57 Comments

1. Instapundit » Blog Archive » IN TODAY’S WALL STREET JOURNAL, I talk about “Tea Party” protests as an Army of Davids phenomenon. …:

[...] from most Big Media, “confusion and ambivalence.” “A good story is to be had, but it’s not exactly a story they want to tell. So what to [...]

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:02 am 2. LTC John:

Look for LOTS of coverage of any kind of disorder, arrests, or anything else negative.

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:20 am 3. Sam L.:

Reporters would actually have to go the the Tea Party and interview a lot of people before they could condense it down to “they’re all a bunch of nuts”–nah, they could do that back at the office.

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:26 am 4. Wellspring:

The big story today is: “vetting the protesters: precisely what conservative organization is the puppetmaster for this phoney demonstration?”

I was watching CNN this morning and they had some functionary from the Guiliani campaign pushing that viewpoint and insisting that the best thing for “his” party would be to support Obama’s porkulus. Or something to that effect.

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:43 am 5. shank:

Actually Roger, there was this on CNN’s front page:
“UnAmerican to whine about taxes”
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-244320

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:45 am 6. readerer:

Look, over there … KITTENS!

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:48 am 7. hermie:

Funny how the MSM can find a bus filled with ACORN thugs threatening an AIG exec and call it a ‘protest’, but they can’t find thousands of ordinary citizens peacefully protesting an abusive and inept government; even when they are just blocks away.

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:54 am 8. Mike the Analyst:

Well, if the MSM can ignore a protest where 40,000 to 100,000 gather in DOWNTOWN D.C., they can easily ignore this. Welcome to the media frustration enjoyed by Pro-Lifers and March for Lifers every year!

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:55 am 9. hermie:

Of course the MSM are prepping for the really, really big story…Bo’s first poop in the White House.

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:55 am 10. readerer:

The 2009 Tea Party will ultimately benefit Democrats. It will give angry Republicans a chance to vent their frustrations against congressmen who – what? – don’t read the Socialization bills before they vote for them?

Congressmen will respond by reading the Socialization bills before they enact them, which will, I guess, take the wind out of the sails of the Tea Party since Socialism will have been enacted by Congressmen who actually, you know, read the bill first. As long as there’s reading first, then Socializing, the Tea Party goers are OK with the dismantling of the United States of America, it seems.

At any rate, this venting serves an excellent Democrat purpose. It allow neophyte protesters to vent their frustrations well before any actual election has to take place, so that by the time the elections roll around two years from now they’ll have realized that you can’t fight City Hall.

The Tea Party protesters you see marching today, two years down the road, will have figured out there’s nothing they really can do and they’ll have given up trying to change the system and will have started just trying to survive in the new system. Many of them will be too busy filing for unemployment and fighting their foreclosures to show up at too many Tea Parties two years from now.

So, Democrats really don’t have anything to fear from this group of protesters. I’m sure they’re giddy watching hapless Republicans shoot their load two years before it will do any actual good.

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:55 am 11. Lightnin' Hopkins:

So far it seems like any MSM coverage is limited to the blog end of a few sites. Jake Tapper brushes on the subject at ABC’s “Political Punch” sidebar, for instance. At WaPo’s “The Fix”, Chris Cilliza says, “if the coverage shows a series of sparsely attended events or covers controversial statements made by attendees, the tea parties might backfire.”

So, to recap, for eight years you could run around SF with Bush’s head on a stick, or tell the Jews they “need a big oven” and the media would cover for you, but hell hath no fury if one “teabagger(’s)” quote can be used to portray the whole movement as a bunch of loons. Nice.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:00 am 12. Lightnin' Hopkins:

Oh, I almost forgot, the headline of that WaPo blogpost? “White House Cheat Sheet: Of Tax Day and Tea Parties” — Get it? We’re all tax cheats now. Sheesh.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:04 am 13. Paul A'Barge:

Does this mean there is an MSM conspiracy against the Tea Parties? I don’t know.

