Goldberg complained about media treatment of Tea Party activists: "These fringe events at Tea Party rallies, whether they're nasty signs or these alleged shouting of racial slurs, which I am convinced at this point never happened, this fits into the narrative of most mainstream news reporters, that the Tea Party people are not too smart, they're bigots. So when you see a nasty sign, which I'm against and you're against, but when you see one of these signs, they report it as, if not typical, certainly not unusual."

Goldberg soon highlighted charges of racism by conservative activists recently made by Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, and noted the irony that Cohen himself has been the target of racist and anti-Semitic attacks by fellow Democrats who want his predominantly black congressional district in Tennessee to elect a black candidate in his place. Goldberg:

Steve Cohen is a white Jewish guy representing a predominantly black district in Tennessee, in Memphis. Two years ago, he ran in the Democratic primary against a black woman, and a black minister sent out fliers, saying, "Don't vote for Steve Cohen" -- are you ready for this? -- "Because Steve Cohen and the Jews" -- that's a quote -- "hate Jesus." Wonderful. This year, he's running against a black former mayor of Memphis who -- in the Democratic primary, and that person says we need a black person in this seat. And his campaign manager, another black person, says this seat was set aside, this seat was set aside for black people. Now, Steve Cohen, what does he do when, when he's confronted with this kind of racism aimed at him? He turns it around and calls racist names to the Tea Party people.

Below is a complete transcript of the relevant segment from the Wednesday, April 7, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC: 

LAURA INGRAHAM: In the "Weekdays with Bernie" segment tonight, the Factor's been looking at the coverage of the Tea Party movement, with many outlets making a big deal out of the alleged racial incidents at the Capitol Hill protests during the health care vote. But around the same time, this vile anti-war demonstration took place near the White House.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, HOLDING AMERICAN FLAG: We're going to show what you this flag means to us right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George Bush and Dick Cheney are still at large. They are fugitives from justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They capture goat herders in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they send them to Gitmo where the CIA comes in and has them raped, has them raped. They bring in prostitutes to rape these deeply religious men.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, HOLDING BURNING FLAG: We are done being servants to an unrighteous cause, and this flag is no longer my master.

INGRAHAM: Didn't hear much about that now, did we? Joining us now from Miami is Fox News media analyst Bernie Goldberg, whose column on the Tea Party coverage can be found on BernardGoldberg.com. Now, Bernie, that video was striking. And the sentiment-

BERNIE GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS ANALYST: Absolutely.

INGRAHAM: -expressed, the vile comments. But you've got to search for the coverage of that. I mean, you had to, you had to hunt, with those little metal detectors, to find that coverage anywhere. What gives?

GOLDBERG: Right. Let me see if I understand this. Every fringe event at a Tea Party rally, real or imagined -- real or imagined -- is covered by the "lamestream media," but flag burning at an anti-war rally isn't covered. And, you know, I've been thinking about, well, why is this? Well, because these fringe events at Tea Party rallies, whether they're nasty signs or these alleged shouting of racial slurs, which I am convinced at this point never happened, this fits into the narrative of most mainstream news reporters, that the Tea Party people are not too smart, they're bigots. So when you see a nasty sign, which I'm against and you're against, but when you see one of these signs, they report it as, if not typical, certainly not unusual. But when you see the flag burning, and just so you know my take on this, while I'm against flag burning, I think it is protected speech by the First Amendment. That's not the point, though. When you see flag burning, they ignore it because-

INGRAHAM: Makes the left look bad. It makes the left look bad. That's why they ignore it, Bernie. It makes those, makes those people in the media who support the left look bad, too, by association, right?

GOLDBERG: And I'll give you a specific person that it makes look bad. After the election, after the inauguration, rather, my book, A Slobbering Love Affair came out. The theme of the book is that the mainstream media early on went into the tank for Barack Obama. So now you have Tea Party people, who are not only against big government, but they're against Barack Obama. So anything you could do to make them look bad, and make their fringe events look typical, you'll do it. And this is why Bill O'Reilly and you know, you know Bill. He sits in for you on this show every now and then.

INGRAHAM: I'm in trouble now.

GOLDBERG: That's why Bill O'Reilly and I say, say it has moved from near bias to corruption. That's a big leap. But they made the leap.

