Tea Party 2.0: At the Gates of CNN
The "mainstream" media in the United States is guilty of journalistic malpractice. CNN, MSNBC, and ABC News have all deliberately downplayed the tea party movement, the grassroots conservative uprising of America. What little coverage has been offered by these networks has dramatically understated attendance, and portrayed participants as violent, hate-filled, racists. Based on their treatment of the recent Tea Party Protest in Washington, D.C. - where the US media counts "tens of thousands" while the British Post reports "two million" - the next protest should take place at the headquarters of CNN. Hopefully, the same "tens of thousands" that blocked all traffic in the capital, put the metro in gridlock, and were told by police that they would have to start marching hours early because they had overrun the plaza will create a similar disruption in Atlanta.
This event should not be a protest of the media outlets. Just like its predecessors, concerned citizens should continue to protest the radical expansion of government, reckless spending, and general disregard for the will of the people, but this time the tea party will take place where it will be inconvenient to ignore. These "objective" reporters have gone out of their way to cover pro-Obama rallies with a whopping forty attendees. Surely they could find a couple seconds to point a camera out the window at a crowd of "tens of thousands." Should they actually choose to report on the event, I have no doubt CNN would try to portray the crowd as a mob of angry racists protesting the network, which is why the "partiers" must be completely clear in their message. Sure, there will be a "Can You Hear Us Now?" element to the event, but the primary goal must be the same as it has always been.
A peaceful protest outside a major network's newsroom would virtually guarantee coverage. While the reporting might not be "fair and balanced," the network could not risk ignoring an event of any sizable magnitude because, if they were caught, their claims of "objectivity" would be thoroughly debunked. The tea party crowd has been marginalized and slandered for long enough. This protest would force the "mainstream" media to report accurately, or lose what little remains of their viewership.
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