NewsChannel 8 | Tea Parties Offensive Signs

Beverly Kirk Blog

Monday April 20, 2009 at 3:57 pm

Tea Parties Offensive Signs

category: Politics

COMMENTARY -- April 19, 2009

Once again I have to apologize for the time that has lapsed between blog posts. Everything I want to write about is controversial, and I have to remain mindful that although I enjoy analyzing and critiquing the news events of the day, I can’t afford to write anything that makes me seem biased in favor of one position or another. Yes, the prevailing thought these days is that all mainstream journalists are biased. However, I know for a fact that’s not true for the majority of people who work in this industry. Are there some who are biased? Absolutely, and here’s a newsflash for you: not everyone who is biased has a liberal view. There are those who have a conservative one.

Having said all of that, my focus in this post is the tea party controversy. If you’re a regular Federal News Tonight viewer, then you saw our weekly roundtable on Friday in which I was a little more outspoken than usual about a particular topic. (If you did not see the roundtable, it’s posted at www.federalnewstonight.com.) Ordinary people voicing their concerns about what their government is doing, or not doing, is as American as apple pie. What bothered me about some of the tea party demonstrators was that they weren’t really protesting the tax increase coming for the country’s wealthiest people. They were using the demonstration to say some very ugly things. Yes, this is America and everyone has the right to say whatever he or she wants to say. But for the life of me, I don’t understand a sign that said quote, “American Taxpayers are the Jews for Obama’s ovens.” That was the wording on a sign at a tea party in Chicago. To invoke the Holocaust to protest higher taxes and spending is so wrong on so many levels that I am at a complete loss for words. It wasn’t the only offensive sign on display at the tea parties. There were others with offensive, even racially coded language. I chose to quote what was, in my opinion, the worst that I saw.

People have a right to be upset if they’re among those who’ll see their tax rates jump. No one likes to pay more to Uncle Sam. Trust me, having just filed my tax returns, I just gave Uncle Sam much, much, much more than I feel is my fair share based on what I personally get out of the system in return! But it’s time for a little intellectual honesty here on the part of the tea partygoers. Why the offensive signs? If higher taxes and more spending are truly what have your knickers in a wad, the sign I described above that I saw on TV on April 15th would NOT have been anywhere in sight. I haven’t heard anyone explain the presence of such signs, and when I asked a tea party organizer about the fringe element with the signs, she didn’t directly criticize them. (The interview can also be seen at www.federalnewstonight.com.) She said that as with any protest, there will be people who do offensive things. That’s true, but shouldn’t you, the organizer, make absolutely clear that you don’t condone it? Perhaps I missed it, but I didn’t see a single interview with tea party organizers where anyone harshly criticized the offensive signs that had nothing to do with being upset about higher taxes.

It’s clear the tea party participants don’t like this President and because they don’t like him, they object to how he is choosing to spend their money. That is fine. Protest that all day and all night, as often as you feel like it. But, racially coded protest signs that don't mention taxes and spending shouldn't be anywhere in sight. It should be noted, too, that the previous President spent large amounts of money and ran a deficit, and there were people upset about it. However, the outcry was minimal comparably speaking. There were no tea parties, and there definitely were no signs invoking the Holocaust or signs showing a black hand taking money from a white hand with the caption “I AM NOT YOUR ATM.” That was another sign I saw that was being waved behind a CNN reporter during one of the tea parties.

Another problem with the tea parties was the media coverage of them. FOX News, if not a promoter of the event, certainly engaged in a bit of cheerleading. MSNBC dismissed the protests, making fun of them at every turn. Is it really the job of the media to dismiss an event or cheerlead for one? CNN (and NewsChannel 8, of course!) did the most even-handed job of doing what journalists are supposed to do… which is cover the event as it happens and look at the good and the bad. What I find bothersome is that the picture you got of the tea parties was very different based on which channel you happened to watch, and what time you were watching. This is dangerous territory. Are we rapidly evolving toward an industry where we don’t even try to be objective anymore, where viewers should expect that a news organization is going to “tell the story” from a particular perspective? Is this what we want? I began this post outlining why sometimes blogging is difficult for me because I don’t want people who watch my newscasts to think I’m biased because of how I analyze something. I think I can do it without compromising my objectivity, and I’m sure you’ll let me know about it if you think I’m leaning to one side or the other! I felt compelled to write about the offensive signs at the tea parties because the organizers kept saying they’re upset about higher taxes and spending, and they wanted to make their opposition to such increases known. As I’ve made clear, protesting when you think the government is wrong is fine and dandy. But, it is disingenuous to say that higher taxes and spending were ALL those tea party protests were about. There was more going on, and that should be acknowledged because otherwise, the offensive signs wouldn’t have been on display.

posted by Beverly Kirk