I found an interesting article in a recent Iowa State Daily. A college student who “gets it” about the First Amendment right to assemble for a cause. I share some of the article below. The article comes as I make plans to attend the Tax Day Tea Party at the State House in Des Moines.
As Americans, we take important facets of our daily lives for granted – whether we admit it or not.
As Americans, we have all used our right to assembly at one instance or another. Boy Scouts, book clubs, labor unions and prayer groups – all protected by the First Amendment.
Assembly can be a meeting of five or a march of 5,000. As long as it’s peaceful, our government cannot – under any circumstances – impede on that everlasting right.
So while a college student is American enough to understand the concept of Americans joining together to protest such things as raising taxes, many of the media are only to happy to publish negative spins on the tea party events that are planned all over the United States and some foreign countries.
I certainly am not surprised that CNN and MSNBC are taking a holier than thou approach to Americans who rally to protest the constant attempt to tax citizens locally, state wide, and nationally. It is not enough to throw stones at FOX News for their promotion of the tea party events they also make fun of Americans who chose to participate.
I find the national media put downs to be offensive and disgusting. These media types must love to part with their hard earned money and delight in spouting that President Obama should not pay attention as thousands of Americans express their intense displeasure at being taxed beyond the breaking point!
Portraying the tea parties as “anti-government” is one way to spin what is happening with the tax payer revolts. If the “government” really cared about American citizens, if our elected officials on any level of government would be more about saving money instead wild spending we would not be taking the day off, driving miles and miles to take part in our Constitutional right to rally.
The media guy that calls people like me “crazy” is totally missing the point. Americans can and Americans will express themselves at the Tea Party Events. I for one am thankful that I still am allowed by law to rally. At least for now, this right has not been taken away from me and for many others.
I share below some of what the media has to say about Americans being American. I report- you decide. How does it feel to be called crazy and anti-government by the media of whom so many are pro-Obama which makes “real people” like me a threat?
Cable news networks CNN and MSNBC are calling out their competitor, Fox News, by raising questions Monday about the propriety of Fox’s highly promotional coverage of the burgeoning tax day tea party movement.
On MSNBC, “Hardball” host Chris Matthews was flabbergasted by a Fox tea party promotion promising “fair and balanced” coverage of the events.
“How much of this is real people,” Matthews asked, “and how much of it is good old partisan politics?”
While WND has found information for more than 700 tea parties, the American Family Association is reporting Tax Day protests for 2,000 cities – and Tax Day Tea Party claims the movement has now spread overseas.
With less than two days before citizens take to the streets, the mainstream media are beginning to report the widespread movement – but many major outlets are doing so in critical columns and television reports.
Media buzz
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote, “Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people.”
He said the tea parties are not an accurate representation of public sentiment.
“They’re AstroTurf (fake grassroots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects,” he wrote.
MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” denigrated the movement with puns for 13 minutes, calling it “insanitea” organized by conservative activists. She laughed out loud as she disparaged “tea-baggers” during the broadcast.
MSNBC’s David Shuster accused Fox News of “fluffing” the Tax Day tea parties after the news channel became one of few major media outlets to consistently report on the events.
Newsweek Senior Editor Daniel Gross said the movement was “AstroTurf” rather than grassroots because he alleges it began from the top down, according to NewsBusters.
“I think, when it comes to teabagging, the president should probably just ignore this,” Gross said. “He’s got 10 other things on his plate, you know, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the banking crisis, the overall economic situation, health care. To get bogged down with a – you know, what seems to be a fringe group of people throwing consumer products into the lakes and rivers of this nation doesn’t seem to be worthy of his attention. …”
However, hundreds of U.S. dailies and local news stations are announcing Tax Day tea parties in various towns and cities.
As the ISU college student points out in his article:
Today, we find ourselves in the midst of numerous issues that should have us thirsting to use this freedom.
Watch for me waving my homemade sign. I will be in the thick of things and proud to be doing so! I am thirsting to use this freedom!