INGRAHAM: Bernie, I love some of the headlines, and I'm going to get into this Steve Cohen issue. I love some of the headlines here. "Black Congressmen Run Gauntlet of Racial Slurs," "Tea Party Turns Into Klan Rally," "Racism Simmers Below the Surface on Health Care." It's always the worst motive. And you see that, the famous shouting video that somehow turned into a spitting video. And just to, just to refocus on what you said earlier, Bernie, you think that these allegations made by John Lewis and other things that were said never happened. Now, why do you think that?

GOLDBERG: Well, I'm not sure John Lewis ever said they happened, as a matter of fact. One congressman from Nevada, I think, a black congressman, said he heard the "N" word shouted 15 times. Well, you know what? That's a lot of times for somebody to be shouting a nasty thing like that. You think somebody would have heard it. John Lewis, whose politics I have said I don't buy, but I've known him for a long time. I used to work in the South for CBS News. I think he's a man of integrity. Let him come on your radio show, this television show. Let him go on CNN, anyplace.

INGRAHAM: And hear about it.

GOLDBERG: Yes, because he hasn't said that yet. The spitting incident, when you hear that a white guy spit at a black congressman, then you have a certain image. But that's not what happened. That's not, even if the guy got some saliva on the congressman, which is rude, that isn't racist.

INGRAHAM: That's Barney Frank on any given interview, so I wouldn't worry about that. Congressman Steve Cohen, though, you want to get into this because he gave a radio interview yesterday, getting a lot of heat for it. Tell us about it, the Democrat from Tennessee.

GOLDBERG: While we're looking at him, let me read you what he said. He said, "The Tea Party people are kind of without robes and hoods. They have really shown a really hard-core, angry side of America that is against any type of diversity. We saw opposition to African-Americans, hostility towards gays, hostility to anybody who wasn't, you know, a clone of George Wallace's fan club." Okay, so the Tea Party people to Congressman Cohen are a bunch of Ku Klux Klansmen.

INGRAHAM: Have the water cannons out, yes.

GOLDBERG: Yes, except this is obviously liberal hate speech. And since liberals are so concerned about civility, it would be nice if at least one of them came out and denounced this. But here's the really interesting part. This is the interesting part. Steve Cohen is a white Jewish guy representing a predominantly black district in Tennessee, in Memphis. Two years ago, he ran in the Democratic primary against a black woman, and a black minister sent out fliers, saying, "Don't vote for Steve Cohen" -- are you ready for this? -- "Because Steve Cohen and the Jews" -- that's a quote -- "hate Jesus." Wonderful. This year, he's running against a black former mayor of Memphis who -- in the Democratic primary, and that person says we need a black person in this seat. And his campaign manager, another black person, says this seat was set aside, this seat was set aside for black people. Now, Steve Cohen, what does he do when, when he's confronted with this kind of racism aimed at him? He turns it around and calls racist names to the Tea Party people.

INGRAHAM: Classic.

GOLDBERG: And he does it just to win a stinking election. That is really disgraceful.

INGRAHAM: No, it's classic. But this is the last desperate card that is always thrown down in these types of incidents. And Bernie, we appreciate it as always.

GOLDBERG: Thanks, Laura.

There is no doubt that the piece by Shannon Travis, Reporter's notebook: What really happens at Tea Party rallies, deserves credit for being one of the first to offer fair coverage of the Tea Party movement outside of Fox News.  NewsBusters has seen the value in such reporting from CNN.  As Matthew Balan reported yesterday evening, "Travis's article is a welcome breath of fresh air, especially when you consider that it was former CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen who lashed out at an early point against the Tea Party movement a year ago in April 2009."

That comparison alone raises some questions, however.  How does a network which featured the Roesgen debacle, suddenly find respect for the movement?  How does the organization whose award-winning journalists refer to the people as ‘tea baggers', seek to dispel the degrading stereotypes propagated in the media?  And how does a network, who just over a week ago minimized a Nevada Tea Party Event of roughly 20,000 people, by speculating that ‘at least dozens' were in attendance, suddenly believe the movement to be legitimate and important?

Most importantly, is the network actively seeking a shift to more fair and balanced coverage, or are they seeking the admiration of conservatives driving the ratings of Fox News?  Michelle Malkin for one is skeptical, calling it a desperate move for a ‘ratings-starved CNN'. 

