Tea Parties

[FromTheSouth]

Foxnews.com

For thousands of Americans, Tax Day was a moment to protest what they see as bloated budgets and a pile of debt being passed on to their children.

For CNN, MSNBC and other media outlets, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use the word "teabagging" in a sentence.

Teabagging, for those who don't live in a frat house, refers to a sexual act involving part of the male genitalia and a second person's face or mouth.

So when the anti-tax "tea party" protests were held Wednesday across the country, cable anchors and guests -- who for weeks had all but ignored the story -- covered the protests by cracking a litany of barely concealed sexual references.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper interspersed "teabagging" references with analyst David Gergen's more staid commentary on how Republicans are still "searching for their voice."

"It's hard to talk when you're teabagging," Cooper explained. Gergen laughed, but Cooper kept a straight face.

MSNBC's David Shuster weaved a tapestry of "Animal House" humor Monday as he filled in for Countdown host Keith Olbermann.

The protests, he explained, amount to "Teabagging day for the right wing and they are going nuts for it."

He described the parties as simultaneously "full-throated" and "toothless," and continued: "They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending." Shuster also noted how the protesters "whipped out" the demonstrations this past weekend.

Tea Party participants were not amused. The events were held in dozens of cities across the country, and while some demonstrators were criticized for wielding off-topic and sometimes insensitive protest signs, most took to the streets to speak out against government spending.

Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, said the media coverage was "insulting," reacting specifically to CNN reporter Susan Roesgen's combative interviews with Illinois demonstrators in which she declared that the protests were "anti-CNN" and supported by FOX News. She left the teabagging jokes to her colleagues, though.

"I've never seen anything like it," Bozell said. "The oral sex jokes on (CNN) and particularly MSNBC on teabagging ... they had them by the dozens. That's how insulting they were toward people who believe they're being taxed too highly."

Max Pappas, public policy vice president at FreedomWorks -- a small-government group which promoted the tea parties -- said it's a "shame" media outlets cracked jokes at a genuine "grassroots uprising."

"I think what that reveals is how worried they are that this might actually be something serious. You make fun of things you're afraid of, I'd say," Pappas said.

If anyone thinks the orally charged remarks on mainstream cable were just a coincidence, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's segments over the past week with guest, Air America's Ana Marie Cox, would dissolve all doubt. Their on-air gymnastics, dancing around the double entendre of the week, looked like live-action Beavis and Butthead.

By one count, the two of them used the word "teabag" more than 50 times on one show. And on Monday, Cox even let the viewers in on their joke -- referencing Urbandictionary.com, a site which offers a number of colorful definitions for the term "teabagging."

"Well, there is a lot of love in teabagging," Cox said. "It is curious, though, as you point out, they do not use the verb 'teabag.' It might be because they're less enthusiastic about teabagging than some of the more corporate conservatives who seem to have taken to it quite easily."

Jenny Beth Martin, a Republican activist who helped organize one protest in Atlanta, said she's not too worried about the protests being dismissed by some media outlets. She estimated 750,000 people attended more than 800 protests in all 50 states, and that at the very least the local media and community newspapers documented it.

"Our message definitely got out where it needed to get," she said.

For those of you who don't know, yesterday was America's tax deadline. Almost a million Americans attended protests across the country to rally against out of control spending and rising American taxes. These protests were all "tea parties" in reference to the 1773 Boston tea party, where colonists dumped English tea into the Boston Harbor to protest the rising taxes imposed by King George.

I find it funny that CNN and MSNBC try to discredit the protests with sexual references and jokes, when jsut two weeks earlier, the British people who protested Capitalism were heroes. These people protested Capitalism at a summit of 20 socialists, including our Imperial Lord and Savior Obama. MSNBC and CNN laud the efforts of eco terrorists who fire bomb SUVs and retail stores in protest of the WTO and IMF, however, Americans who feel that Barack Obama has no right to take over banks and car companies in our capitalist society are easily dismissed as elitist. It seems like the media got their guy elected, and feel the need to protect him.

MSNBC and CNN looked childish and stupid for the rhetoric they used on their networks yesterday. The now famous video of a CNN reporter trying to look like a badass has now been shown to be staged, yet another pathetic attempt to bash Fox News. I would now like to apologize to CNN and MSNBC for thier low viewership. I contribute to the viewership of Fox News, which is more than double CNN and MSNBC, combined. I am sorry that Fox strikes a cord with all of America, except for the media and academics. First, I would like to say that the media should just accept that Fox is superior to the rest of them and stop trying to stand on the tracks in front of a speeing train. And to the academics, well, those who can do, and those who can't teach. So, thank you for your worthless opinions, but when I realize you are a college professor because you couldn't make it in the real world, your opinion means even less to me.

These tea parties showed that Americans, from across the political spectrum, do not like the direction of the country. Obama is the first President in history to have a lower approval rating that election percentage within the first hundred days. It goes to show that a nice speech and a skinny tie do not a President make. I thank God daily that this abhorrence of a Presidency will only last four years, and we can get the house and senate back even sooner.

I find it funny that this President is raising taxes while appointing cabinet members who do not pay theirs. I find it funny how many people hang their heads and admit to wasting a vote when he comes on TV.

Go ahead media, call the protesters right wing extremists, but when you do, remember the count of thrown trash cans and torched cars was zero. Lefties pass that, for no fucking reason, with five minutes of one of their protests. March all you want hippies, but you and President are worthless. Remember Mr. President, just because you grew up poor doesn't mean everyone else has to.

 

[Shocky]

Pretty much the Liberal media in this country is a joke. That's why I don't watch CNN or MSNBC at all, because it's so blatant. News channels aren't about news anymore, it's about politics. Everything is about spin, and essentially the Democrats have a free pass because they control the media, and control politics currently.

I do find it horrible that a group of Americans decides to peacefully protest, and gets ridiculed for it. It's typical liberal BS, but at this point, what can you do?

 

[The Dewbliners]

As a purely independant voter, and "news" viewer, I have to say, I couldn't stand CNN or MSNBC's coverage of the "tea-parties". It kinda sickens me that my old sources for the coverage of such events to turn into a bunch of skeevy pervs. As far as them protecting Barrack Hussein Obama (shout out to Willie Cunningham, who was suspended for referring to him as such), I couldn't agree more. But, bare in mind, Fox did the same thing for the last eight years. The point is, that every media outlet has it's darlings, and do anything to protect them. That's why I voted for the underdog, Dr. Ron Paul.

 

[Evan Snow-Wolf]

Go ahead media, call the protesters right wing extremists.....

That's right wing extremist TERRORISTS.

We can't call Osama's folks terrorists anymore. What they do is now "man made disasters". But when I took my copy of Mark Levin's "Liberty & Tyranny" to the Sundial Bridge here in Redding for the protest, I instantly became a threat to this country.

What really sickened me as how that ignorant bitch Janeane Garofalo was allowed TV time to spew forth how every single one of the protests were ignorant racists. That the entire thing was hatred over a black man. I'm not making this up. She said we were all racists. Not a single damned person at my protest said anything about race. 90% of the signs mentioned taxes or socialism, only 10% directly mentioned Obama at all, and not one had any mention of race at all.