Today is April 15th. Have you filed your taxes? The bigger story today will be the millions attending Tea Party rallies around the United States. In Minnesota there will be 8 or 9 rallies with the largest one likely to be in St. Paul. I understand that many have formed their opinion of the Tea Party movement by what they gleam from MSNBC, CNN, ABC or other media outlets. I challenge everyone to make your own mind up by attending a rally today. Do not let the media through their slant or bias taint your understanding of the Tea Party movement.
The powers that be in the United States are using us as pawns in their game of power and see the Tea Party movement as another means. Groups on the Left will be attending the Tea Party rallies today to disrupt the rallies and attempt to blend themselves into the group in order to get sound bites for the mass media. This is not to say that a fringe element within the Tea Party muffles the message as the mass media has focused on them instead of the core.
Our 1st Amendment right of freedom of assembly will be tested today as well. I am sure there will be counter rallies to the Tea Party as well. Although last year there was one in St. Paul that had a total of five people. No matter what side of the debate one is on, we can all agree that our current government is heading us to the cliff. The CBO has reported that our current spending is unsustainable and will lead to deficits unseen. So, get out there and have your voice heard. Be part of the action instead of having it reported to you. See with your own eyes and hear with your own ears as to the message being sent forth by the Tea Party. I do not expect anyone to agree with all their points but at least one will be able to hear them unfiltered.
Explain how exactly your first amendment right to free speech and assembly are going to be infringed today? The fact that there are going to be roughly 1700 rallies by some estimates would seem to counter that claim.
ReplyDeleteAnd counter rallies are NOT infringements of your 1st amendment rights. In fact, just as you have the right to rally, those that disagree with you have the right to shout you down.
Trying to play the victim card while putting on 1000+ rallies (almost all unimpeded in any way) stinks of dishonesty.
When the Tea Party can tell me what they want to do, what they stand for not just against, and how they will implement the goals they don't even have, I'll listen. Being against things isn't a plan.
ReplyDeleteAnd please, don't speak to what everyone wants or thinks, because you don't know.
Kevin
ReplyDeleteI did not say that the Tea Party supporters will be infringed; rather my point is that their 1st Amendment rights will be tested by the media bias against the movement. I agree with you that counter rallies are not an infringement. No victim card is being played here. My point is for people - Right, Middle, Left - to go out and witness the Tea Party rallies for themselves instead of waiting for the news reports.
Anon
I believe the core group did go on several talk shows in the past weeks laying out their "Contract for America". If you missed that then I implore you to attend a rally to hear for yourself what the message is being sent. Go find out what their objectives are and how they plan to get them implemented. Don't sit back and wait for MSNBC, NBC, ABC or CBS to report them because they won't.
"I did not say that the Tea Party supporters will be infringed; rather my point is that their 1st Amendment rights will be tested by the media bias against the movement."
ReplyDeleteHUH? How does media bias infringe upon your 1st amendment rights? Infringing upon your rights would be stopping you from having the right to speak. Is it infringement of free speech when people go to KKK rallies and drown out their hate speech or is that also an exercising of free speech?
The fact is, it's the latter.
And I wasn't aware the Tea party had a "core"? In fact, I think they've gone out of their way to not centralize the movement, which ironically is what will likely doom the movement.
Kevin...I am not saying infringe, the media will paint the message from the fringe instead of what is its core. Here is a cbs report on the message. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002631-503544.html
ReplyDeleteThe media can't infringe or test ones first amendment rights. Only the government can. Unless, you are now going to say that the media is a mouthpiece of the media and acts as essentially a government agency.
ReplyDeleteI thought you said CBS wouldn't report on their objectives, yet that's who you cite. I just want consistency.
So how was the Tea Party rally that you attended Ardent Viper? I can only assume that you went to one since you are so focused on seeing one with your own eyes and hearing what is said at one with your own ears and not letting it simply be reported to you. How was it? Was the right to assemble tested? Did the Left disrupt the rally? Was the Ledt trying to get sound bites for the mass media?
ReplyDeleteAnon..believe me I was shocked to see a report on CBS which is why I posted that link instead of using a right slanted media outlet. Sometimes things change.
ReplyDeleteClark..In full disclosure, I unfortunately did not attend a Tea Party rally so I cannot comment on the ongoings first hand this time around. I had family events that took priority over the Tea Party rally. But I did have several friends on both sides of the aisle that did attend and I am eager to hear from them, see their video and pictures.
By saying that your first amendment rights are "tested" you are implying implicitly that they will be infringed upon. That entails people attempting to stop you from exercising your free speech rights. The media has NEVER done this to the tea party that I'm aware of.
ReplyDeleteThey may however, not report the message that you want to have reported. But here's the thing - they have free speech rights too.
Ironically, even Fox news was looking for the lunatic fringe at the rallies yesterday, so I'm curious how you see a left media bias when even your own media outlet thought there would be crackpots there.