Head. Meet sand.

Wishy. Meet washy.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:06 am 14. BobKrumm.com » Teabagging the establishment:

[...] Roger L. Simon notes that the

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:45 am 15. Lightnin' Hopkins:

“At any rate, this venting serves an excellent Democrat purpose. It allow neophyte protesters to vent their frustrations…”

I’d rather be considered a “neophyte” than one of these ignorant little fascists any day:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/immigration/story/1486087.html

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:51 am 16. hermie:

12: If it’s good enough for members of Obama’s Cabinet…

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:51 am 17. Pat J:

I take issue with the whole idea of this being some sort of “grassroots” protest. When I hear about such people as Dick Armey, Steve Forbes, Newt Gingrich and others throwing their financial support behind these demonstrations, I worry. Look closely at such entities as FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity and you see people who are not behind the average working class individual.

Seems to me like it’s the protesters who are getting “teabagged” by GOP Corporate interests.

Apr 15, 2009 - 8:30 am 18. Lightnin' Hopkins:

“I take issue with the whole idea of this being some sort of “grassroots” protest.”

Sure, everyone knows all the authentic community organizing gets done by ACORN, etc.

Apr 15, 2009 - 8:41 am 19. tim maguire:

I just went to yahoo news and despite “tea party” being one of the most searched for stories, I didn’t see any tea party story on their page. A search turned up a number of stories though and, no surprise, the national news uniformly portrayed it as right-wing anti-Obama (”some say it’s astroturf”) partisan politics. If you want decent coverage, you have to look at the local news outlets.

Apr 15, 2009 - 9:09 am 20. tim maguire:

Strike that, they put one of the most partisan versions at the top of the page, so at least they recognize it, even if they don’t understand it.

Apr 15, 2009 - 9:18 am 21. Professor Guvinoff:

Walter Cronkite used to close with “And that’s the way it is!”, and boy, did he ever got mileage out of this charming claim of objectivity!

The expectation of neutrality from the press is still lingering, but the vacuity of the concept is finally becoming plainly evident. Today’s citizen’s awakening is something else altogether. No wonder today’s Cronkite wannabees will use all tools of denial to justify their disdain towards the tea parties!

They can do that, but they cannot preempt the revelation of tea partiers recognizing the number of other folks who feel as cruelly betrayed as they do.

If Walter Cronkite was suddenly smitten with an attack of humility, I think he would have to say: “Gee, I did not know it was going to be like this!”

Apr 15, 2009 - 9:30 am 22. Gaffe Prices:

When Santelli called for ‘a tea party or something’, tea parties began within days. They have been assembling ever since.

Enthusiasm has been building and now a tea assembly falls on tax day.

just let the cowardly MSLSD media try to avoid it. It will be covered on blogs, note Rogers live feed.

What will the pathetic looters on the left do in response, form a TEAT PARTY? Will they have giant Pink Pigs and Pink Piglets gathered round sucking them? Do they plan to dress up as Pink Nightmares?

I’m laughing myself silly at these fools.

They think they can rob and loot and bribe and corrupt with every material thing we own and they imagine we are going to give them the satisfaction of whining and moaning just as they do all the time, ad infinitum, without stopping? Have they never seen “How the Grinch stole Christmas”? Or do they read academic childrens book propaganda approved by “Brown” university? Do they even know what it is to be human anymore?

These genetically modified, botoxed, freak show robots can doo whatever they want, as far as I’m concerned: This isn’t about them; its about how we feel about their miserable materialism; Miserablism.

Apr 15, 2009 - 9:33 am 23. Professor Guvinoff:

@#22, Gaffe Prices.

Materialism, miserablism. Bravo!

Their game is about milking the fattest cow in the universe. We are saying:

1. If it was a cow it’s the one we pay for!

2. It was not meant to turn into a cow. Our job is to push the cow through our ad-hoc behavior modification program.

Apr 15, 2009 - 9:50 am 24. John Moore:

What will the pathetic looters on the left do in response, form a TEAT PARTY? Will they have giant Pink Pigs and Pink Piglets gathered round sucking them? Do they plan to dress up as Pink Nightmares?

