I've
written before about how the local St. Louis media bends over backwards to portray the St. Louis Tea Party as positively as possible. The Tea Party leaders are consistently given a free pass to say extreme and inflammatory things on their blogs and then allowed to craft a touchy-feely positive message for their media interviews without any questioning. So I don't have much faith that tomorrow's Tax Day Tea Party, organized by Jim Gateway Pundit Hoft, will be much different.
Hoft will very likely be allowed to have an interview where he crafts a centrist message that merely expresses concern over the size of the government. No one in the St. Louis media will question Hoft about the following, or indeed probably even bother to do the research that informs them of this important context for Hoft's positions(with possible exceptions of Chad Garrison and Charles Jaco). So, for those who want to know how this representative of the St. Louis Tea Party actually behaves, I present the following:
Hoft has linked to race-baiting videos on white supremacist websites, and refused to delink to the videos even after being called out.Hoft blatantly lies when reporting the statements of local elected officials.Hoft ridiculously reported that North Korea had fired on a South Korean ship without having any evidence other than his gut belief that North Korea is evil.He also falsely claimed that Eric Cantor's office was fired on and then never corrected his post after it was proven wrong by the police reports.Hoft carried a coffin to Russ Carnahan's home and then was completely unable to explain in an interview with Mark Reardon why they had to "say a prayer" at Carnahan's home given that they had just "said a prayer" at his office.Hoft titles his post, Russ Carnahan Booted and Torched and then whines about the suggestion that the tea party is using violent rhetoric.Hoft shamelessly attacked Melanie Shouse, a healthcare activist who died of breast cancer earlier in the year.And most recently, Hoft falsely claimed that two people were attacked in New Orleans "for wearing Sarah Palin pins" and then changed his story without acknowledging that he made a correction, despite criticizing Politico for doing the exact same thing three weeks ago.So yeah, when you see the touchy-feely coverage of the St. Louis Tea Party tomorrow from the local media, keep in mind what they're leaving out.
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Keep in mind, too, though, that a couple of loudmouths who do things we don't like doesn't define a big group of people who read the centrist message and decide to show up.
ReplyDeleteI sent this along to KSDK, KMOV, and Fox 2. They can't claim they didn't know if the facts are spelled out for them, like your article has done here. Thank you so much for the work you do and the effort you put into it. It is wonderful that we, who are sick and tired of the minority party getting the majority of the tv talk time, have your blog as a resource. When you see these loons being interviewed night after night during the Health Care debate, with next to no fact checking or actual reporting on their activities, having the other side reported on by your blog has been a blessing. Thank you for what you do, and for giving us the tools to get the facts out there.
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