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The networks first
■ Given its demonstrated influence,
network coverage of the Tea Party
has been minuscule.
Across all of their major programs,
ABC, CBS and NBC aired a
mere 61 stories or segments over
a twelve month period,
while another 141 items included
brief references to the movement.
Most of that coverage is recent;
the networks virtually refused
to recognize the Tea Party
in 2009 (just 19 stories),
with the level of coverage
increasing only after Scott
Brown’s election in
Massachusetts.
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■ Most of the networks’
2009 coverage was limited
to individual
Tea Party rallies:
six reports on the April 15,
2009 “tax day” protests,
along with five other
brief mentions;
just one report on the
July 4 rallies;
and six full reports on
the September 12 rally
on Capitol Hill,
plus eight brief mentions.
■ Such coverage is piddling
compared to that lavished on
protests serving liberal objectives.
The Nation of Islam’s
“Million Man March” in 1995,
for example, was featured in 21
evening news stories on just
the night of that march —
more than the Tea Party
received in all of 2009.
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The anti-gun
“Million Mom March”
in 2000 was preceded by
41 broadcast network
reports
(morning, evening,
and Sunday shows)
heralding its message,
including a dozen
positive pre-march
interviews with organizers
and participants,
a favor the networks
never granted
the Tea Party.
■ Network reporters were
dismissive of the first Tea
Party events in 2009.
“There’s been some grassroots conservatives who have
organized so-called Tea
Parties around the country,”
NBC’s Chuck Todd noted
on the April 15, 2009 Today,
but “the idea hasn’t
really caught on.”
On ABC’s World News,
reporter Dan Harris warned
viewers that “critics on the
Left say this is not a real
grassroots phenomenon
at all,
that it’s actually largely
orchestrated by people
fronting for corporate
interests.”
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Tea Party Terror
links in GREEN
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Tea Party Terror
links in GREEN
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