Wisconsin coverage vs Tea Party coverage.... REALLY???
 

Can ANYONE seriously continue to claim that network news, CNN, MSNBC, etc.... are not very clearly biased? REALLY? For all those FAUX News howlers, do you really think that you get straight reporting from the other news sources?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-no...ouble-standard

Last March, as thousands protested on Capitol Hill in the days before the passage of ObamaCare, CBS?s Nancy Cordes slammed it as ?a weekend filled with incivility,? while World News anchor Diane Sawyer painted the Tea Party as a violent gang, with ?protesters roaming Washington, some of them increasingly emotional, yelling slurs and epithets.? In August 2009, ABC anchor Charles Gibson complained how ?protesters brought pictures of President Obama with a Hitler-style mustache to a town hall meeting,? failing to mention that the signs were produced by Lyndon LaRouche?s wacky fringe movement, not the Tea Party or conservatives.

Over the past several days, the liberal demonstrations in Wisconsin (bolstered by the national Democratic Party and President Obama?s Organizing for America group) have included signs just as inflammatory as the ones that bothered the networks during the health care debate, including several showing Governor Scott Walker as Adolph Hitler. Others have likened Walker to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (?Scott Stalin?) and recently deposed Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak (?Walker = Mubarak?).


Another protest sign drew a cross-hairs over a picture of Governor Walker?s head, with the caption ?Don?t Retreat, Reload; Repeal Walker? ? an obvious parallel to a Facebook map posted by Sarah Palin last year, although that much-criticized graphic placed the target sights on maps of congressional districts, not any politician?s face.

Yet none of these signs in the hands of liberal protesters have drawn the slightest complaint from network journalists. MRC analysts examined all 53 ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news stories, segments and anchor briefs on the Wisconsin protests from Thursday, February 17 (when they first drew major national coverage) through Monday, February 21. While eight of the 53 stories (15%) visually displayed one or more of the signs described above, none elicited a single remark from the network correspondents.


Instead, network journalists actually suggested the ?Walker = Mubarak? theme of some of the more inflammatory signs. On Sunday?s This Week, for example, ABC?s Christiane Amanpour linked Wisconsin to the uprisings against oppressive dictatorships: ?Populist frustration is boiling over this week, as we?ve said, not just in the Middle East, but in the middle of this country as well.? So did NBC?s Brian Williams on Friday?s Nightly News: ?From the Mideast to the American Midwest tonight, people are rising up. Citizens? uprisings are changing the world.? NBC?s on-screen caption: ?The Uprising at Home.?

ABC?s Diane Sawyer opened Thursday?s World News by empathizing with the protesters:

Today, we saw America's money trouble meet a reality, a human reality, as teachers, nurses, tens of thousands of state workers took to the streets in this country, protesting cuts by the governors, saying to these governors, a promise is a promise. One lawmaker looked out at the crowds gathered in the Wisconsin capital today said it?s like Cairo moved to Madison.

The only time network journalists fretted about the Wisconsin protests getting out of hand was when their favorite bogeyman, the Tea Party, became involved ? as ABC?s Barbara Pinto did on Saturday?s Good Morning America: ?Today, those demonstrations are expected to get more intense and more polarizing ? we?re watching police officers arrive here this morning. And that is because the Tea Party is staging a counter-demonstration of its own today.?

As of Monday night, none of the networks had shown the sign placing Walker?s face in the crosshairs. But last March, when the graphic first appeared on Palin?s Facebook page, those same networks howled almost instantly. CBS?s Nancy Cordes, on the March 24, 2010 Evening News, was typical: ?Democrats complain Sarah Palin is also using violent words and imagery. On Twitter, she urges conservatives: ?Don?t retreat. Instead, reload.? And the Web site of her political action committee posts bull?s-eyes on districts of vulnerable Democrats.?

After Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot and severely wounded in January by a psychotic man unconnected to the Tea Party or any other political cause, the networks highlighted Palin?s map in 24 stories in just the first six days. ?That map Sarah Palin put up on Facebook last year, targeting Congresswoman Gifford?s seat, made Gifford nervous, even then,? NBC?s Lee Cowan scolded on Today back on January 10.

Even the most timeworn chants seemed to outrage journalists when it came to the Tea Party. Back in March, CBS?s Bob Schieffer was appalled by, among other things, anti-ObamaCare protesters chanting ?kill the bill.? He lectured on the March 21, 2010 Face the Nation: ?A year-long debate that?s been rancorous and mean from the start turned even nastier yesterday. Demonstrators protesting the bill poured into the halls of Congress shouting ?kill the bill? and ?made in the USSR.??

This weekend in Wisconsin, protesters also chanted ?kill the bill? (CBS?s The Early Show ran a clip on Friday) but on this Sunday?s Face the Nation, Schieffer had no negative words for these protesters as he set up a discussion of the issue: ?Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets again in Madison, Wisconsin as they marched to protest major cuts in state spending. The question is, will the protests spread to other states where similar proposals to cut spending are also being contemplated??