This is an outstanding idea for anti-spending guerrilla theater! Some tea-partiers should form a TEAT PARTY. It might be outrageous enough to get press.

Someone do this!

Apr 15, 2009 - 10:48 am 25. Batmensch:

White people crying about moderate tax increases? What’s there to write about?

Apr 15, 2009 - 11:01 am 26. Professor Guvinoff:

@24 John Moore:

That would be the ultimate “SUCKERS UNITE!”, how come Lenin did not think of that?

@25, Batmensch:

You are entitled to you own definition of “moderate”.

Apr 15, 2009 - 11:21 am 27. Gaffe Prices:

Be cognizant: If we go starting to enjoying this, then the pathetic blog-trolls will try to prick fights, since their job is to be the joy-killer brigade.

they are zombie’s and vampires: they feed of our life force and energy.

Because they already “sacrificed” theirs, (0’s word) to their extremist cult of death.

they feed on us, otherwise its back to their gruel of cognitive dissonance

Pity the hopeless vagabonds, and the bagman they worship. “The wages of secular sin is Debt”, and they live by that covetous creed. Pity them, for all of 5 seconds, take a deep breath and then go back to paying them no mind.

They speak from their corrupted, irredeemable, ashen hearts, and will engage in accusations that only speak for themselves. This is called (psychological) projection : If they want to engage in a bizarre, sick form of confession, in the form of ad hominem, hyperbole, litany, homilies, straw men, feces flinging and false premises– fine: its not worth our time, the bell tolls for their waste. [Their wasted choices]

Apr 15, 2009 - 12:45 pm 28. Gaffe Prices:

btw, I got ‘Miserablism’ from, oh what’s his name- Doyle- Jerry Doyle, he talks about it often on his radio show.

Apr 15, 2009 - 1:14 pm 29. Insufficiently Sensitive:

When I hear about such people as Dick Armey, Steve Forbes, Newt Gingrich and others throwing their financial support behind these demonstrations, I worry.

You can stop worrying. The potbellies you mention above just panicked because someone had a good idea about protesting vast gummint spending, got some genuine enthusiasm from ordinary folks countrywide, and now said potbellies are desperately trying to throw themselves in front of a ‘movement’ they didn’t invent.

Funnier yet – Michael Steele, of the GOP, wangled for an invitation to speak at a tea party, and was turned down. The independent producers didn’t want the occasion hijacked by a Washington insider.

And do you ever worry about the financing of MoveOn by George Soros? I sure do.

Apr 15, 2009 - 1:41 pm 30. Mike_K:

The Freudian slips are going on all over. Earlier today I saw “teat party” as a typo on another site (I assume). Now Gaffe Prices wants to “prick fights.” Oh well, I have to go to a tea party in a few minutes. I think this is just the beginning and of course the politicians are going to try to use it.

Apr 15, 2009 - 1:46 pm 31. Insufficiently Sensitive:

We checked some Seattle news at noon for an inkling about the scheduled 5:45 Tea Party at Westlake Park. The Seattle Times had an article about a tea party – in Olympia. KPLU had some scattered remarks about a few half-understood gatherings around the country, and a quote from someone in Oregon.

Neither of these important ‘local news’ purveyors had the time of day, or any mention at all, of Seattle’s own Tea Party.

Why should we trust anything we see or hear from these three-wise-monkey organs?

Apr 15, 2009 - 1:47 pm 32. Gaffe Prices:

Sorry Mike KKK, you’re are the one here who wants to pick fights, I nailed you before you got here, you are a bandwidth vampire.

Don’t you double talk me, if cannot understand English.

