Fox News’ Promotion Of Tea Parties Shatters Their Credibility

Original Link: http://donklephant.com/2009/04/13/fox-news-promotion-of-tea-parties-shatters-their-credibility/

By Justin Gardner

I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with Fox News lately because it’s becoming nothing more than a noise machine. Yes, I know they were laughable in the past, but at least they made an effort to appear like they were a news organization. Now there is ZERO doubt that they’re simply a mouthpiece for right wing interests.

Take this segment from Your World with Neil Cavuto where a guest host just flat out says it’s his “duty” to promote the tea parties.

What does one say to this except how can Fox call themselves a news station anymore? Because between this and Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, the channel has become a 24/7 anti-Obama activism machine. It is CRAZY.

What’s more, and as the title suggests, I think they’re actually destroying any credibility the tea parties could hope to have because who’s going to believe that these are actually grass root gatherings? I mean, who does Fox really think they’re fooling? Do they genuinely believe they can snow the rest of the electorate into buying this? Independents are laughing at this.

However, let’s face it, if you really scratch the surface on who’s organizing these events you’ll find a who’s who list of traditional right-wing money folks like Richard Mellon Scaife, etc. So these were never grass roots events in the first place. And, to their credit, it’s not like they’re hiding any of these facts. So good for them for being being transparent, but somebody needs to to tell them they can’t fake the grass roots. Because ultimately it’s nothing more than a glorified media event with no true passion behind it.

And that’s the difference between something like this and the Ron Paul movement last year. That had passion behind it. Ultimately Paul was revealed to be a fairly flawed messenger, but his message still inspired. What message is inspiring the tea party folk? Obama is a socialist? More tax cuts? Again, there’s no “there” there because it wasn’t created by the grass roots. And Fox News covering these events like they’re conservative “love ins” only guarantees that failure will come quicker as the hungry mouth of the right wing media rips away any pretense of authenticity.

So maybe I shouldn’t be frustrated by Fox after all. Because in their hurry to make the tea parties their own, they’re unwittingly destroying them.

Moving on…