The curiosity of the CNN shift has only been exacerbated by the network's desire to have the story covered by conservative writers.

(Explanation after the jump...)

Malkin received an e-mail from the publicity department at CNN which read:

"Hi there,

I thought this might be an interesting post for you- a behind-the-scenes piece about the Tea Party and how the stereotypes don't tell the full story. Let me know if you need anything else!"

Promoting the piece in this manner feels like someone fishing for free publicity.  If CNN legitimately wants to make a move to a more centered vantage point, or pander to a different base altogether, then it will happen by virtue of their content, not because they use conservative blogs for cheap publicity. 

But Malkin hasn't been the only one actively sought after to cover the story.  The Media Research Center's Brent Bozell was contacted by CNN, with an e-mail which read in part:

"Clearly our critics from the left don't think we should be covering the Tea Party movement in the way we are and clearly CNN thinks it's a legitimate and important story.

If anyone from Newsbusters is interested in this angle - let me know."

Legitimate and important, no doubt, but where have they been for two years? 

In addition to Malkin and Bozell being contacted, your humble correspondent also received a feeler e-mail to see if he was interested in covering the new Tea Party angle.  The e-mail contained a copy of the Bozell correspondence and a quick note which read:

"Sent this to Brent. Thought you might want to see. We're going to be posting a story about our journeys with the Tea Party Express later today. And we're also planning to travel with them to Michigan for their big anti-Stupak rallies later this week."

As stated earlier, CNN deserves credit for when they get something right from a fairness perspective, which they clearly have done in this case.  I, for one, applaud the network for their efforts, and look forward to future pieces of this nature. 

But why does the network feel it necessary to ask conservatives to promote the piece for them?

Photo Credit:  Tracy Sabo/CNN

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The three network morning shows have skipped any coverage of an attack on a Tea Party bus in Harry Reid's Nevada, reportedly by supporters of the Democratic Senator. In contrast, FNC's Fox and Friends alerted viewers to the story on Tuesday. Co-host Steve Doocy explained, "Now, apparently, they have identified who some of the egg throwers are. Turns out, they're supporters of Harry Reid."

Doocy continued, "And, in fact, a member of the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a big union."

Back in March, when Tea Party protesters were accused of inciting violence against Democratic politicians in Washington, these same morning shows couldn't get enough of the topic. On March 25, Good Morning America reporter Pierre Thomas worried that "angry talk" from Sarah Palin and others could "push a deranged person over the edge."

CBS's Early Show correspondent Nancy Cordes fretted on March 25 about "violent rhetoric" from the GOP. What about actual violence, allegedly, from liberal and Democratic activists?

Fox and Friends' Gretchen Carlson on Tuesday pointed out how attacks on tea partiers didn't seem to fit the established narrative: "I thought that it was the Tea Party people who were the violent ones? Ha, ha. I'm just joking."

A transcript of the April 6 segment, which aired at 8:08am EDT, follows:

STEVE DOOCY: Meanwhile, let's talk a little bit about something you probably have seen on the blogosphere. You have also seen here on Fox News, Tea Party Express is now traveling across the country. Yesterday they were in St. Louis. A couple days they were in Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nevada. And, it's interesting, I think I saw this on Breitbart.com. As the Tea Party Express bus pulled in, it was pelted with eggs. [Video of eggs hitting Tea Party Express bus.] There you go. You see one right there.

BRIAN KILMEADE: There's Andrew Breitbart.

DOOCY: It's interesting. Now, apparently, they have identified who some of the egg throwers are. Turns out, they're supporters of Harry Reid. And, in fact, the member of the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, a big union.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: I thought that it was the Tea Party people who were the violent ones? Ha, ha. I'm just joking.

KILMEADE: That has been the theme, absolutely.

CARLSON: I mean, hasn't that been the theme and the attack that it was the tea party members themselves who were the ones who were being violent? I understand that some of these Reid supporters were directing the Tea Party people in the wrong direction so they were not going to get to the actual rally that they were trying to get to.

Everyone knows Fox isn't "the most trusted name in news," so who is? You guessed it - and at least one media tycoon agrees. Speaking at the University of Missouri as a guest-lecture, Craig Newmark - Craigslist founder and informal Obama technology-advisor - argued that Comedy Central is the most trustworthy news source.

