Fox News’ Promotion Of Tea Parties Shatters Their Credibility
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Media, Partisan Hacks, VideoI’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with Fox News lately because it’s becoming nothing more than a noise machine. Yes, I know they were laughable in the past, but at least they made an effort to appear like they were a news organization. Now there is ZERO doubt that they’re simply a mouthpiece for right wing interests.
Take this segment from Your World with Neil Cavuto where a guest host just flat out says it’s his “duty” to promote the tea parties.
What does one say to this except how can Fox call themselves a news station anymore? Because between this and Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, the channel has become a 24/7 anti-Obama activism machine. It is CRAZY.
What’s more, and as the title suggests, I think they’re actually destroying any credibility the tea parties could hope to have because who’s going to believe that these are actually grass root gatherings? I mean, who does Fox really think they’re fooling? Do they genuinely believe they can snow the rest of the electorate into buying this? Independents are laughing at this.
However, let’s face it, if you really scratch the surface on who’s organizing these events you’ll find a who’s who list of traditional right-wing money folks like Richard Mellon Scaife, etc. So these were never grass roots events in the first place. And, to their credit, it’s not like they’re hiding any of these facts. So good for them for being being transparent, but somebody needs to to tell them they can’t fake the grass roots. Because ultimately it’s nothing more than a glorified media event with no true passion behind it.
And that’s the difference between something like this and the Ron Paul movement last year. That had passion behind it. Ultimately Paul was revealed to be a fairly flawed messenger, but his message still inspired. What message is inspiring the tea party folk? Obama is a socialist? More tax cuts? Again, there’s no “there” there because it wasn’t created by the grass roots. And Fox News covering these events like they’re conservative “love ins” only guarantees that failure will come quicker as the hungry mouth of the right wing media rips away any pretense of authenticity.
So maybe I shouldn’t be frustrated by Fox after all. Because in their hurry to make the tea parties their own, they’re unwittingly destroying them.
Moving on…
This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 and is filed under Bad Decisions, Media, Partisan Hacks, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:55 am
I know a few people organizing tea parties. One group is associated with a longtime volunteer organization that’s been welcoming soldiers from abroad. Another is a state level free market think tank not exactly awash in money. Two others are just being put together by citizens, although some reformist GOP committee people are involved. But they’re the types of people who joined the committee because they thought the current local GOP leadership sucked eggs.
Aside from the think tank– which is just doing it as a part of their regular operations, no special grants or anything– all of these folks have nothing to do with big money.
What you do see, though, with Fox and with the local Republican apparatus, is pre-existing interests trying to ALIGN themselves with activists they were unable to motivate on their own previously.
Many pundits just don’t get this. Those legacy power-brokers are behind the curve. They aren’t driving the bus. To not get this is to really miss an important point.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Pres Obama’s likely to see the most partisan era in history, far more than Clinton era, because the media outlets are increasingly blatant, as you note with Fox News. They rev up the anger 24/7.
Notably Burr-Hamilton dueling to the death clearly still ranks first. However, in that gentleman’s game of ‘honor’, only a few people witnessed the hatred; today, it would be on youtube. Perhaps youtube might serve to mitigate actions since 2 men shooting at fifty paces might look beyond ridiculous.
However, the likelihood of post-partisanship – the heroic term for moderation and independents — seems to be fading fast. Tolerance, respect, ‘walk a mile in my shoes,’ compromise are increasingly overshadowed by ideologies.
Instead, I still look for clearer arguments, in-depth knowledge, contextual understanding, and fairer analysis. Thanks for your moderate even-handedness, Donklephant.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] Also: Tax Freedom Day: 8 days Earlier Than In 2008, The Highjacking Of The Tea Parties, Fox News’ Promotion Of Tea Parties Shatters Their Credibility, Spring fever, Gallup Poll Apparently Says Us Teabaggers Are Out Of Touch (?), Tea Parties and the [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Seems to me to view our current situation as particularly partisan is to succumb to the tyranny of the present.
The Founders dearly hoped their constitutional system would eliminate, or at least mitigate, the influence of “factions”. By the time Washington stepped down that dream was already dust.
Remember the Civil War? Pretty partisan. The New Deal? Despite current hagiography, tremendously partisan. The McCarthy era? Yikes! And don’t let current revisionists tell you any different. Reagan was enormously divisive, and no, everyone did not agree the Soviets merited united opposition.
How about Bush II? His first campaign message was all about getting past traditional partisan divides, and with the prescription drug plan and immigration reform, he actually tried to walk the walk. Not that anyone really noticed.
Fox news wasn’t around for most of the history of the country. To blame them is silly. Besides, compared to the muckrakers and yellow journalists, they’re pussycats. They may be rooting for the tea party folks. Put another way, though, they were way ahead of reporting the real news about these protests before most media. I’ve seen the response of local media to these protests. It’s poor, and biased. And a case study in why people left and right don’t trust them.
I am actually a middle of the road cat. I have no tolerance, though, for people who use self-professed moderation as an excuse to label those who disagree as beyond the pale. That’s just more of the same old, same old.
April 14th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Fox News’ credibility is now shattered. Heh.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
bwhaha hahaha ha hahaha ha. Sorry, just laughing to myself (and now all of you) because Fox hasn’t had credibility for almost 10 years.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
karlub: Fox news wasn’t around for most of the history of the country. To blame them is silly. Besides, compared to the muckrakers and yellow journalists, they’re pussycats. They may be rooting for the tea party folks[...]
Ironically not all the opinion columnists on their Web site are all that enthused about the Tea Parties. John Tantillo even goes so far as to declare them “the fad that flopped”. And I’d say he has it pretty much spot-on.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Sounds to me like someone wants to put a legitimacy test on decent. A convenient path around the marketplace of ideas.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:45 am
On The Teaparties…
I’ve refrained from commenting on the ‘teabag’ movement up to this point, but now that the day of reckoning has come, I’ve decided to say my piece.
What you will witness today is a pathetic display from a conservative ideology l…
April 15th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I wonder which tea party Harry and Louise are going to be at?
Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
April 15th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Did you guys know that Joe the Plumber is Harry and Louise’s nephew?
April 15th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Isn’t the idea behind Tea Parties that you are pretending to be an adult?
I think that the message of these parties is muddled and it does a disservice to fiscal responsibility.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
FAUX “destroys their credibility”……ARE YOU SERIOUS?! They never HAD any credibility to lose, at least not to anyone but their faithful, who will not be swayed by this latest as they have not been swayed by anything else the station has done.
Bill O’Reilly sends his minions out to stalk the “opposition” yet nothing is done about it. There are laws about stalking yet none have been utilized. So telll us about their “credibility”, please.
They have done everything BUT earn credibility.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:15 am
You know people claim that they are patriotic and they want to be kept safe while keeping their freedom. Unfortunately that freedom comes at a price. This tea party BS is nothing more then a mockery of an important historical event. Furthermore the only people protecting freedom are the soldiers of this country. The men and women who come back and find that they can’t find a job. This country has forgotten about customer service. Companies and entrepreneurs have decided to produce lesser products and services while charging ridiculous prices in order to get rich quick. That is the real reason we are all in this mess. This is not patriotism or the American dream that some people claim it is. This is nothing more then greed. You want to be free? then this country has to pay for it on a whole and if lower class and the poor can not pay( which any moron would know that if they can get jobs then they can’t pay, and don’t give me that “they are just lazy crapâ€) then the rest of the country either has to step up and do it. It is either that or just let the U.S.A. be come another third world country. Funny though I see many people protesting this now when they should have been protesting years ago to prevent this.