This week, the Tea Party Movement, conservatives Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and others, were all attacked and smeared by liberals and the mainstream news media.
According to the Tea Party Express, “liberals deceptively and dishonestly tried to say that the deranged shooter in Tucson, Arizona was somehow acting based on motivation or inspiration from the tea party movement and some of its biggest supporters.”
This was an obvious lie, and the talking heads and media knew it was a lie. Furthermore, they did not appear to care, as they were smearing, defaming, and trying to silence other American voices that did not agree with their views.
Multiple TV news outlets and broadcasts repeated the same mantra, that “hate speech” from political parties and groups on the right side of politics were to blame, while not covering the equal amount of rhetoric from the left.
The media also failed to mention the posts about Congresswoman Giffords by the left-wing blog Daily Kos, in 2008, which said Giffords was on their “target” list. This was long before Sarah Palin drew her own target map.
Was it wrong for Palin to put crosshairs on a map? Was it wrong for The Daily Kos to say Congresswoman Giffords was a target? In hindsight, yes, but as Donald Rumsfeld famously said, there are things you don’t know that you don’t know, until later.
The White House and President Obama have ratcheted up the rhetoric many times over the past few years. In a departure from recent presidential norms, Obama demonized President Bush many times, when one mention would have been enough. President Obama has also attacked his critics since coming to office, including some democrats, telling them he is “keeping score.”
The President called for civility many times since entering the White House. Civility is sorely needed. Unfortunately, President Obama is yet to adopt a civil tone himself, for more than a few days. Presidents are expected to be leaders. Good leaders lead by example. The leading and example seen from the White House recently doesn’t give much hope that civility will be on the menu any time soon.
With several death threats directed at the Arizona Tea Party this week, it seems some people didn’t hear what the President said. Perhaps they understood too well that he didn’t really mean it. Presidential speeches are rarely off-the-cuff – they are planned and scripted – so there is deliberation in what Presidents say.
The obvious omissions by the TV and paper news media may be laziness, an error, or perhaps deliberate. If it was deliberate, then it is backfiring, because Americans are supporting the Tea Parties in even greater numbers.
The Tea Party Express, for example, says they are on track to seeing their best fundraising days ever.
The group told NewsBlaze they use the funds to pay to get their message heard, because they say the mainstream media will not fairly tell their side of the story.
NewBlaze strives to cover both sides of every story. Furthermore, it is the core of our mission since 2003. The mainstream media didn’t know there was a world outside the borders of the US, except when US interests were threatened. Now, they often only tell the popular half of the story. That’s not what journalism should be about.
The lopsided view of news telling from left and right is making Americans just as angry as the fact that their politicians don’t listen to them. Smearing the Tea Party is not a good thing for news media to do, and I hope it stops now.
