National Equality vs. Tea Party: Which march matters for media?

[alp227]

After the anti-Obama “Tea Party” protest in Washington in September, Fox News and other conservatives professed outrage that the rest of the media ignored an event that drew so many people. But how did Tea Party coverage compare to that given the gay rights march on Washington a month later?

The two protests were similar in size and uniqueness: Credible estimates of the Tea Party turnout were in the high tens of thousands (CJR, 9/14/09), while estimates for the gay march ranged from tens of thousands (AP, 10/12/09) to around 200,000 (Time, 10/12/09). A national gay march hadn’t taken place in 10 years, and conservatives likewise hadn’t assembled in such numbers in Washington since the Promise Keepers rally in 1997.

The origins of the marches, though, were quite different. The National Equality March was organized primarily by grassroots activists, many of them youth, with little support—and, in fact, some opposition—from well-funded national LGBT organizations. One of the main organizers of the anti-Obama rally, on the other hand, was FreedomWorks, a “free-market” group directed by GOP corporate lobbyist (and former House Majority Leader) Dick Armey, whose clients include pharmaceutical and oil companies. FreedomWorks was also behind much of the organizing and tactics of the aggressive town hall protests against healthcare reform during the summer (Think Progress, 4/14/09, 7/31/09).

Tea Partiers also got millions of dollars’ worth of publicity courtesy of Fox News, which has been heavily promoting those protests since they started shortly after Obama’s inauguration. “Tea Party” has come up more than 300 times on Fox during Obama’s administration, with viewers at times directly exhorted to protest, for example, by Glenn Beck (9/9/09): “Go to a restaurant, a bar, a neighbor’s house. Gather together—Republicans, independents, Democrats —because I think we all have had enough.”

Read more: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3955

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. WHich is why FOX News should be designated an arm of the GOP

and dealt with as such by the IRS and the FEC. In effect, FOX News GAVE tens of millions of dollars in FREE advertising to the GOP. What they have done with the Teabaggers is naked, blatant political activity and it should be treated as such. There is nothing even remotely similar in regard to the literal telethon for the Teabag movement on FOX News.

It should also be noted that the corruption extends to the other American media networks and outlets that KNOW what is happening on FOX is pure political propaganda and they do publicly object.