Invited to discuss the future of journalism - where individuals virtually have an endless amount of resources in today's era of new media - Newark stressed how trust and credibility was paramount, emphasizing the exemplary dedication Comedy Central shows have for investigative reporting and fact-checking.

"[R]ight now I think the most trusted news show in the U.S. is the one that does the best investigative reporting and the most trustworthy reporting - and that's ‘The Daily Show,'" Newark said - and he wasn't joking. "Sounds like a joke - isn't."

"Also the ‘Colbert Report' is in there and these guys deserve the trust they have, and their interns who are changing everyday to new shows - I think they said fifteen DVR's - this is a really big deal and they deserve a lot of credit for that," Newark said. "Maybe that's an idea for internships here because the deal is there's news and there's comedy gold to be mined just by looking at C-SPAN and things like that, and there's an opportunity there." 

Newark argued that most news organizations lost their credibility because they lost sight of their journalistic duties.

"As far as I can tell, fact-checking in many news organizations is regarded as discretionary and an easy way to slash costs," he lamented. "There are news organizations that do it, or act in pretty good faith - for example the New York Times, Consumer Reports, the New Yorker - and that really does matter."

"[I]f you guys provide coverage of other areas, provide and even inject into the public mind the notion that you're actually reporting on what matters, that may give you a big opportunity in the future," Newmark said. "That's for real because people do care about what's happening and I think faith in the conventional media is very low right now."

Image via: venividivoce.wordpress.com

So said Fox News's Bill O'Reilly Monday about the state of today's media.

"Ever since the Tea Party protest began last summer, the left-wing media in America has been attacking the movement," he began his Talking Points Memo.

"From the jump, the Tea Party protesters never had a chance," O'Reilly continued. "As soon as they objected to President Obama's big government vision, the left-wing media swooped in" (video follows with transcript):

BILL O'REILLY: The Tea Party and media corruption. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo".

Ever since the Tea Party protest began last summer, the left-wing media in America has been attacking the movement. At first, Tea Party folks were labeled stupid, too dumb to understand, complicated issues. Then, as the protests grew, some in the media actually began calling the Tea Party people dirty names, trying to diminish the movement with vile innuendo. Finally, the media turned to ideology, saying that many Tea Party people are racist and far-right cranks.

Now comes the new poll. From Gallup, that says 43 percent of Tea Party supporters in the USA are Independents, 8 percent Democrats, and 49 percent Republicans. When you add 43 and 8, you get 51 percent. That means the majority of Tea Party supporters in the USA are not Republicans.

Also, Gallup says that 55 percent of those supporting the Tea Party are in the higher income brackets, an interesting stat. Nevertheless, liberal media people and politicians continue their vicious attacks on the Tea Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TENNESSEE): The Tea Party people are kind of like without robes and hoods. They have really shown a very hardcore, angry side of America that is against any type of diversity. And we saw opposition to African Americans, hostility toward gays, hostility to anybody to wasn't just, you know, a clone of George Wallace's fan club. And I'm afraid they've taken over the Republican Party."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Well, again, with 51 percent of Tea Party supporters non- Republican according to Gallup, Congressman Cohen is either misinformed or a pinhead or perhaps both.

You may have seen me and Bernie Goldberg discuss media corruption, not bias, outright corruption last week on "The Factor". And the Tea Party media situation is the best example of that. From the jump, the Tea Party protesters never had a chance. As soon as they objected to President Obama's big government vision, the left-wing media swooped in. And as you know, liberals dominate the national media in this country. So the loon label was quickly applied to the Tea Party people. And some Americans are buying it, but not as many as you might think.

Gallup now says 28 percent of Americans do support the Tea Party. 26 percent oppose it. And 38 percent do not support or oppose, which means there's persuasion option here. And that's why the left-wing media is so biased against the Tea Party. They fear more Americans will sign on.

Now, it's not the job of the media to engineer political thinking in this country. And that's what's happening in some quarters. If you oppose the Obama administration, you must be demeaned and neutralized. That is corruption. And there is no doubt it is in play. 

No, there CERTAINLY isn't.

Bravo, Bill!

