The Media Gets A Clue

Filed in National by on January 25, 2010

NBC’s Chuck Todd notices that the Tea Party movement isn’t a “grassroots” movement like it’s been portrayed by the media:

Chuck Todd actually gets this right on Meet The Press. Gregory played a clip of Dick Armey trying to say that the teabaggers represent the “center” of American politics as bizarre as that may sound and it was Chuck Todd who corrected that lie. FOX News grabbed them, promoted them, sent their hosts to caress and nurture them and were the first network in the history of broadcasting to become true political activists that worked to undermine a newly elected president.

(Videotape)FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R-TX): This is the broad center of American politics. Look at the polling data. Right now the tea party polls higher than the Republicans and the Democrats. And it is becoming increasingly clear to the electorate out there, and they’re expressing their understanding, it is the Democrat majority in Congress and the president that’s on the liberal fringe and we are on the center. There’s no doubt about it.

TODD: I don’t know they are in the center. I mean when we did our own polling on this it’s clear that the tea party gets a big benefit because there is one news organization that gives them a huge bump all the time. I mean they are favorable among Fox viewers is through the roof and the rest of the country sort of doesn’t know a lot about these folks. But the message of the tea party sort of saying the government doesn’t work, these institutions and we’ve got to shrink the size of government, is tapping into what we were just discussing before which is this — not disgust but sort of this distrust of all institutions that are out there. Government included.

Will the media also admit now that Faux News is a branch of the Republican Party? They also feature several potential Republican presidential candidates on a daily basis and were Scott Brown campaign headquarters during the election. Seriously though, is this what our politics will turn into because of the new court ruling? Will all our candidates now be media stars?

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Comments (6)

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  1. A. price says:

    “Seriously though, is this what our politics will turn into because of the new court ruling? Will all our candidates now be media stars?”

    it wasn’t like that BEFORE the court ruling? i DO think like all superficial fads… leg warmers, pogs, Branjelena……. this one will eventually come to an end. And when it does, Saint Sarah will suddenly switch sides and realize progressive thought is the way to go….. or she will try and finnish up her term as gov.

  2. donviti says:

    bread crumbs for the peasants is all this is. He will say some bullshit that pisses us off next week. More often than not this “brilliant analyst” is so far off base comments like this are meaningless.

    The more I listen to this guy the less I care for him.

  3. Chuck Todd is as conventional as conventional wisdom gets. That’s why it’s interesting that even he sees the truth about the teabaggers.

  4. cassandra m says:

    But what Todd was able to do in this answer was to go back to the thing we really liked him for at one time — take a clear-eyed look at the numbers behind these teabaggers. When he was reading polls for MSNBC he was unique in that he really understood it and did not have to rely on any elses’ interpretation. Once he got into the WH Press Corps he, too, started taking the easy way out.

  5. Bob White says:

    Yeah, one media entity does push the tea party movement — and the rest spend their time tearing it down. Nevertheless, it keeps on growing. Seems to me that should tell you something, especially as the tea party folks are now winning elections for the GOP.

  6. donviti says:

    There is more comments that prove these guys go the other way. Their rare moments of getting things “right” are far outweighed by their ridiculous mind numbing ability to ignore facts and spew conservative bullshit.

    Chucky gives us a few soundbytes out of the hours time he spends on NBC a month and I’m supposed to be gaga over him.