When it comes to the Tea Party, network correspondents seem to enjoy playing ?civility cop,? emphasizing a few radical and inflammatory signs in ways that imply that the entire cause is extreme. Radical and inflammatory signs were easily found at the Wisconsin protests, but the networks uttered not one peep of disapproval ? overwhelming evidence of a double standard that should embarrass any network journalist who still purports to be fair and balanced.

Ummmm.... the Wisconsin folks actually have something to protest about.

These people ARE AMERICANS! Republicans/Democrats, extreme left/right, and every in between - real working people like everyone one of us here.

What you had with the tea party was pure all out hate, a shit ton of racism, and more stupidity than America could handle.

Even trying to compare the two, truly... is a smack to every Americans face.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/am...564409366.html

for unbiased news go to Al Jazeera ;)

Wow, I guess you really have drunk the koolaid buddy. I've been to a ton of Tea Party rallies, some of which started when the first stimulus package was pushed through, BY BUSH. Instead of being a sheep and allowing yourself to be spoon fed crap only from voices that you agree with, why don't you try actually going to a Tea Party rally sometime and finding out the truth for yourself with your own eyes? Or would that be too much of a potential threat to your comfortably woven nest of self deception?

LOL!!! My point is that NO news is unbiased. I try to spread out my news coverage as much as possible. People who block out certain avenues of news and only listen to stuff that they know will fit their own world view are foolishly sustaining their ignorance, IMHO.


:)

The 1st Tea Party protest was in 2009, which had no ground until Obama signed the ARRA stimulus - which was 10 days before the protest.

I posted pictures of the tea party protest we went to here... so you'll have to try again.

BTW, this still doesn't change the fact that comparing the tea party one sided protests to the Wisconsin protests, is a smack to every Americans face.

My wife and I attended one at the end of November 2008, in Fort Lauderdale. They didn't even have a name for it at that point, but all the same people I met there were at the subsequent rallies also.

So you still think that you get unbiased coverage by sticking only with news sources that match your world view?

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Did you actually read the article? Do you seriously think that these news sources don't have an agenda??? Are you truly that blinded by your personal views?

There are so many things that can be said against your tea party banter but I think you do a good enough job for me... as most of the tea party has done to themselves at every rally

Yes... I seriously don't think they are the same, so it's impossible to have an agenda that you could compare. I have no personal views towards either until I heard the idiot right say, and I quote "Those liberals in Wisconsin" - THEN my personal views came in, because only douche bags would think it's only liberals.

Ummmm.... You're here trying to compare the Wisconsin protests to the tea party protests, and you're trying to preach to me about news sources that match my view?

Buddy, just the idea that you're trying to compare those two shows exactly what your news sources are. And as for me, I watch/read many of them - actually, I have no single or common source I get news from.

And those weren't protests, that was a town hall meeting you went to, that came about because of the fear of the black man becoming president and not because of Bush's bailout - which most supported when he did it.

Bush did his first bailout in 2001, he did 9 total.... and it wasn't until AFTER Obama was elected that the town halls/protests fired up - and Bush's bailouts where then also blamed on Obama, heavily.

Really? Sorry, I didn't realize that you were there.

But anyway, you are wrong. It wasn't a town hall meeting, it was out in the street, in front of the federal courthouse, and no one there gave a crap about Obama being black.... my wife is darker than he is! As well as my buddy Allen West, who was also there, (and ended up a congressman this term), along with people of all kinds and backgrounds that had a big problem with the federal government completely overstepping their 10th amendment limits. If those don't qualify as AMERICANS to you, I don't know what to say.

And just for the record, I get my news from as many sources as possible, since all of them, including FOX, BBC, Al Jazeera, etc, etc.... have an agenda, and a slant, both in the wording of their reporting, as well as what stories are covered, and which are not.

you lived in Europe, you know that in hardly any other free country there is a news source that is so big AND so biased as is Fox News. And that in hardly any other free country the media is as biased as it is in the US (to both sides).
Therefore it surely is necessary to watch more than one source to get the full picture, but that requires a certain IQ to realize that. the common idiot sticks to the source where he likes the news the best.

and i wasn't joking about Al Jazeera btw

It was a Nov protest marketing the national protest day/week/month, where people in Fl got together and got signatures to remind Obama to keep his promises. Yes, some people got together 'outside of the city halls' in cities all over, and went against many things - being that it was national protest day.

The biggest message, across the country, was without question Obama's stimulus plan, and blaming Bush's bailout on Obama.

No, I don't consider the tea party protesters to be equal Americans in ideals to those in Wisconsin. Nor your protest in FL - it's not anywhere on the same scale of things. Most of the tea party protests were laughed at by most Americans... what's going on in Wisconsin isn't a laughing mater.

Pick up a copy of the NewYork Times...or flip on CBS,ABC or NBC.
They all have their agenda.Fox news is exactly as far to the right as MSNBC is to the left.

