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"The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor. 1773"
from the National Archives of the United States.
You wouldn’t know it by watching television news or thumbing through the newspaper but a backlash of opposition to tax-and-spend solutions has been increasing in both momentum and size since early this year. Conservatives, libertarians and a smattering of disgruntled Democrats are already aware that gatherings around the country have been occurring to voice their concern about a juggernaut of legislation that is being passed and enacted without much deliberation. People in the Orlando area were some of those fortunate to benefit from media coverage of the 4,000+ person Tea Party on March 21st, but the vast majority of the Tea Party gatherings have come and gone only to disappear down the memory hole. They have been documented only by their attendees and discussed over coffee or in Internet forums.
According to Michelle Malkin’s report of Monday, 300 cities and towns have organized Tea Parties to be held on April 15th (FreedomWorks.org was kind enough to create this Google map of the rallies scheduled thus far) – gatherings to protest what many see as the government’s overreaching in terms of taxation and spending, but also in the erosion of values that have been at the core of American life since they were fought for and won in blood during the American Revolution. Tea Partiers see a direct relationship between the earliest revolutionaries who, enraged by British oppression, took radical action in symbolic acts like the Boston Tea Party. Today, the ranks of those who feel disenfranchised has peaked, and normally mild-mannered folks are taking action.
In many ways, the Tea Party movement resembles the way that the American founders chose to organize independently, but moved with unified force to strike against injustices they recognized as destructive to the human spirit and hostile to the inalienable rights of individuals. Although there is a NationwideTax Day Tea Party web site that offers tips for people who want to host their own local Tea Party, the parties are organized and planned often times by concerned citizens from all walks of life. If it were only average citizens, the lack of coverage could be chalked up to media elitism. Appearances by Rep. Dick Armey and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at Tea Party events without reporting simply boggles the mind.
It is precisely the lack of centralized planning that preserves the Tea Parties’ genuine grass roots pedigree but hamstrings any progress toward the goal of any protest movement: getting the message out to people beyond those directly involved. Groups like ACORN or large unions draw upon paid volunteers and a Rolodex brimming with media contacts to achieve critical mass. So far, Tea Parties have spread the word through social networks available on the Internet such as Twitter, Facebook and host of Ning-supported networks like Smart Girl Politics and America c2c. Despite the apocryphal principle of six degrees of separation, grass roots efforts need media exposure before they can affect the behavior of politicians. Popular opinion follows what is perceived to be the majority opinion, and that perception will never be created without significant exposure in the mainstream media.
The media has a history of covering small protests. When anti-war activists blocked military convoys leaving the Port of Tacoma on the way back home from Iraq and Afghanistan, television and newspaper coverage was impressive in carrying the message of dozens of radicals for local audiences to hear and read. The Tea Partiers have even made it easy for news crews to get to an event nearby.
The Seattle Tea Party is going to begin at 5:45 p.m. at Westlake Park, situated in a time window that would offer KING-5, KIRO-7, KCPQ-13 or KOMO-4 great live shots filled with action, colorful signs and slogans. After all, covering an anti-tax protest in Seattle is almost a cultural imperative, like documenting the ritual of a nearly extinct tribe. You would think based on those criteria alone journalists would find the novelty appealing.
If Seattle isn’t interested than certainly any of the reporters working the state Capitol can take a break to stomp around the “Push Back No New Taxes” rally.
Here is a list of the April 15th Tea Parties planned for Western Washington that we are currently aware of:
- Anacortes: 12:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m., meeting at the corner of 12th & Commercial Avenue. Email astevens@go-patriots.com or call 360.293.7044 for more information.
- Bellingham: 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., meeting on Guide Meridian (near Bellis Fair Parkway). Email timlynncarpenter@comcast.net for more information.
- Everett: 12:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., meeting at the 10th Street Boat Launch/Marina Park. Email janecitizen@renewliberty.com or go to renewliberty.com for more information.
- Mount Vernon: 12:00 p.m until 7:00 p.m., meeting at the corner of College Way and Riverside Drive (1 block from freeway). Email moriahhesed@yahoo.com or call 360.474.4121 for more information.
- Grays Harbor: 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m., meeting at Zelasko Park across from Burger King. Email leoandmarcy@live.com for more information.
- Olympia: Beginning at 12:00 p.m., meeting on the steps of the Capitol building. Go to www.effwa.org or www.pushbacknotax.com for more information.
- Seattle: 5:45 p.m. until 7:45 p.m., meeting downtown at the Westlake Park Arch. Email redistributingknowledge@gmail.com or join the Facebook group for additional information.
The up-to-date list of local Tea Parties is being maintained at the Washington state page of the Tax Day Tea Party web site at http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/washington/.