To quote an old saying, "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....well damn, it's a duck."
What I mean by that is don't blame the media for the perception that society has of the tea party. It was your own "leadership's" responsibility to keep radical elements away. But at the same time, it was those radical elements that got you media attention and clout in the first place and why they weren't chased away.
So now you get to deal with the "blowback" from letting the radicals and lunatic fringe into your group to get attention. I'd laugh about it if not for the fact that my ideological beliefs are being tarnished by your party's bad press.
Keving stole a bit of my thunder. There is no right to be covered. The media can choose to cover, or not cover, the event. Failing to do so is not a test of the first amendment. One is not entitled to equal coverage. Now, if the media decides to cover the rally, they must do so in a fair accurate manner. That has nothing to do with the first amendment and has everything to do with journalistic standards.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see any indication that the right to gather was going to be an issue yesterday. Nothing about police denying permits to gather or government making it hard. To say the first amendment will be tested, when there was no indication it would be, seems irresponsible and like trying to create a good soundbite or shocking line.
Actually the media is NOT required to deliver their coverage in a "fair accurate manner". There is no such requirement upon them other than what their consumers place upon them. If that were the case MSNBC and Fox would both be out of business. There are journalistic standards that would be applied if these people are journalists but they're not, they're sensationalists who make-up news by sensationalizing events.
ReplyDeleteAnd, from what I saw last night of the news, coverage was relatively tame and free of any obvious bias, even on Fox and MSNBC. (excluding their opinion segments) So I'm curious as to whether Chris sees any bias or "testing" having occurred.
Not sure when I will be able to watch television. This new job has me running a lot. But I will take your words on the reporting. I am certain if no fringe elements took place the media will have moved on until the next time.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm sure there were fringe elements there, but the press may have chosen to ignore them because there was bigger news going on. Or they may just have decided not to give the lunatic fringe a platform from which to get attention. Who knows.
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, a while back you said that since there was no proof in the video's that racist slurs were being hurled at the black democrats during their walk to the healthcare votes I thought I'd let you know that it's been disclosed that the video Fox News put forward as "proof" of the lies about those slurs was from AFTER the votes, not before. And that the accusations were alleged to have taken place BEFORE the votes. I just thought I'd let you know. While no evidence has come forward, this is more proof to me that Fox news will manipulate video evidence to their benefit. Similar to when they claimed that there were thousands of people at a rally and then showed old footage of a rally from another day instead of showing the footage of the 100 people who actually showed up.
I'm all for getting all sides of the story, but since I know you used to watch Fox news I thought I'd point out the level of dishonesty they will go to in order to sell a story.
Kevin....I think its funny that you think I watch Fox News. I rarely watch Fox News. I watch MSNBC more than any other channel when it comes to news programs. I tend to look more toward the news sites, which does include Fox News, for my information.
ReplyDeleteStill I have not seen definitive proof about the slurs being hurled while the group walked toward the Congress. The funny part of it all is that CSPAN showed the group walking all the way and you could hear the audio - to which I watched - and did not hear any slurs hurled. That is not to say that the CSPAN feed was picking up every word spoken.
Chris, it might be the perception you give with some of your "talking points" that seem to mirror precisely the views of Limbaugh and Beck. Sorry for the mis-characterization.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you watch MSNBC, it's as biased as Fox. For world news, I highly recommend BBC.
And I agree, no proof has been shown to validate the claims made, but that does not mean it didn't happen. And given the highly charged environment at the capital that day I can easily see this occuring. What I found more concerning are the repeated "errors" by Fox news when it comes to their reporting. When a news organization starts manipulating news instead of just reporting it, they are no longer journalists, they are propagandists.
Fox has done this repeatedly and it causes me great concern. I'm sure the others might have as well, but they haven't been caught doing so yet.
Kevin..I understand that points I make originally may appear to mirror or mimic Limbaugh, Beck or Hannity which is not my intent. There have been times that I posted a blog to only later in the day hear Limbaugh or Hannity say something similar. Perhaps they are reading my blog too.
ReplyDeleteAll kidding aside. I do try to watch more than America News programs when time allows. I am more able to get to the foreign news sites and get a lot more information there. It is amazing how other countries view our President and things that are going on in our Economy.
I will agree with you that Fox News does sensationalize things yet they are not alone. As I said in a blog entry last year, journalism died during the primaries and Presidential campaigns. No one did real investigative journalism because if they had, perhaps, we'd still be searching for our first mixed-race President. And we may have had a female President instead.
I tend to agree with Walter Cronkite who said that journalism died when we migrated to a 24 hour news cycle and combined it with a ratings system. This gave "news" channels the incentive to do non-news things to attract viewers. They also learned very quickly that fear made viewers watch the news so they package and sell fear now.
ReplyDeleteDoubt that? Just watch another nations news programs. They don't have nearly the layers of sensationalism and fear that ours do.
It's really quite sad what our news has devolved into.