Posted by
Bob Siegel on Friday, April 17, 2009 10:53:30 PM
MSNBC commentator, Keith Olbermann (the guy who likes to talk about the bias of Fox News and Talk Radio) featured an objective, expert, insightful commentary on the Tea Parties going on all over America. His guest was none other than comedian and outspoken political activist, Jennine Garafalo.
In her exact words:
"Let's be very honest about what this is about. This is not about bashing Democrats. It's not about taxes. They have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about. They don't know their history at all. It's about hating a black man in the White House."
She must not have watched the same Tea Parties I did. When self righteous, condescending celebrities react to "the extreme Right," they demonstrate something extreme of their own: Extreme arrogance matched step by step with extreme ignorance. The Left just loves to lecture the Right, about being too extreme. "Not everything is black and white," they smugly smile. "There are gray areas. There are subtle nuances to life. Things can be complex. We must not oversimplify."
And yet, the only explanation for the Tea Parties is racism? That's it? She knows this to be true? She knows it for a fact? She can prove it? There couldn't possibly be a different reason for people protesting? Is that somewhat of an extreme reaction on her part? Is this a stereotype? A simplification? An unwillingness to look at nuances beyond A or B?
Gerafalo explodes over what these people "don't know" about the original Boston Tea Party. And what exactly does she know? Does she know that many who voted for Obama were also protesting, fully admitting that they got caught up in the repetitive mantra "change" only to be horrified when the change actually started happening? Does she know that many Democrats attended? Does she know that some of the protesters still like Obama but are concerned about trillion dollar deficits? Does she know some of the Republican participants were speaking out against Bush's overspending as well? She did seem to know that African-Americans were included in the Tea Parties but she dismissed them as having "Stockholm Syndrome." I see. It is impossible, absolutely impossible, that an African-American could protest the policies of an African-American president, or ever be on the side of any conservative idea unless they have been brainwashed like kidnap victims. That wasn't a racist comment at all, was it?
It's not like we didn't come to anticipate such barking long ago from Garafalo and Olbermann (who offered no disagreement). Face it: That kind of race baiting has been going on at MSNBC for a long time. But I must confess to expecting at least a little better from CNN. Unfortunately, they have nothing to brag about either this week. CNN correspondent, Susan Roesgen covered the Chicago Tea Party, making very sure to ignore the sane looking level headed people who talked rather than shouted and whose voices weren't whiny. She approached the kookiest looking sign holders and interviewed them alone, until one of the more rational women actually confronted her over the air about her cherry picking.
Nevertheless, Rosesgen's summary of the event went like so: " I think you get the general tenor of this. It's anti-government, and anti CNN since this is highly promoted by the Right-Wing, Conservative network, Fox. "
Both outright lies, although I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and admit that she may just be a naive person, too lazy to investigate the truth. But then, even such a benefit of the doubt makes us wonder: Shouldn't a news correspondent do a bit of research and actually know what she is talking about before popping off at the mouth?
In fact, the people were not anti- government. They were anti-big government. Anybody who doesn't know the difference doesn't understand the Boston Tea Party but I hope Rosegen doesn't ask Gerafalo for an explanation because I'm not sure she gets it either.
As for Fox News: They are called "Right Wing" only because they allow both the Left and the Right to have their say. Since the Right seldom gets such a chance on the other networks, Fox looks Right-Wing by comparison. Truth be told, not everybody at Fox spoke favorably about these rallies. Yes they covered the event. It was news after all: And yes, they promoted the fact that they were going to cover it. That's called advertising. It's also called originality in-as-much as the other news media seemed to be ignoring the story or downplaying it. These same Doubting Thomas networks were sure to show up every time anti-war protesters reared their energetic heads, even at gatherings of a hundred or less by Code Pink, Cindy Sheehan and the like.
Last week's microscopic, non-newsworthy Tea Parties were held in every single state. True, some were better attended than others, but the Chicago Police department estimated 5,000. Denver also had 5000. 4500 people gathered at the capital of Olympia, Washington. Lansing, Michigan and Oklahoma City had 4000 each. 3000, hit the state capital of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Another 3000 were at Birmingham, Alabama. 3500 protested in Sacramento. 2,000 were in Sarasota, Florida. Columbus, Indiana also had 2000. Yuma, Arizona is not exactly the biggest city in the world. I hear they closed down the library there because somebody checked out the book. But even they had 1500. And Weatherford, Texas is a community of only 25,000 people, yet 3000 people marched toward the court house. I could go on and on but I think you get the point.
CONCLUSION:
Somehow, when word of the event first became known, this was not going to be news to our "unbiased, mainstream media." When it proved itself to be about as newsworthy and dynamic as any public gathering can possibly be, the likes of CNN and MSNBC could no longer dismiss the little party, so they switched to Strategy Two: Insult the event and poke fun at Fox News. Unfortunately for them, Fox News has better ratings than MSNBC and CNN combined. I have a flash for those of you in the mainstream media who look down on Fox. Since you are taking the time to look anyway, you may want to notice that they have become the real mainstream media. It didn't have to happen. It's just that the rest of you forgot your jobs.
Also by Bob Siegel...
When Words Mean Something But the People Who Speak the Words Don't Mean Anything