Howard Kurtz Shocked By Fox News Tea Party Promotion

It's nice to know that at some point, you can cross a line with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz:

The media coverage even became a factor in the reporting. At a Chicago demonstration, CNN's Susan Roesgen started arguing with a protester over why he referred to President Obama as a fascist. "I think you get the general tenor of this," she reported. "It's anti-government. Anti-CNN. This is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox." Fox anchor Shepard Smith later laughed off her words.

On the other hand, this brief rant by Fox Business Network anchor Cody Willard, posted by a Daily Kos contributor, didn't meet my definition of fair and balanced. Speaking of a young girl, Willard says: "Now she has to pay for the $800-billion Republican-Democrat fascist stimulus package . . . Guys, when are we going to wake up and start fighting the fascism that seems to be permeating this country?"

Guys, what happened to we're-just-covering-the-events?

Indeed, the two examples he provides were particularly jaw-dropping in the way the so-called media professionals behaved whilst in the field. You may recall that I noted the former example myself. What I cannot understand, however, is Kurtz's coy admonishment to Fox. "Guys, what happened to we're-just-covering-the-events?" What happened to it? The same thing that happened to, "Go to bed, or Santa won't come." It's a lie you stop believing when you turn nine years old.

I have no idea why Kurtz is pretending that a sincere non-sponsorship of these Tea Party activities on the part of the Fox News Channel was in play. Fox billed yesterday's events on teevee as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." They ran seventy-three promotions on the Tea Parties in the eight days leading up to them. Their hosts were plugged in to the public address system, encouraging the protesters. For a guy so quick to discern examples of "Obama adulation," it seems bizarre that Kurtz cannot seem to figure out something so plainly obvious.

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Comments

[Gregor53]

Well at least the tea industry is earning a profit this month. Next month, lets have a Car Party!!

[Virginia Plain]

Fox continues to live up to it's name.

Sly, cunning and only good for wagging Bushy tales!

[nowarpleez]

THE NEOCONFEDERACY
by Ian Masters from February 2005
...but little attention has been paid to the capture of U.S. domestic
policy by the neoconfederates. In both cases the man at the top, George W
Bush, shares the outlook and goals of these political movements that shape
his policies but, he avoids being branded or labeled as a member of the club
or cult as some would see it.

There is a memorable scene in the movie "Cold Mountain", where a wounded
Confederate soldier (Jude Law) is recuperating in hospital and a doctor is
doing the rounds with a gaggle of Scarlett O'Hara-type volunteers. The
doctor remarks that he can't grasp why these maimed and wounded boys,
farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, are all fighting for the plantation
owner's right to replace them with slaves.

Welcome to the new south, they have not so much risen, they have captured
the Republican party and are setting the nation's agenda. When LBJ signed
the Civil Rights Act in 1964 he knew the Democrats would lose the Dixiecrats
and, as Nixon's southern strategy proved him right, we now find the GOP
today firmly in the grip of neoconfederates.

Occasionally, like Trent Lott, the neoconfederates whistfully tip their
hand, but most are mislabeled as conservatives, like Tom DeLay, who appears
as a hand-charging, take-no-prisoners Christian soldier fighting against
taxes, terrorists and the godless liberals polluting the culture and
desecrating family values.

Read the full commentary at http://www.ianmasters.org/commentary.html

[wwwFIXNEWSNOWorg]

In 1980 the Court established a formal test for determining whether restrictions on commercial speech are constitutionally permissible–now familiar in the courts as the Central Hudson test. The Court defined commercial speech as "expression related solely to the economic interests of the speaker and its audience," and ruled that government may ban "forms of communication more likely to deceive the public than to inform it...

Fox promoted an event that both deceived the public and advanced its commercial interest.

[AndThenOneDay]

That was the ultimate absurdity of the teasackers. Not only do these people have elected representation, ie, the complaint of the original Boston Tea Party, they even have their own media empire devoted to their causes and criticizing all opposition. What else do they want?

[beckpod1]

Gee Fox News is a great source of entertainment...so is ABC,MSNBC,CBS..and CNN! But will a REAL News organisation please stand up!
We don't need you to CREATE the news...and report it. Just report things that really happened! And quit not reporting what really happened...if it's real..we need to hear it. Yes we are in a big financial crisis....we are also in a information crisis...and things will not get better.
The Sunday morning talk shows puts on well known liars...and give them the respect and let them talk..while we the public..at home....know what they will say...and are yelling back at the TV. We know both sides use smoke and mirrors......but George Steponopulis and the like...feed the questions and are soft on well known bullshit. Yet everyone is patriotic as they trash america and it's people!

[beyobi]

The word that comes to mind when I hear Fox News (my vote for "Oxymoron of the Year" award) is sedition. They are not promoting public discourse but inciting a very dangerous sector of American society to violence. On the 10th anniversary of Columbine it would be good to remember the damage that can be done to many by a few who feel disenfranchised.

[Carsy]

Great post, you have earned yourself a new fan.

[BikeFreak]

You are exactly right.

[LMPE]

Thank God that I'm currently in Russia and I only learned about the tea parties via HuffPo!

PS: don't worry, people over here like the US again.

[BikeFreak]

HAHAHAHAHA

Thank you. We like you, too. :)

[frontstreet]

I honestly can't figure out why so many established journalists participate in the fiction that Fox is a news channel. Fox is the media arm of the Republican party, period. Fox did not "cover" the teabagging; it promoted and participated in it.

[jonjon66]

Kurtz's spouse is a right-wing apperatchik.? No wonder he always seems to be kissing Republican talking points pretending to be neutral.

He's a see-through hack.

Thanks God for new media & MSNBC !

[ZeMongoose]

Kurtz's spouse is a right-wing apperatchik. The reason he's worth mentioning is that he's the alleged "media watchdog" for a once-prominent newspaper.

[shag11]

Why?

[realpolitic]

i could never listen to Kurtz because of his naivety and his fear of attacking the far right wing like Fox News.

[Bitsko]

Does Kurtz still have a job at Fox today?

[AndThenOneDay]

Not exactly. But his career may be viewed as a plea for employment at Fox. It will happen, Howie, it will happen. Just keep apologizing for the war, the right, angry mobs... You'll see. Someone at Fox will notice and take you in.

[Martha12]

250,000 people in total, for every single "tea party", out of a population of
300 , 000,000 !

Why that's a whopping...drum roll please....­......0.08­3333333333­33334% of the population!!

That's hardly a "national movement"!

What a joke! Sweeping the nation....­....please­!

Wow, what good job FOX news did promoting and advertising this! ;

From April 6 to April 15, Fox News aired at least 107 commercial promotions for their coverage of the tea party protests that took place on April 15. As Media Matters for America has documented, Fox News aggressively promoted the events in recent weeks, encouraging viewers to get involved with tea party protests across the country. Indeed, Fox News repeatedly described them as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." On April 15, four of the network's hosts broadcast live from various tea parties.

With a flood advertising like that, and all the program hosts going out to "cover" the "tea parties" and all they can drum up is........­.......0.0­8333333333­333334% of the population!!

So much for FOX bragging about it's ratings...­.......ROF­LMAO!

[Raleigh Dave]

From what I saw, about 25 to 30 percent of the people were children either yanked out of school or to young to attend school.

So lets make this fair and go with the only 20%, that would mean only 200,000 voting age adults showed up which makes that actual percentage of voting age protester .0666%.

OMG, its the percent of the devil. Run Sarah Run