Read it again. Tea assemblies have nothing to do with agitprops such as yourself. beat it deabeatnik

Apr 15, 2009 - 2:51 pm 33. Circe:

Excuse me for being a white working-class wench with over forty effin’ years of paying taxes. Your color or status shouldn’t matter.

Apr 15, 2009 - 2:53 pm 34. Lightnin' Hopkins:

GP #32: While I’m sure the good doctor can defend himself upon his return, please take a moment to click on Mike K’s name to view his blog where you will see that he is, in fact, on board with the tea parties. Moreover, in his most recent post, he correctly identifies – unlike the MSM, who are painting this almost exclusively as a protest over taxes – that the main complaint is out of control government spending.

I’ve had a few people take my particular sarcasm or dark humor in some posts for my actual, in-depth opinion of things, both at this blog and elsewhere, and I have certainly been guilty of making the same mistake myself about others. Sometimes it’s wise to take a breath and hold our fire until we fully understand who we are talking to and what their intentions might be.

Just sayin’…

Apr 15, 2009 - 4:30 pm 35. Terrye:

I saw a story at Hotline with video of some obnoxious CNN reporter in Chicago treating the protesters like loons, etc. It has to be seen to be believed.

I think it is interesting that all these Obama supporters keep saying none of this means anything, but they just have to denigrate it. It kind of makes me wonder why they feel the need to do that if the whole thing is such a waste of time.

Apr 15, 2009 - 5:40 pm 36. Terrye:

That should have been Hot Air.

Apr 15, 2009 - 5:41 pm 37. Gaffe Prices:

Mike K misrepresented me when he said I was trying to start fights. I made it quite clear to be on the lookout for such rabble. If what I said did not apply to him then he should refrain from naming me as someone who “wants to start fights”.

I don’t care about him or his website, but if he wants to demonstrate his feelings regarding out of control government spending, more power to him. I just did, at my downtown city hall.

I do not make sarcastic comments naming other people, and if I do, and it was a mistake to do so, I’ll take responsibility and apologize.

I still don’t understand his gist, so whatever

Apr 15, 2009 - 6:04 pm 38. Arty:

A racist lefty inadvertently tells the truth.

“White people crying about moderate tax increases. What’s to write about?

The looting and beggaring of future generations that’s being perpetrated by the Democrats is a race-based transfer of wealth.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:02 pm 39. Rocker524:

What’s happened to the mainstream media today. The Tax Tea Party was Big time news. I remember when there was a time that they were very strong in their beliefs and their right to “Freedom of the press” that they would even spend time in jail for not giving up the source of their information when asked for it by a Judge in a Court of Law.

Now I see them through their day to day actons, that they all have leaned to the left and noe of them have NO independent views on todays issues. Something really isn’t right here. I can’t put my finger on it because there are so many hidden agendas going on, but I do know that today’s Journalists are not writing true news stories,more like figments of their imaginations. Their writings are like author of fictional books or movie writers, it’s plain and simple Knowledge Filtering. Everything today has been turned around: what’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is right.

Look at how many press conferences the President has had since he’s been in office, and what does his speeches say, Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla,——–NOTHING, like I’m hearing violens playing alot. One of his press conferences he repeats himself 3 times on an issue that was brought up, just by changing a few words around to make it sound good. And, he pauses ( kind of a studer-like speaking) alot when he speaks, which in my opion is a stalling method that people use, a kind of a lie or fabrication their making up when they don’t really no how to answer the question presented to them truthfully.

When visiting the Queen of England, wouldn’t you think she would have a little more knowledge on how to present herself to the Queen. Come on people, the First Lady was such an embarassment when she to our Country when she met the Queen, how she approched the Queen and put her arm around her. You don’t approch the Queen. You are not even suppose to get close to her. People have taken course just to learn the proper way on how to bow or coursey properly when meeting the Queen of England. Michelle Obama probibly doesn’t even know who Emily Post? is.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:24 pm 40. Gaffe Prices:

#38 amen brother Arty, I couldn’t have said it better.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:43 pm 41. Lightnin' Hopkins:

Whatever indeed.

