party merchandise"]
Sent: Sat 3/28/09Obama's budget out of control
From: AFA Action Alert
Sent: Mon 3/23/09Protests urged over wasteful gov't spending
From: Onenewsnow EditorSent: Fri 3/20/09
Please support TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party day, April 15
From: AFA Action Alert
Sent: Fri 3/20/09Please support TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party day, April 15
From: AFA Action Alert
Sent: Wed 3/18/09Stimulus 2.0, Earmarks, and Taxes from Pelosi/Obama
From: Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
Sent: Fri 3/06/09
That's just a few from my inbox. Are you detecting a theme? Other people are following this corporate lobbyist-led astroturf operation as well. Check out Save the Rich.
Comments are closed for this post.
Perhaps we're seeing another sign of the demise of investigative journalism. There doesn't seem to be a prominent news organization capable of, or willing to (i.e., can see a boost in profit), dig into this farce.
In the end all I expect is another spectacle of conservative behaving badly. We certainly saw enough of that in last summer's counter-protests.
"Tea Party Day" has as much grassroots authenticity as Howdy Doody had self-determination.
So they sow a bunch of faux outrage to make it look like they have a movement, and then they change the media coverage to make it look like people really wanted MORE Bush.
You may thing media coverage doesn't matter, but it does. There are 535 members of Congress, most of whom don't have the funds to do scientific polling on a daily basis until election season to find out if they're doing what people want. They can't trust the phone calls and letters they get, because 99% of those are astroturf. They can't trust what the lobbyists tell them. So the only place left is the media and what the media says about what people are saying and thinking.
Coverage counts.