Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Selective Outrage, Bogus Claims of Violence

By Dan Gainor

"It’s obvious journalists think the tea partiers are a dangerous, racist, homophobic bunch of loons. It’s not just wacky MSNBC or the liberal Washington Post spreading this garbage. It’s nearly every major news outlet. Behind them, pulling the strings like Geppetto, is the core of the liberal movement – “progressive” websites, lefty personalities and Democratic politicians all making the same claim.

They are all wrong. In some cases, they are openly lying. In most cases, they are taking hypocrisy to epic levels.

First of all, claims that the tea party movement is made up of dangerous “extremists” are disproven automatically by events. Tea party groups have been around more than a year throwing hundreds or even thousands of protest rallies. Yet, less violence has actually occurred than you might see at an NFL game between rival fans.

Yet, the theme of Tea Party-violence is everywhere. It even led to claims that former Gov. Sarah Palin’s, R-Alaska, used a "threatening" political strategy map. That map was made to take "aim" at 20 congressional races, using crosshairs. Critics were upset by the use of crosshairs to indicate each race. It’s as if the media expect us to forget that journalists use “target” and “aim” in stories all the time or that we live in a nation where 1,740 stores operate under the “Target” name and use a bullseye as a logo. But the media combined Palin's map with Palin’s use of the word “reload” to paint her as a member of the fringe element."

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