Reporter Matt Sczesny said:
The Tax Day Tea Party was loud and it was crowded, but there was little trouble out here, especially from so called "infiltrators" that organizers had feared would try to embarrass the tea party rally. In fact, organizers say, only two people showed up, one of them wearing a swastika.Ummm, wow. Where to begin? Sczesny presents the story in a way that implies that the two people were "infiltrators." This is in reference to the tea party's belief that "leftist infiltrators" were going to crash their St. Louis rally, after some guy in Portland said he was starting a "Crash the Tea Party" group. Of course, there's no indication that the group exists in St. Louis, and the tea party didn't provide any evidence for the claim that the two people were "leftists." In fact, Adam Sharp's video makes it clear that the guy was a member of the white supremacist organization Council of Conservative Citizens. Funny that while Gateway Pundit was ranting about this, he forgot to mention that he's linked to race-baiting videos on the Council of Conservative Citizens stories in the past. Kudos to the tea party for asking a white supremacist to leave their rally, but it's ridiculous for them to claim without any evidence whatsoever that this was a "Democrat plant," and it's shameful that the news media is willing to pass on that spin.
One additional fail for KMOV: they say that "thousands" gathered for the tea party rally. Yeah, except that police estimated 500 -700 (props to the Beacons' Jo Mannies for getting a real estimate).
In brighter news, KSDK at least provided some relevant context for their story on the tea party:
A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds 18 percent of Americans now say they support the tea party movement.
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On Sharp's vid, you can hear a woman say "Did the Democrats send you?" and Elbows replies "Of course they did!". See, that makes it a sure thing, thus his headline: "Dem Shill Wears Nazi Gear..."
ReplyDeleteOf course, Patch Adams had "Nazi Kicked out of St. Louis Tea Party Event".
And they're still using Rove's "new math". The TP event in Arnold was initially 1,500-2,000. Since then, it's grown to 2,500! Wait until the summer hits and it's sure to grow even further. I think it was more like 500-750, many of them bored out of their minds.