Media Matters: What if Fox News threw a tea party and nobody came?
While millions of people were scrambling to make it to the post office by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, far, far fewer showed up at Fox News' Tax Day Tea Parties. Media Matters for America extensively documented the incessant promotion of the tea parties by Fox News and its anchors and contributors. In fact, in the 10 days leading up to the protests, Fox News aired 107 ads promoting them. And in addition to encouraging its viewers to attend the protests, Fox News announced that viewers who couldn't attend could attend "a virtual tax day tea party" at TheFoxNation.com.
Well, tax day arrived, and Fox News didn't disappoint. Reporting from a protest in Boston, Fox Business Network anchor Cody Willard stated, "I'm on your side. I'm trying to take down the Fed." He also asked, "Guys, when are we going to wake up and start fighting the fascism that seems to be permeating this country?" At a protest in front of the Alamo, Glenn Beck hosted unofficial NRA head Ted Nugent, who played guitar while Beck interviewed Joe Horn, who was identified by a Fox News graphic as having "shot 2 illegals burglarizing home." Of course, Beck wasn't covering the protest so much as leading it. Meanwhile, John Gibson expressed his "hope[]" that "millions of people" would participate in the protests, while Neil Cavuto appeared to inflate the numbers at the rally he was attending in Sacramento. Cavuto stated of the Sacramento tea party: "They were expecting 5,000 here, it's got to be easily double, if not triple that." However, moments earlier, before Cavuto went on the air, a microphone caught Cavuto stating to a producer "There's gotta be 5,000" -- not "double, if not triple" that number.
Geraldo Rivera was not impressed, asserting, "The grand total of all of the tea party demonstrators" was less than the number "at that immigration rally in 2006 in the city of Chicago alone." Rivera added that the immigration rally was a "truly spontaneous demonstration," while the tea parties "may have had aspects of spontaneity."
While Bill O'Reilly was defending Fox News' coverage of the tea parties, calling it "vastly superior to anything else around," other networks were calling out Fox News for its support of the protests. On CNN, reporter Susan Roesgen grilled a Chicago protester who referred to President Obama as a "fascist" and said the protests were "highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox." On the CBS Evening News, reporter Dean Reynolds cited Beck and Cavuto as among the "rightward-leaning commentators" who "embraced the cause." On ABC's World News, reporter Dan Harris said the protests were "cheered on by Fox News and talk radio." And CNN's Howard Kurtz asserted: "I don't think I've ever seen a news network throw its weight behind a protest like we are seeing in the past few weeks with Fox and these tea parties."
But Stephen Colbert summed it up best: "I would like to throw my support behind this grassroots effort by Fox News Corporation."
Conservatives freak out about a report on extremist hate groups
Overshadowing the tea-party protests was the leaking of an April 7 Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment of right-wing extremism. Several conservative media figures chose to align themselves with the violent and racist hate groups mentioned in the report rather than the DHS. The report sought to identify factors -- such as the economic downturn and an African-American president -- that these extremist groups would use to target new recruits. Rush Limbaugh claimed: "[Y]ou have a report from Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama Department of Homeland Security portraying standard, ordinary, everyday conservatives as posing a bigger threat to this country than Al Qaeda terrorists or genuine enemies of this country like Kim Jong-Il." And Sean Hannity stated that the DHS "is warning law enforcement officials about the rise in right-wing extremist activity" and asserted that the department "would define it as people that maybe think we're not controlling our borders, people that have pro-life bumper stickers." And Lou Dobbs asked his viewers: "Do you think a person concerned about borders and ports that are unsecured, illegal immigration, Second Amendment rights, or a returning veteran from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely or even possibly probable, as the Department of Homeland Security suggests, to be a right-wing extremist?" Of course, the report doesn't actually say that, but Dobbs' point was echoed ad nauseam in the conservative media. Rather than explaining that the report focused on how certain views are used as tools by hate groups to recruit, the DHS report was portrayed as an indictment of anyone who holds those views.
