Memo To Media: Don’t Cover The Phony Tea Party Response To The State Of The Union

It was announced last week that GOP Sen. Rand Paul will be giving the “official” Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. In previous years it was Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann (who CNN carried live).

Tea PartyThere hasn’t been any indication yet of whether the media will carry Paul’s response live, but it should be noted that to do so would be a total farce. There is no such thing as the Tea Party. It is simply a fringe wing of the Republican Party. Rand Paul is, of course, a Republican. He represents the views of the rest of his party, as well as those of the person giving the official GOP response to the President, Marco Rubio (who is also a Tea Partier).

What this means is that the GOP is trying to get two bites of the post-SOTU apple. The media should not fall for this ruse. Paul was even quoted on CNN as saying that his remarks would not be competing with Rubio’s and would just be “extra.” Therefore, coverage of his comments would only serve to double up the opposition to Obama’s speech.

The Tea Party has recently sunk to new lows in support from the American people. Their caucus in congress is much smaller than that of the Democrats Progressive Caucus (Tea Party, 49; Progressive, 71), despite having more Republicans in the House.

If the media is intent on giving undeserved attention to the Tea Party, fairness would require them to give equal time to a progressive response. Perhaps they could invite Bernie Sanders to respond to the President. He would surely articulate a message that differs from the administration in greater measure than Paul would differ from Rubio. Or maybe they could call on Carolyn Maloney, whose advocacy of reforms for gun safety would be a timely subject.

In any case, it would be unethical for the media to grant an unpopular fringe group the opportunity to propagandize the nation when they already have an official spokesman in Rubio. And if they did so without balancing the coverage by presenting a progressive response it would affirm their right-wing bias. Will the media act unethically? Well, it aint like they haven’t before.

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5 thoughts on “Memo To Media: Don’t Cover The Phony Tea Party Response To The State Of The Union

  1. WHAT!!! The 1st. amendment of the Bill of Rights has been repealed.
    Rand Paul can no longer talk. The media is no longer allowed to cover someones free speech. (Oh, I forgot. The 1st amendment has been repealed by News Corpse.) Watch out! They may be coming for you next!
    A Proud TEABAGGER!
    PS: TEA Party stands for Taxed Enough Already. If you are paying enough taxes, you are welcome to send the IRS a blank check, and let them fill in the amount

    • Thank you for that excellent example of a typical Tea Party overreaction. And contrary to your over-the-top rant, criticizing the media for overt bias is not a breach of the First Amendment.

      Despite your overactive imagination, I never said that Paul could not talk, nor that the media should not be “allowed” to cover him. I just expressed my opinion that some measure of balance and respect for journalistic ethics ought to be observed. We are still allowed to express our opinions, aren’t we?

      • Following Jim’s logic, declining to feature a Bernie Sanders rebuttal would constitute suppressing HIS free speech as well.

      • “…overt bias…”

        Uh huh. Like the media’s attempt to blame Sarah Palin for the Gabby Giffords shooting, attempts to claim that George Zimmerman was not attacked, obsessions about Rush Limbuagh’s idiotic comment about Sandra Fluke while ignoring the evil swill that Bill Maher spits out of his piehole every week, and so on. I know you keep trying to claim that the media actually has a right-wing bias, but that claim is thoroughly laughable.

        Here’s an idea: The media could stop covering whether or not the people at the Grammy Awards are showing too much skin and instead devote that time to both Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders regarding the SOTU speech.

  2. Where is all this liberal bias we keep hearing about. I’m totally perplexed.

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