Tea Party Groups Lash Out at MSNBC Over Special

Last night MSNBC aired a special called "Rise of the New Right" that is not sitting well with Tea Party activists. (Watch a portion at left, via The Week.)

FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey, who appears in the special, called out the show's host, Chris Matthews, for his involvement, saying Matthews is "better than this." As the Washington Post's David Weigel reports, Armey's group and others are calling for a petition of sponsors of Mathews' program "Hardball." (Their focus is Dawn and parent company Proctor and Gamble.)

"The program 'Rise of the New Right' was low-ball journalism at its worst," the Kitchen Table Patriots said in a statement posted by Weigel. "The program demonized and misrepresented the Tea Party movement. Chris Matthews and his 'Hardball' program slandered the Tea Party movement, and misled the American people by distorting facts about the Tea Party movement, its motivations and it history."

Before the program aired, Matthews predicted in an interview with the Huffington Post that "the left will say this scares the heck out of me, people in the middle will say this is amazing, and people on the right will be cheering for all I know."

He appears to have been wrong on at least that last claim.

"It's a poor excuse of objective journalism," wrote a blogger at Hot Air. "Calling it a documentary is a pathetic joke."

One complaint from conservatives is that the documentary erroneously conflated disparate groups to serve its agenda.

"What do Tea Partiers, Truthers, birthers, Birchers, militias, Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, Barry Goldwater, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Ronald Reagan, Strom Thurmond, Rand Paul, Alex Jones, Orly Taitz, and Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh all have in common? Approximately nothing, but don't tell Chris Matthews," wrote Lachlan Markay at Newsbusters.

He continued: "The MSNBC 'Hardball' host spent the better part of an hour last night trying to associate all of these characters with one other. Of course he did not provide a shred of evidence beyond, ironically, a McCarthyite notion that all favor smaller government, and are therefore in league, whether they know it or not, to overthrow the government. Together, by Matthews's account, they comprise or have given rise to the 'New Right.'"

[demofendor]

"I'm being taxed to death" typical teabagee

FACT:you just paid the lowest taxes since 1950.

If you still whine, FACT:you're an idiot teabagee (a teabagee is the one with nads in his mouth)

[jscottupton]

Wow...there is a lot of hate here coming from the left. So what does someone who believes in small government have to do to "prove" that they hold a legitimate, sincere opinion (one that has been shared by many intellectuals from Aristotle on)?

[Cuda-Driver]

Teabaggers:

The kind of person who thinks that simply because everyone they know is like them, that they are represent everyone despite the overwhelming proof that they are only about 12% of the general population, the same percentage of Americans who think that the world is flat and that they've been abducted by aliens.

The kind of person who, even though they lack the intelligence to participate in a debate but never the less dominate by being the loudest person in the room.

Blindly uses the words "socialism" and "communism" without knowing what they they mean.

Falsely claims that klu klux Teabager rallies are "bipartisan"

A conservative activist who is so ignorant that they protest against tax cuts (that benefit them) by throwing tea into a river.

Criticizes democrats, even though their own party has been in office for the past 8 years.

Will listen to every high school dropout before hearing the opinion of ONE intellectual.

Believes that Fox News is "fair and balanced".

Fruitless mix of racism, conspiracy theories.

Real Lamer, loser, idiots.

[orwellknew]

I hate to say this, but the liberals, aka the CONTROLLISTS, really are starting to sound like a broken record

[Cuda-Driver]

susieqme...
"Interestingly, teabaggers uphold an immoral, morbidly obese, twice divorced, draft-dodging, college dropout and known drug addict as their de facto leader, and are even known to advocate burning books. Of course, teabaggers fail to recognize the blatant hypocrisy within the GOP and tend to oversimplify all political debate and social issues, much like their pseudo-intellectual, fat-ass leader."

LMAO. No clue what to say to this BS. LMAO.


