Crashing the 'tea party': NYT/CBS poll reveals much about the movement (More Jourbalist BS)

The Los Angeles Times ^ | April 17, 2010 | Tim Rutten

[2ndDivisionVet]

One of the things journalism teaches you over and over again is that nothing ruins a good story quite like the facts.

Consider, for example, this week's renewal of the chattering classes' infatuation with the "tea party" movement, timed to coincide with the deadline to file federal income tax returns. The group is conventionally portrayed as a burgeoning populist expression of discontent that sprouted spontaneously from the grass-roots and cuts in new ways across sectional, class and gender lines.

Reams of analysis have proceeded from those assumptions, but like a great deal that's based on anecdotal reporting, it turns out to be wrong. To their great credit, the New York Times and CBS undertook extensive, and expensive, polling that provides the first reliable look at the tea party supporters. Little that has been generally assumed survived the scrutiny.

As it turns out, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans "supports" the tea party movement in any respect, and just 4% of all adult Americans have contributed to it or attended one of its events or both. (On any given day, you probably could drum up twice as many people who think the Pentagon is hiding dead aliens in Area 51.)(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

So the new tactic is to label us "angry white males" and a small minority of the population, huh? How, exactly, do you poll Tea Party members? There's no membership lists that I'm aware of...

[mlocher]

One of the things journalism teaches you over and over again is that nothing ruins a good story quite like the facts.

And this is another good story.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Hey MSM...thanks for all the publicity!

Keep talking! It makes more and more people curious...then they check it out and maybe attend and bingo!the teaparty’s numbers go up!

MSM did the same thing when the Bamster howled about Fox news..ha ha...they had more viewers than ever, just to see what all the commotion is about..Kind of Like tom sawyer telling his friends they aren’t ‘allowed” to help him paint the fence!

[JoSixChip]

"The group is conventionally portrayed as a burgeoning populist expression of discontent that sprouted spontaneously from the grass-roots and cuts in new ways across sectional, class and gender lines. Reams of analysis have proceeded from those assumptions,"

Wait, what did I miss? When has any msm source ever worked off this assumption? Unless it was acorn or seiu gathering.

[Oldpuppymax]

IF nothing ruins a good story like FACTS, the Times faces little danger of having any ruined stories.

[mlocher]

Kind of Like tom sawyer telling his friends they aren’t ‘allowed” to help him paint the fence!

Great analogy, excpet Tom knew what he was doing. There is an analogy about the MSM whitewashing everything too, somewhere between the lines.

[FrdmLvr]

Why do they care so much? Is there nothing better for them to write about? This is getting a little weird, their obsession with the TEA party movement.

[Steely Tom]

Jourbalist BS is right.

This is just the chatterclatura using the LA Times for a blog. They’re talking to each other.

[coaltrain]

“...and significantly more affluent and better educated than the majority of Americans.”

Wait! I thought the media said tea partiers were uneducated morons. Now they are highly educated and affluent. So which is it? The media needs to get their stories straight. Or is this a new strategy?

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I know, but that makes it even more ironic and delicious!
the MSM is soooooo stoooopid! they dont even understand how the media can effect people.ha.

[2ndDivisionVet]

"Why do they care so much? Is there nothing better for them to write about? This is getting a little weird, their obsession with the TEA party movement."

That and Governor Sarah Palin. What they attack is what they're afraid of. How many nasty hit pieces have they written on Governors Romney, Huckabee and Pawlenty? Exactly!

[Outrance]

The more lies I read and see, the more pissed off I get. The more they brutalize Salin Palin and her children, the more I get involved and the more checks I write.

Their propaganda is counter productive. Its akin to shooting POWs in a time of war.

[jerry557]

When talking about the Tea Party movement, the largest number of respondents said that the movement’s goal should be reducing the size of government, more than cutting the budget deficit or lowering taxes.

And nearly three-quarters of those who favor smaller government said they would prefer it even if it meant spending on domestic programs would be cut.

But in follow-up interviews, Tea Party supporters said they did not want to cut Medicare or Social Security — the biggest domestic programs, suggesting instead a focus on “waste.”

Some defended being on Social Security while fighting big government by saying that since they had paid into the system, they deserved the benefits.

Others could not explain the contradiction.

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it?” asked Jodine White, 62, of Rocklin, Calif. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security.” She added, “I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

the MSM is destroyng the “race Card” with its hysteria over the “raaaaacist” Tea Partiers! HA!

They have pushed this so hard WITH NO EVIDENCE...that people are wondering, “HUH? I dont see the racism...” and by banging that drum, it further destroys the impact of the Race Card and its power.

Go for it alphabet media!!! Tell us again how Raaacist we are...oh, and yeah, keep trying to find video or signs or audio while you are at it, then argue about WHy there are none. People are going to start wondering what all the Raaaacist fuss is about when there isn’t any.

Thanks MSM!!!HA HA HA.

[Jim Scott]

The left and it's media lackeys are scared to death of average Americans that are waking up and realizing what is happening to their country- and don't like it.

The usual attempt to marginalize 'Tea Party' members/supporters as mostly upper-middle class, well-educated, middle aged white men who are 'angry' is rubbish - and the L.A. Times hack that authored this article, knows it.

Part of the rationale for this kind of pap is to persuade those who may be sympathetic to the goals of the Tea Party activists that this a 'fringe' group and you don't belong there. The rest is an attempt to convince themselves that the Tea Party is irrelevant and nothing for the oh-so brilliant leftists to fear.

They need to do this because the political left and the media hacks that publish their propaganda (like this L.A. Times piece) know full well that they're supporting a president and congress that is pushing the country toward European socialism as fast as they can while dropping our defenses and torpedoing the U.S. economy with insane spending policies.

This used to be called 'whistling past the graveyard'. Now, it's just standard leftist propaganda. Lies and smears intended to convince people that the Tea Party is nothing to worry about. They wish. November 2nd can't come soon enough.

[Voter62vb]

It is AMAZING how much energy the “journalists” are using to spin the TEA Party Movement.

How about “observe and REPORT observations”? it almost sounds “scientific”...

[Voter62vb]

Well said. Back in college psychology the term was “extinguish”.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Yep, there's only a "couple" of us (like only 10,000 showing up in DC back in Sept 2009 ... I was there I remember it well). So regardless of how "few" of us there are (/s), don't forget Sam Adams' words;

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.

...got a match? :-)

[Brad from Tennessee]

The Los Angeles Times is bankrupt which necessitates reducing the paid staff and replacing them with 5-cents-per-word “correspondents” like Tim Rutten.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I forgot about ‘extinguish”...guess it comes right after ridicule!