In April, when the independent right began holding their local tea-party affairs to a news furor across the nation, Robert Gibbs asked, "What's a tea party?"
On Sept. 12, when the Tea Party Express hit Washington, the White House press office tried to pretend it didn't know where these protesters were coming from or what they represented. I find the tea-partiers insufferably annoying due to their lack of knowledge of history and their tendency to use the Glenn Beck definition of words, but at least they are colorful characters in the right-wing nut-o-sphere. The Democrats have been hyper-analyzing the potential turnout, as witnessed by the furor over the "millions" document. Thus, the White House response can only be interpreted two ways:
1. Ignorance. Due to a bevy of media micro-analyzers in the White House Press Office and a daily national intelligence briefing, we can dismiss this option as ridiculous.
2. Belief that they can sound tempered and cool and logical by feigning ignorance. Oh, please. With daily media coverage of the Tea Party Express, Fox News, Glenn Beck, etc., this dog doesn't hunt, this stance is asinine. Gibbs could take his lead from Examiner.com blogger Ryan Witt, who points out that grassroots political expression is fine, but Fox News' role as sponsor and cheerleader is a clear conflict of interest. Mr. Gibbs, such a position takes the high road, without making the White House look like it's trying to play the ignorance game, and playing it very badly indeed. Are you listening?
2 comments:
I'll support restrictions on Fox's political advocacy, if I can just get NPR to stop the damn 24-hour-per-day ad campaign for Obamacare.
But will All Things Considered be brought to you by Big Pharma or Archer Daniels Midland? Ah, freedom of choice.
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