Apr 15, 2009 - 7:59 pm 42. R. Woods:

Just returned from a tea party. The crowd of “terrorist” seemed to be out of control. They sang the National Anthem and held hands over their hearts while gazing upon the flag. They shouted USA! USA! USA! a few times and seemed to be proud of their country. This arrogance is completely out of line if we are to become citizens of the world.

Apr 15, 2009 - 8:41 pm 43. Gaffe Prices:

#39 Rocker 524

What’s happened is that the bubble that is 1 party despotism is floated by Belief. And We the Apostate Atheists, who do not believe, popped it today and the despots are trying to pretend it didn’t happen, or that we’re “angry”.

For the left, dissent– patriotic
for us, dissent—oooh “angry”, unpatriotic

you may or may not know it, but you and the rest of us have now- all been classified as enemies of the state, because you have now popped that bubble by daring to question the the integrity of the MSLSD media, which serves as press secretary for all things big government.

Oh where is it…, oh yes, I finally found my magnifying glass, and yes, I see it now, after two tries, yes there is a difference between the spelling of “picking”, and “pricking”. Fantastic.

#30 Mike K, Hey, I love typos as much as the next guy, but not that much. Unless wee want to bend the discussion back in the direction of the innuendo of todays bender by David Schusster and Andrews Sully-ed-van/Cooper. And I don’t think that we do. Nice try.

Apr 15, 2009 - 10:02 pm 44. kcom:

CNN has no headline referring to the Tea Parties on the front page of their website this morning but they do have room for this: “Swarm of bees gives firefighters fits”

Apr 16, 2009 - 5:46 am 45. Mike_K:

Mike K misrepresented me when he said I was trying to start fights.

It was a joke little fellow and you seem awfully sensitive. Go ahead and beat your tiny little fists on the key board but I wasn’t picking a fight. As for you, I can’t say.

Whew !

Apr 16, 2009 - 6:39 am 46. jaimeshawn:

I was glad to see Pajamas Media there, when I attendeed the Portland Oregon Rally. Yea Team!

That said, these things might be good for a ‘hooray for our side’, but I agree that it is somewhat pointless to protest. Without any real screening of legitimate-illegitimate voters, organizing dissent and using the electoral process to effect change is not likely to work. And on the other end of the spectrum of dissent, we have already been disarmed more than the Iraqi people, and have no heavy weapons with which to fight.

Apr 16, 2009 - 10:16 am 47. Gaffe Prices:

#45 guess what Mike K, I must concede the point; you were making a joke, and I didn’t get it. Worse still, the unintended outcome of this is that I turned out to be the bandwidth hog by going on a tangent based on something irrelevant to just about anything, so I owe Roger and company in general an apology, and you in particular one as well. I apologize. Guilty as charged. If some fool like me tries to limit or gang bang humour for whatever reason, I’m creating a problem. My apologies to all concerned.

I will accept credit, for mucking up what went off really well (tea party) with a needless distraction. I thought I was pretty well confident going into yesterday, and I thought the whole thing came off good as well, despite the agitation from CNN. but that stuff coming from Napolitano and the NAPI’s, kind of stirred my paranoia.

And btw, yours is a good blog with though examination of economic trends, and I recommend it to anyone.

People want to get on with their lives, and apply themselves in a free market based on the best they have to offer, but the government, in some cases Local, State, and especially the fed, are pushing our buttons, and we react with a combination of common sense and emotion. There is no point in my becoming defensive with a kindred spirit.

The media reaction is part of a tactic to distract and distance themselves and government from the reality we brought to their attention. so they are just making and proving our point, for us.

Apr 16, 2009 - 10:25 am 48. Mike_K:

Apology unnecessary but accepted. I have some photos from my local tea party on my blog although my first effort ended with ignominious failure to operate the camera in my iPhone. I went back and took some more photos later. About 500 ( I’ve seen one estimate of 600) in MIssion Viejo at 5 PM. Lots of enthusiasm and a number of people told me they would be there the next time.

