POLSC 217
Let’s face it April 15th is no Americans favorite day. Sure, the accounting industry is excited about their upcoming vacation but even they can’t deny that no one enjoys paying taxes. Regardless, every year we fill-out, envelope, and mail our hard earned cash to the IRS. What does this get us? It gets us a secure infrastructure. It gets us schools to educate the next generation. It gets us a working nation that we all know is one of the best in the world. Or at least that’s the idea.
Well this year, fueled by the new Obama tax plan and inspired by the 1773 tax revolt , in over 700 cities across the U.S. citizens staged “tea parties”, tax protests with a notably colonial twist.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman tell us that "The press both covers events and, in choosing what to report and how to report it, shapes their outcome" The media took the opportunity to shape the events of the day as they saw fit.
The press as a whole covered the parties, as well they should. Some news sources chose to be slightly more immature in their coverage. But no single news organization covered the event more heavily then Fox News. Fox News covered the tea parties for weeks prior to tax-day, framing the parties as a grass roots movement, but were they? Could it be possible that the overwhelming amount of coverage from Fox News incited their viewers (who are generally conservative republicans, the demographic most likely to oppose the governments recent spending spree) to support and attend the tea parties?
At 9PM on April 15th Fox News had live feeds from multiple cities and full team coverage. On CNN, Chelsea Handler was giving a tour of Candy Spelling’s mansion. Apparently CNN didn’t feel that a supposed grass roots tax revolt was worthy news. Critics have said that Fox sensationalized the tea parties to earn ratings and pander to their audience while jeopardizing journalistic integrity. Fox News even supplied supporters an opportunity to attend a virtual tea party on their web page. Certainly endorsing tax revolts wouldn’t be a fair, unbiased use of the resources of a major news organization like Fox. What do you think?
If you noticed at the beginning of that video is the other side of this issue. Was it fair for CNN reporter Susan Roesgen to attack protesters for utilizing their right to peaceful assembly and protest?
(When this clip was aired on multiple Fox News programs the part where the protestor is holding a poster compairing President Obama to Adolph Hitler was never shown or discussed. )
Clearly this is a highly polarized issue. On television. The truth of the matter is most people paid their taxes regardless. The tea parties were in my opinion nothing more then media events sensationalized by both liberal and conservative media. Reporters should provide unbiased coverage if for no other reason then to avoid the reinstatement of the dreaded fairness doctrine.
For a concise unbiased recount of the events (ironically found on MSNBC.com) here’s good old Brian Williams:
And honestly the first few minutes of this clip is hysterical:
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3 comments:
This is not news! This is blatant politicking, and I'm a little outraged that these so-called "objective news" organizations are blasting coverage like this anywhere.
FOXNews seems to be promoting the tea parties like it promotes the 4th of July, CNN has an angry reporter [although I'd be pissed too, getting "because" as an answer for a question several times (and again, GODWIN'S LAW)], and Keith Olberman is just jaw-dropping (and funny, yes).
Y'all are just dismantling my faith in cable news networks—to think I rely on these guys during elections!
honestly I thought the whole thing was pretty funny. people are always going to stage protests and the media is always going to cover them. the media happens to be biased so the coverage is obviously going to illustrate that. I thought your use of videos was great and this was an excellent final post, good job.
Great job of referencing the topics covered in class. The videos you chose highlight the polarity of the coverage from the various networks. (You do have some grammatical errors you might want to tidy up, though.) My favorite part is the "tight lipped" comment from the MSNBC anchor... pure comedy gold!
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