Will local news outlets, at a minimum, cover April 15th Tea Party rallies? If they do, will they report them as local events, disconnected from the synchronized national event? Or will they follow a basic code of journalistic ethics and report without omitting relevant details? Will they put their shoes on, grab a microphone and make contact with Tea Partiers and Tea Party opponents? After 8 years of an endless train of B-roll from one rag-tag anti-war protest or another, it seems appropriate for the media to demonstrate that balance they’re always trying to tell us exists in newsrooms. Or maybe the Tea Parties will succeed not only in challenging government growth and overreach, but also in ending the debate for many skeptical people on the existence of liberal media bias.
For more info: Visit any of these sites to get connected with the April 15th Tax Day Tea Parties: Tax Day Tea Party, PushBackNoTax.com, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Don't Go Movement, America c2c, or Smart Girl Politics.
Comments
As long as the mainstream media continues to not cover conservative protests, those protests will be futile. What's needed are wide spread fiscal protests of the media. Hit them where it hurts, in the wallet, and they will start to report in a fair manner.
Kathy,
Lonely out in the wilderness, huh?
Peace,
Chad Shue
Seattle Progressive Politics Examiner
Take away the MSM MEGAPHONE.
Cancel all print and cable media until the 2010 election is over. Now is a great time to hurt them - they are already wounded financially.
HOLD A TEA PARTY!
Picket your local news station along with the Statehouse. Take pictures of them ignoring you. POST YOUR pics on a blog. We have a voice on the net and we WILL use it to SAVE AMERICA.
Contact Young Republicans at a local university to help set up a TEA PARTY.
Contact YOUR local office of AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY for help, including inviting local politicians to attend and perhaps even speak. AFP website is: americansforprosperity.org
BEWARE: Ning is a scam
www. chartingstocks. net/2009/03/ning-exposed-tech-company-ning-scams-its-clients/
Have you given yourselves a moment to consider that your dementia may be the result of external environmental factors?
Seriously. Your TEA PARTIES have much more in common with the tea party described by Carroll in his Alice works than the protesters in Boston.
HT to Chad Shue!!
I'm guessing that Foxnews will cover the Tea Parties. Who else matters? The MSM will ignore anything that might refelect negatively on Obama but who depends on them for news when there is the internet, good blogs, Utube Facebook etc.
Checked the latest approval ratings for President Obama?
I’d say you “tea baggers” aren’t very successful convincing anyone but your increasingly small, extremist circle.
There’s a reason you lost last November. Keep it up and you’re going to be even more isolated and irrelevant.
Keep whining and sip your little cups of tea; the majority of Americans have serious work to do.
Sorry, I don't agree with anyone who doesn't want to pay the taxes that support our troops and this great nation. Russia would love to have you guys.
I spent 20 years working 55-65 hours a week. There were times I pulled all of the value out of my home to support the business in hard times. Finally it is successful. I make good money. When I add my Business and opportunity tax, my income tax, my sales, property, and various excise taxes, I actually get to keep about 39 cents out of every dollar I earn to save for retirement and buy goods and services. The rest is confiscated by the some level of government. I will be at the TEA PARTY!
It started with a Tea Party in 1773 led by such anonymous people as Samuel Adams and Paul Revere - they finished the business on July 4, 1776 - we "Americans" can do it again - to save this country from the self appointed "king" .
The "Tea Party" at Westlake ? I'll be there.
Listen, it is not about the Dems and Repubs its about America. How are we going to pay off this $12 Trillion dollar debt? Pass it on to our children and grandchildren? Raise more taxes? Keep hoping China keeps buying up own bonds to cover our debt? What happens when the day comes and they come calling for their money? We need our leaders to be fiscally responsible with our taxes. This country is on the verge of bankruptcy if we don't act now. I am not about a revolution with guns, but through voices, our votes and changing of the laws to make government more accountable.
JimCap: NEWS FLASH - Obama got 53% of the popular vote and his approval numbers are dropping. If these Tea Parties will alienate us "right wing extremists", why aren't you encourage them.
Teabagging..... hahahahahahaha, republican morons. I can't stop laughing, I thought they hated all things gay!
seeing if this works
its not about left of right, its about a one world government, dems and repubs are the problem and whether bush or obama is in office we must look past the puppets in order to see the real power structure. You obama fanatics are no better than the bush fanatics, WAKE UP!!!!!!!!
Check out the video: The Obama Deception, infowars.com
JP,WE KNOW WE HAVE TO PAY SOME TAXES. NATIONAL DEFENCE IS #1. BUT WE ARE OVER TAXED AND WAY OVER SPENDING...IT HAS TO STOP!
Ever notice how the "main stream media" is slowly and happily dying out. Their failure to cover the news without bias is the blame.
Go Tea Parties....Go Freedom...No to Socialism.
I'm with you on the media. waiting for more information...maggie
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