Conservative media also seized upon an aspect of the report -- that returning military veterans are likely to be targeted by extremist groups -- to claim that the report considered war veterans a threat. Cavuto claimed that the report "more or less states the government considers you a terrorist threat if you oppose abortion, speak out against illegal immigration, or you are a returning war veteran." In fact, the report concludes that "rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat."
More significantly, in reporting on this aspect of the report, Cavuto and others in the conservative media did not note that in reaching its conclusion about returning veterans, the DHS cited a 2008 FBI report -- authored during the Bush administration -- that stated, in the words of the DHS, that "some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups." But it should come as no surprise that conservative media figures would overlook the Bush administration's role in their efforts to portray the Obama administration as anti-military.
While decrying the partisan nature of the report, most media outlets also failed to note that the DHS issued an assessment on January 26 of left-wing extremism, which concluded that "a number of emerging trends point to leftwing extremists maturing and expanding their cyber attack capabilities over the next decade with the aim of attacking targets in the United States."
The paranoia persisted on Fox News, even after Shepard Smith and Catherine Herridge debunked the claims on which much of it was based. Herridge noted the January DHS report and said: "[E]ven at the end of last year, prior to the inauguration, the Homeland Security Department under the Bush administration was sounding the alarm about the potential for right-wing groups to act, specifically because of the economy, and also because America was going to have its first African-American president." Herridge also asserted: "I would point out that both of these assessments ... were commissioned under the Bush administration. It takes some time to do them. They only came out after he had left office."
Since the DHS report came to light on the eve of the tea parties, several media figures drew a link between those events and the DHS report, suggesting that the DHS would be watching the protesters. Limbaugh claimed: "When Obama's policies are the centerpiece then the people that showed up at the tea parties have to be monitored by Homeland Security." And TheFoxNation.com ran the headline: "Is Homeland Security Targeting Tea Parties?"
Other noteworthy quotes this week:
- Following a three-judge panel's ruling in the Minnesota Senate race that Democratic candidate Al Franken "won," Joe Scarborough asked, "[W]hen are the Republicans going to give up the ghost on this?" He continued: "Seriously. Norm [Coleman], I like you. You lost, OK?" He again added: "It's over. I'm sorry."
- Bernard Goldberg, author of A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media, told Hannity: "I'm sorry, Sean ... but we have to stop going out of our way to find fault with every single thing he [Obama] does."
- In an April 15 Spectator article, former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote: "[T]o listen to Fox News and other conservative media, you'd think we were living in Czechoslovakia in the final hours before the 1948 communist coup."
- On MSNBC, Chris Matthews called Texas Gov. Rick Perry a "bozo" and said, "I'm sorry ... you can't decide whether to stay in the Union or not." He added: "Why are you talking about secession? That is whack-job stuff."
- On CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Minneapolis radio host Chris Baker said of stimulus spending: "The craziest expenditure I've seen so far is Ed Rendell in Pennsylvania. To cheer up the people of Pennsylvania -- a World Series apparently didn't do it -- but they're hiring comics, magicians, and mimes. True. Check the facts." In fact, Baker was apparently the victim of an April Fools' Day joke by The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
This week's media columns
This week, Media Matters Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert examines Fox News' militia media: mainstreaming the fringe, while Senior Fellow Jamison Foser examines the media's weak tea -- their failure to report on the real problem of taxation without representation in D.C.
Week in Review video
This weekly wrap-up was compiled by Brian Frederick, deputy editorial director at Media Matters for America. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Colorado.
This article is disgusting. It is full of misleading statements and half-truths. Not that I expect anything more from this site, but these two authors should be held accountable.
Its a shame that progressives are so afraid of an intellectual challenge that they belittle all those opposed.
Fact: This was absolutely a grass roots campaign. Period. FNC did NOT organize, nor did Glenn Beck do anything more than broadcast his show from a Tea Party. Otherwise, prove it.