Morris brought on a tea party activist to discuss the topic: "Well, our next guest is someone who's not afraid to stand up to biased coverage. Check out this heated exchange with a CNN reporter at a tea party rally last year." A clip was played of tea partier Kathy Barkulis berating former CNN reporter Susan Roesgen: "You are not talking to regular, mainstream people. You picked people to talk to." Roesgen was later fired from CNN in July of 2009, in the wake of her slanted reporting on the tea party.

After the clip, Morris asked Barkulis: "So what do you say here? That the mainstream media's casting tea party protests as violent, dangerous, extremist? Is there a double standard, as you see it?" Barkulis replied: "Oh, of course there is, there's always been a double standard and it's just getting worse.... they're misrepresenting us and I really don't even think they've ever been to a tea party rally and they don't really know what we're all about. They're just repeating what other left-wing sources have told them."

Next week, the Media Research Center will be releasing a special report documenting media coverage of the tea party movement over the past year.

Co-host David Briggs asked Barkulis about reported racial slurs used during a Capitol Hill rally on the day ObamaCare was passed: "The day that Congress went to vote on the health care bill, there were some racist things said, there were some, to say the least, inappropriate things said. Do you feel it's your duty to stand out and speak against some of the things that were said that Sunday afternoon on Capitol Hill?" Barkulis replied: "I don't have any evidence that there was anything racist that was said. However, if there was, if there were people that said anything racist or if anybody spit on anyone that is deplorable and that is not what the tea party movement stands for."

Barkulis also pointed out: "You know, the Lyndon LaRouche people come at every single tea party protest I've been at. They have signs that show Obama as Hitler....they are not tea party people. And then the mainstream media puts a camera on them and tries to make off that they are tea party people." Morris replied: "And that's where the disparity goes and the double standard we're talking about." NewsBusters' Seton Motley documented the media's focus on Lyndon LaRouche signs at tea party rallies.

Morris went on to conclude: "it's what then the mainstream media did with that information and cast the entire tea party movement with that light and it's radically different than it was during the George W. Bush protests during the war." Barkulis replied: "they choose to call the people who protested and called Bush so many names, they choose to say that, you know, these are patriotic dissenters, they never made them out to be terrorists, or you know, violent, and the problem is, is that you can see the truth. [The police are]  not fearful that we're going to do anything that is going to cause harm to anyone."

Here is a full transcript of the segment:

9:43AM

CLAYTON MORRIS: Mainstream media casting tea party protesters as violent and racist, the same media that characterized leftist protests against President Bush as patriotic.

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Media Double Standard Coverage; Tea Party Protests VS Anti-Bush Rallies]

MORRIS: Well, our next guest is someone who's not afraid to stand up to biased coverage. Check out this heated exchange with a CNN reporter at a tea party rally last year.

[CLIP OF EXCHANGE]

KATHY BARKULIS: You are not talking to regular, mainstream people. You picked people to talk to-

SUSAN ROESGEN: Most people here [inaudible] have a sign.

BARKULIS: I don't have a sign. You're not talking to – you didn't talk to him, he doesn't have a sign.         

ROESGEN: Why don't you tell me why you're here?

BARKULIS: We're here because we are sick and tired of the government taking our money and spending it in ways that we have no say in.

[END OF CLIP]

MORRIS: Alright. Here she is, we are joined this morning by tea party activist Kathy Barkulis. Thanks so much for joining us this morning, Kathy.

BARKULIS: Thank you.    

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Media Bias: Then & Now; Tea Party Protests VS Anti-Bush Rallies]

MORRIS: So what do you say here? That the mainstream media's casting tea party protests as violent, dangerous, extremist? Is there a double standard, as you see it?

BARKULIS: Oh, of course there is, there's always been a double standard and it's just getting worse. They absolutely have – the reporters have obviously never gone to a tea party rally and put themselves right in the center of the crowd, because if they did, they would see that we're not anarchists and we're not violent and we're normal everyday mainstream people just exercising our freedom of speech. So, they're misrepresenting us and I really don't even think they've ever been to a tea party rally and they don't really know what we're all about. They're just repeating what other left-wing sources have told them.