The point of the article had nothing to do with the merits of either set of views, it had to do with the fact that the media excoriated anyone on the right that compared leaders to Hitler, or drew targets, or even yelled "Kill the Bill". When the public sector union members do the EXACT SAME THINGS, it is not mentioned at all... If you can't see the point here, then I don't think you ever will.

What you're not getting is the tea party was almost all right wing/republican, with zero super left, and even very few dems.

What Wisconsin is, is left/right, republican/dems, up/down, everything in the middle, ect.

So it's not the same thing, Wisconsin isn't left/dem - they are all sides, these are people that have fought for what they have, what they actually created, what they improved already, and now they are standing up and saying hell no to being pushed back because of bad leadership.

Truly, if you can't see the difference - you're blinded by your right wing hate that is feed to you from the media.

You get the news you want. You already know what you believe, and your choice of news just helps you feel better about it. There's a news channel for everyone. Yay!

this thread and every poster within has been reported to the FBI...

how dare you speak out against the govt controlled media...





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The FIRST modern day "tea party" was not in 2009,10 or 08 but in 2007.



As far as the protests in WI. Here is what former union leaders and FDR have to say about public unions "collective bargaining"

Former labor leader Mr. Meany

Former President of the AFL-CIO George Meany on government unions:
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”
Founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create. Government workers, however, don’t generate profits. They merely negotiate for more tax money. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers.

FDR:

FDR considered this “unthinkable and intolerable.” "in terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress—a right available to every... citizen."

:thumbsup

wow, this is why the idiot crowd is called the idiot crowd.

Yes child, the union protesters are real americans but the tea party protesters aren't.
hahaha, got it

Ummm... the Tea Party movement today, is NOT anywhere in line with Ron Paul - and is NOT the same movement, at all.

Isn't a teacher a State worker? You don't think a teacher turns a profit when they churn children out that produce for our nation?

Moron, the tea party was right wing extremists...The people in Wisconsin aren't.

And you showing up to back this up, OVERLY proves now that I'm right.

wait, are you implying that FoxNews is not fair and balanced?

dear idiot, despite what your leftist blogs spoon feed you, the tea party is made up of tax payers who understand the idiocy of continually spending what you don't have.
They're tax payers who want to rein in out of control governmental spending. If you're calling THAT one sided, you're a fool (no surprise)

Do we have a budget deficit? Do we have 15 trillion (by the end of the year) in debt and 114 trillion dollar unfunded liability just in the federal sector? I not believe that is called "profit". :Oh crap

What gives the teacher more rights than their fellow citizen?

dear idiot, the tea party is made up of tax paying americans. the wisconsin protesters are made up of union thugs and an ultra minority of wisconsin voters who are out of touch with society. The public voted. now the losers protest.

what is needed is a Repub Pres to win in 2012, they will be able to fix the deficit, no problem.

I couldn't name a left blog, just like you couldn't, ass stain. Good god, just the idea that you, again, try to make this a left thing - shows how pathetic and small minded you are.

Like any idiot doesn't know it's made up of tax payers, your stupid topic twists are so lame. And only a micro amount went off about gov spending, without question the tea party movement did not have a single focus, it was all over the place.. From claiming Obama isn't a citizen, to 70+ year olds saying down with social care when they're all on it, to spending, and... most importantly, BLAMING THE OTHER SIDE for EVERY PROBLEM - creating separation.

Which is EXACTLY what the extreme right is trying to do with Wisconsin. The only problem is, some of those people are Tea Party Members - and the more you idiots do this, the more it shows your true colors across the nation.

Dear idiot, despite your idiot rants, the tea party is focused on out of control spending.
you can rant and scream all day in your little boy voice but that doesn't change the facts.

go ahead, little boy, scream some more. we'll believe you. really :1orglaugh

here dopey, little boy. read up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement
"""The Tea Party is an American populist[1][2][3] political movement, which is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian,[4][5] and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009.[6][7][8] It endorses reduced government spending,[9][10] opposition to taxation in varying degrees,[10] reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficit,[9] and adherence to an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution.[11]""""


I know, they're wrong too. only the mighty "thedoc" knows the truth. hahahaha

Moron... yes you can claim they had a single focus but when actually listening to them, watching video, seeing pictures, watching even fox news about it - we can clearly see, without question, no doubt about it - they did not all agree on that focus.

it is much worse than that, it is not government controlled media but corporate controlled media.... and that is just scary as hell :helpme

What was I wrong about shit stain? Your twists get more lame with every damn post you make.

dear capt jackass, nice to see you back from the graveyard shift at mcdonalds..

please tell me how the tea party and walker are reigning in govt spending..

all this does is allow govt to have more control of employees rights and their money..

and if this happens in wisc., it will happen in other states..

the tea party doesnt understand that this will ultimately fuck them all in the ass..







.

dear idiot. again, what you imagine is not factual.

The public unions have no right to collectively bargain. They have a right to petition the government, just like every other citizen.

Not factual because you say so? That proves that it is factual..... simply you saying it's not factual, 100% means I'm without question your god and I'm correct.