California has a second issue in that the state government has DOUBLED in the past 20 years and gone up 34% since Arnold became governor. There is a series of bond issues in May that will be a focus of the local activists. They should be voted DOWN.

Apr 16, 2009 - 3:30 pm 49. Mike Shuster:

Roger, for the record, there was a link on the front page of cnn.com to an article about the tea parties when I checked last night. The article even quoted you.

Apr 16, 2009 - 4:46 pm 50. Exguru:

Thanks for fingering Yahoo News as being part of the liberal media. So is AOL News.

Apr 16, 2009 - 9:28 pm 51. elvis:

Pictures of NH TeaParties.

Apr 17, 2009 - 8:04 am 52. Barry Dauphin:

The MSM insists on misreading much of the anger behind the Tea Parties. People who have done the rights things, such as paying their mortgages, taking care of their homes, paying their taxes, saving for retirement, etc., have watched the hard earned equity in their homes disappear, the value of their retirement savings plummet, etc. Then they watched irresponsible people and institutions receive aid and assistance. Then a CNN reporter wonders why they aren’t kissing the ground over receiving $400 tax rebate (spread out over the entire year). Heck last year under Bushitler, we got $600 all in one check. A fat lot of good that did to stimulate the economy. Folks are watching their worth decline and can picture the future tax increases needed to pay for today’s Washington spending. Then those same folks turn on their TVs and see Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, of all people, pontificate and be treated with veneration by the MSM, only to have Pelosi through a fit over the existence of the Tea Parties. I would say that the antics of CNN could create even more anger and more Tea Parties, except looking at the ratings, who watches CNN any more?

Apr 17, 2009 - 10:21 am 53. Insufficiently Sensitive:

Then a CNN reporter wonders why they aren’t kissing the ground over receiving $400 tax rebate

That alleged ‘reporter’ was doing the best she could, in the face of an actually spontaneous demonstration, to restore the agenda to the side of the Left. She chose to argue with the participants, instead of report any news. And she was so wrought up at being outnumbered by non-lefties that her innumeracy took over, and she used the wrong number for the $600 ’stimulus’ check that everyone in the country got.

Then she really let the cat out of the bag, and exposed her paranoia by saying the Tea Parties were ‘anti-CNN’. Sorry, dear, you’re just not that important.

Apr 17, 2009 - 12:14 pm 54. Perelandra:

I work at a newspaper, which shall remain nameless because I am not authorized to speak on its behalf.

We had a tea party demonstration in our area, but didn’t cover it. Why?

Because no one told us about it.

Whoever is semi-organizing these things, please call your local newspaper!

Apr 17, 2009 - 6:35 pm 55. kcom:

I don’t know about Ms. Roesgen, but I know my freedom and independence and future prosperity aren’t for sale for a lousy four hundred bucks. It reminds of that line that Glenn Reynolds often quotes, “They’ll turn us all into beggars because they’re easier to please.”

The Democrats, and I count her among them, are so used to the concept of bribing people for their support and buying off various constituencies, that they can’t conceive of someone standing for an actual principle. And that stupid thing they like to say about people voting “against their economic interest” is the most moronic. Either they’re too dumb to look more than one day ahead, or they think we’re too stupid to look into the future and see where our long term interests lie. And, I for one, know quite emphatically that becoming a slave to the Democratic nanny state for 400 bucks isn’t in my long term economic interest.

Apr 17, 2009 - 7:05 pm 56. john m e:

hermie et al….surely Bo’s first white house poop will go unnoticed amid the B>S>
already in place there…

Apr 20, 2009 - 1:12 pm 57. Gaffe Prices:

Special Thank’s to Lightnin’ Hopkins: perceptive and discreet prodding; Thanks (I didn’t get that right away either, but a simple passage of time works wonders sometimes). Suffice to say you were right all along.

Apr 21, 2009 - 10:15 pm

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