Is the media overselling the Tea Party?

Journalists have swung from indifference to "manic obsession" over the Tea Party movement, say Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith in Politico. It's time to get a grip

The news media arrived late to the Tea Party, but now it seems like journalists and pundits won't talk about anything else, say Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith in Politico. Unfortunately, the garden-variety conservative movement doesn't merit the importance it's been accorded by a hysterically fixated media and the "political class," on both the left and the right. After all, 31 percent of Americans have never even heard of the Tea Party movement, according to a new Pew poll, and another 30 percent have no opinion. Here's an excerpt from the article:

"2009 was the year when many journalists concluded they were slow to recognize the anti-government, anti-Obama rage that gave birth to the tea party movement.

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