Study: Networks snub, malign tea party movement
April 13th, 2010 | Published in News
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By Joseph Curl
The Big Three television networks virtually ignored the massive, grassroots tea party surge in 2009, and so far this year have maligned the movement as teeming with racists and violent fringe figures, according to a new report by the Media Research Center.
“Rather than objectively document the rise and impact of this important grassroots movement, the ‘news’ networks instead chose to first ignore, and then deplore, the citizen army mobilizing against the unpopular policies of a liberal president and Congress,” wrote MRC Research Director Rich Noyes.
As a continent-spanning “Tea Party Express” caravan plans to pull into Washington for a rally on Thursday’s Tax Day, a new Rasmussen poll finds that the number of people who say they’re part of the tea party movement nationally has grown to 24 percent, up from 16 percent a month ago.