[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Mainstream Media Coverage; Tea Party Protests Depicted as Racist, Violent]

DAVID BRIGGS: Kathy, I'd assume you agree some protesters have taken liberties with that freedom of speech. The day that Congress went to vote on the health care bill, there were some racist things said, there were some, to say the least, inappropriate things said. Do you feel it's your duty to stand out and speak against some of the things that were said that Sunday afternoon on Capitol Hill?

BARKULIS: Well, first of all, I don't – I don't have any evidence that there was anything racist that was said. However, if there was, if there were people that said anything racist or if anybody spit on anyone that is deplorable and that is not what the tea party movement stands for.

MORRIS: And just to-
                                
BARKULIS: There are always going to be people – there's always going to be people that show up at rallies. You know, the Lyndon LaRouche people come at every single tea party protest I've been at. They have signs that show Obama as Hitler, they actually have at the bottom of their signs saying the Lyndon LaRouche, you know, LaRouche organization. So they come, and they used to come to Bush rallies. They go to every single rally and they put up their disgusting signs and they try to meld in with the majority of the protesters that are there, but they are not tea party people.

MORRIS: Right.

BARKULIS: And then the mainstream media puts a camera on them and tries to make off that they are tea party people.

MORRIS: Right.

BARKULIS: They're not.

CLAYTON MORRIS: And that's where the disparity goes and the double standard we're talking about.

BARKULIS: Correct.

MORRIS: Because Fox News did confirm that stuff did happen that morning on the vote. But it's the – it's what then the mainstream media did with that information and cast the entire tea party movement with that light and it's radically different than it was during the George W. Bush protests during the war.

BARKULIS: Right. They – you know, they choose to call the people who protested and called Bush so many names, they choose to say that, you know, these are patriotic dissenters, they never made them out to be terrorists, or you know, violent, and the problem is, is that you can see the truth. When you look at, for example, G8 protests, they have police with riot gear, tear gas, shields walking up and down through the crowd. When you have a tea party protest, you have policemen sitting on horses, filing their nails. They're not really upset and they don't have riot gear on, so, obviously, they're not fearful that we're going to do anything that is going to cause harm to anyone.

BRIGGS: Well, Kathy Barkulis, you make a very passionate and informed argument this morning. Have a great Easter, thanks for being here.

BARKULIS: Thank you.

MORRIS: Thanks, Kathy.

Ana Marie Cox on Sunday compared the Tea Party movement to the anti-war women's group Code Pink.

Appearing on CNN's "Reliable Sources," the GQer formerly known as Wonkette wasn't at all bothered by Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans disrupting Karl Rove's book signing last week.

"It's not infringing on Karl Rove's right to speak to have someone else interrupt him." 

She continued, "Code Pink was to Fox News, you know, what the Tea Partiers are to MSNBC now. I mean, Code Pink was the group that the Republicans and the GOP and Fox News wanted to have represent the Democratic Party" (video embedded below the fold with transcript and commentary): 

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: I want to turn back to this, what I call selective outrage. So, for example, Karl Rove was at a book signing about a week or so ago in Beverly Hills. And you all probably saw what happened.

Let's roll a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL ROVE, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: No, no, no. I didn't say go ahead. I said you get away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: That signing was disrupted by Code Pink. And Fox played that up every other hour because obviously it fit the Fox narrative and obviously is an infringement of free speech.

ANA MARIE COX, GQ: Right. Of whose free speech?

KURTZ: Well, shouldn't an author be able to go and have a book signing without being shouted down?

COX: Well, I mean, I don't know.

KURTZ: You don't care?

COX: I go on either side. I prefer that everyone be sort of civil with each other, but I don't think -- it's not infringing on Karl Rove's right to speak to have someone else interrupt him.

CRAIG CRAWFORD, CQPOLITICS.COM: But, you know, here's the contradiction.

COX: But I want to get back to this. Code Pink was to Fox News, you know, what the Tea Partiers are to MSNBC now. I mean, Code Pink was the group that the Republicans and the GOP and Fox News wanted to have represent the Democratic Party.

Code Pink was to Fox News what the Tea Partiers are to MSNBC now? Really?

According to LexisNexis, since Code Pink's inception in October 2002, in programs transcribed by Fox News (mostly prime time), the anti-war women's group has been mentioned 135 times.

That's roughly thirteen times a year.

