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.
"2010 is the year when news organizations have decided to prove they get it. And get it. And get it some more. ...
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Part of the reason is a convergence of incentives for journalists and activists on left and right alike to exaggerate both the influence and exotic traits of the tea-party movement. In fact, there is a word for what poll after poll depicts as a group of largely white, middle-class, middle-aged voters who are aggrieved: Republicans. ...
"Indifference has given way to curiosity, and — in recent weeks especially — to a nearly manic obsession that sometimes seems to place the Tea Partiers somewhere near the suffragettes and the America-Firsters in the historical ranking of mass political movements."
Read the entire article at Politico
.................................................
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
SEE THE WEEK'S LATEST COVERAGE OF THE TEA PARTY:
• Sabotaging the Tea Party
• Scott Brown vs. the Tea Party
• The Tea Party's road to legitimacy
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Why would anyone look to the United States as a model?'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Kristi Noem and the politics of puppy killing
Talking Point Revelations in Republican's upcoming memoir may have doomed her political career
By The Week UK Published
-
Death toll in Brazil flooding tops 100
Speed Read The record rainfall is linked to El Niño, which has been exacerbated by climate change
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published