Fact: Ted Nugent is not the "unofficial leader of the NRA". That is a crap title meant to sensationalize the story.
Fact: The immigration rallies were organized, as MANY of the attendees were union workers. Not to mention the fact that those rallies were about illegal aliens that broke American laws wanting full amnesty for their blatant disregard for our society. Nice comparison. I expect nothing more from Geraldo.
Fact: My wife and I attended a Tea Party, along with 8,000 others, to voice our concern over unprecedented spending NEVER seen in American history. The initial line, with a comment about millions of tax payers, was meant to demean those who did attend. Shameful.
If you are interested in an actual, honest debate...feel free.
Jealous much?
Millions of conservatives protest and no one, or their PRIVATE PROPERTY, gets hurt.
A few college democrats get together at UNC and not only is there vandalism, but free speech is set back to the days of the segregationists like Gov. George Wallace.
This is NOT the "Change" I voted for!
Media Matters, you claim this was all right wingers at these tea parties don't you. You hate to even admit that some liberals actually raised their signs alongside fellow americans who are conservative. Fox news could have ran a million ads in one day, I do not care about fox, I care about this country in the big picture. You guys should focus on Obama shaking hands with the like of Hugo Chavez after Chavez called him "ignoramus". Obama thinks these dictators will listen to him, no they want us dead and out of the picture, more money for them and more power. He needs to wake up and realize the basic premise of high school. As much as Obama wants the "cool kids (i.e..american haters)" to like us he is just making their day by bowing down and apologizing for us, they love it. But as most smart people know the cool kids never really got the smart kids anywhere in life. They just thought we were nerds and made fun of us to get their point across. Wake up america before it is to late, voter remorse is not a sin vote for change in 2010.
The last time I think I heard something as phoney as this commentary, it was from a certain propaganda.. oops.. information.. minister saying "There are absolutely no American infidels within 100 miles of Baghdad" while Abrams tanks rolled up behind him....
So you're saying that a direct and indisputable contradiction to the words of this article is right out in plain sight? Can you point at it? I'm looking around and can't see it.
It is there, but it's only in Miss DeeMinus' head. That's why others miss it.
Two points:
First, it is a strawman argument to infer that the total number of people who attended Tea Parties should approach the number of US federal tax filers, late or otherwise.
Second, what if MMFA wrote a snarky post about Fox News there were only a dozen commenters?
Why is it that people like you think that you can get away with making baseless accusations without a shred of evidence on a site like that that relies so heavily on backing up everything they assert?
By the way, you can't. Get away with it, that is. There are no fair comparisons between the false propoganda coming from the Iraqi minister who denied reality and this posting by MMfA.
Now, there ARE some comparisons between that Iraqi minister and you, because you both seem detached from reality. The kinship is undeniable.
Can you say "reverse projection"?
is that you, Dana Perino ?
The last time I read a post as inane and lacking in any substance it was the last time I read one of your posts
Miss DeeMinus forgets Donald Rumsfeld's statement, "We know where the weapons of mass destruction are. They're in Tikrit and somewhat north, east, west, or south of there."
Remember when Dick Cheney said the Iraq War would pay for itself, cost less than a billion dollars, and he couldn't see the US being there for more than six months?
I think there hasn't been anything phonier than that for years.
Obama saying he will cut the deficit was phonier.
Unless he meant it as a joke.
"it should come as no surprise that conservative media figures would overlook the Bush administration's role in their efforts to portray the Obama administration as anti-military"
This is because the years 2001 - 2008 have physically vanished from spacetime. Any video that you took during that period will no longer play back; you'll just get static and an eerie humming sound. Physicists are still debating the cause.
blah blah blah ...MissDee
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Ah, I see the afternoon shuttle from Planet Wingnut has arrived!! How was the flight??
I bet her arms are tired. Not from flying in, from flailing for attention.
Rivera is the voice of "reason" on I am scared.
on = now. Got to pay more attention.