Not much, right?

By contrast, in the programs MSNBC transcribes (again mostly prime time), since Tea Parties became popular about a year ago, the movement and/or its members have been referred to in 77 shows. 

As such, it's a rather specious comparison by Cox, and just another one of those "government-run media" attempts to kill Tea Party messengers discussed by Dana Loesch Saturday.

ED SCHULTZ (45:19): This is Sean Hannity broadcasting remotely on his radio show the other day at the Reagan library. Here's what he said --

HANNITY: I think we won the debate.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We did win the debate.

HANNITY: When you think of the vast majorities that they have in Congress, and they had to bribe, backroom deals, corruption. That's all because the tea party movement, the people, all these Tim McVeigh wannabes here, as they say. (applause)

SCHULTZ: All these Tim McVeigh wannabes here. And he gets a hand, a round of applause. Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City, killed almost 200 people, and was put to death, executed. I mean, sometimes I think that broadcasters, we become so close to the story or so ideologically bent in one direction or another, we don't even realize what the heck we're saying

MIKE MALLOY (20:10): Hannity is a sick puppy, he really is, he - he's been drinking his own blood for probably 20 years. That's what these superstars in talk radio do, they drink their own blood.

This is what Beck is doing, Beck has done it for a while. Limbaugh - you can tell Limbaugh does it because, just look at him. But, uh - I don't know how to answer that. On the one hand, you have this domestic terrorist in - in Wichita who was sentenced to 50 years to life for murdering a physician; and the killer's [...] whole attitude was, I'm protecting unborn children.

And then you have a pig, a filthy, filthy pig like Hannity, saying something in praise of Timothy McVeigh - who murdered - how many kids were in the day care center, nineteen? Innocent little children, blown to pieces! I swear to god, being the father of a little child, um, when I heard that today, I just - I- I start thinking really truly violent thoughts about a piece of human waste like Sean Hannity, who is paid millions of dollars to say that kind of stuff, and in his spare time, rips off the families of dead soldiers and Marines; steals money from them! And if I say what I really think, see, you know, I could lose my right to broadcast, I really could!

Schultz is the MSNBC / syndicated radio host who's leading the effort to "socialize" talk radio. Cooking up examples of "extreme" rhetoric from the right helps build his "case" for a government takeover of the airwaves.

Another key objective: by booting Hannity and others from the stage, the left's longstanding desire to see Glenn Beck installed as "leader" of the conservative movement can finally be fulfilled.

"There is a huge effort underway right now by government-run media and by the Left to use any tactic that they can whatsoever to invalidate the message of the Tea Party movement."

So said talk show host and Tea Party leader Dana Loesch Saturday.

Appearing on FNC's "America's News HQ" with host Shannon Bream, Loesch claimed the media don't like "the message of individual liberty and limited government that this Tea Party movement is bringing, and since they can't kill the message, they're trying to kill the messenger" (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t HotAirPundit): 

DANA LOESCH: I think that there is, there is a huge effort underway right now by government-run media and by the Left to use any tactic that they can whatsoever to invalidate the message of the Tea Party movement. So, they're trying to go after like the fringe, or this or that. There's, with, I said this before, with any huge group of people, be they on the right or the left, you're always going to have folks that are a little bit on the fringe. And I know, for instance, like with a lot of the Tea Party stuff, some of them aren't even our friends. Some of them are like Lyndon LaRouche plants that have come up. That's well-documented. We've had, in St. Louis, we've even had people, we've had liberal plants come with Nazi signs, and they've tried to have their photos taken by like charity vans if we've done like food drives or anything. I mean, I mean there's a lot of instances such as this, but there's a huge effort to try to invalidate the message of individual liberty and limited government that this Tea Party movement is bringing, and since they can't kill the message, they're trying to kill the messenger.

Kaiser Family Foundation, New England Journal, FDL, Digby, and other bloggers were great throughout the reform process. They provided important, insightful coverage and analyses, but bloggers have to acknowledge that they are still a fraction of a fraction of the populace. Misinformation and shoddy coverage still dominate the mainstream media. Unfortunately, these great moments of true muckraking journalism were few and far between. Though Pollack's VIP list worked diligently for many months, their readership is minuscule when compared to the audience of hate radio and the major networks.