I'm sure everybody else knew what I was taking about but I'll spell it out for you ?Rush Limbaugh?. It's me that's LAMO at you.

[Cuda-Driver]

susieqme... Socialism? You mean healthcare reform.

GOP and teabaggers do not like healthcare reforms.

GOP and Health Insurance Companies make huge profits by Plunder, Extortion, Scam and by depriving the insured of funds for medical treatment.

GOP and Health Insurance Companies are spending million in false publicity and propaganda in opposing the healthcare reforms.

This money in fact belongs to the insured, which they received in premiums.

GOP and Health Insurance Companies are Thugs and Criminals.

Republicans would rather not see people with cancer be able to continue with treatments. How about when sick babies aren't being sent home because their parents insurance company canceled them. Single parents will be able to afford HEALTH INSURANCE for the whole family. People having the freedom to see a doctor now without being discriminated against by the health insurance companies. Those include coverage for young adults on their parents' plan until they turn 26, a $250 rebate check for seniors with high prescription costs, tax credits for some small businesses that cover their employees and federal funding to train more primary care doctors and nurses.

And by November, more people will realize what a good thing this is...Democrats will retain their majority and probably gain seats, not lose seats. Republicans will be in for another big disappointment in the Fall.... Liberty and justice for all....

susieqme... you are just to dumb to know the truth. Keep watching Faux Noise and drink their propaganda kool aid teabagger.

[susieqme]

"GOP and teabaggers do not like healthcare reforms" Wrong. We don't like healthcare INSURANCE reforms and we don't like the government taking over 17% of the economy. There are better ways of doing this. Even the healthcare industry is shaking it's head at Obama's so called healthcare reform. He hasn't REFORMED anything. He's expanded insurance coverage. He's expanding the number of people eligible for medicare, and at the same time making medicare cuts.

"GOP and Health Insurance Companies make huge profits by Plunder, Extortion, Scam and by depriving the insured of funds for medical treatment" How do you fit the GOP in here? From opensecrets.org "President Obama received $1.3 million from the industry in the 2008 election cycle (and $1.4 million if you include his Senate fundraising)"

You're drinking too much kool aid Cuda.

[Cuda-Driver]

susieqme...Again you don't what your talking about. Every body knows that the health system is/was broken and if nothing was done it had the potential of bankrupting the country. I saw your website. that just who contributed to his campaign. I'm talking about the GOP and insurance companies that spent millions to block healthcare reform and if you do a search you can find it on any news site. As far as making medicare cuts, if you read the news he just blocked medicare cuts supported by the republicans. Again your the one drinking the Faux News kool aid.

[endangeredeagle]

here is the motto of teaparty ' I'M WHITE, I"M BRIGHT, AND I AM ALWAY'S RIGHT.

[susieqme]

here is the motto of the liberal left: Mock and make fun of anyone who does not agree with you, try and block their right to free speech through new laws, call them names using filthy language, and above all, call them racists, faciscts, and nazis without even knowing what those terms truly mean.

[realist51]

no susieqme: if you look at all the name calling about nazis, socialist marxist and others. its from the right seen a clip from rush the other day staing Quote" we've got to get the bast#$ds out. i don't ever recall a left wing talk show saying the such. too if you watched the show you'd of seen some pretty awful teaparty written signs and verbage about liberals and president Obama being displayed.

[Cuda-Driver]

I call you teabagger because that's what the tea party called themselves at the beginning of the movement, until they realized what teabaggers were, and they disposed of their rather embarrassing moniker.

But now Fox News and Sarah Palin embraces the "teabagger" label. After a year of screaming about the term "teabagger" -- and now say they don't mind. Do you listen to the news? It's on every station. Go argue with the Sarah Palin or Fox News. And what about all the vile and nasty things you teabaggers call our President. Go to foxnews.com or this news site or any news site and do a search under: "teabagger" and see what you find...

[Cuda-Driver]

Teabaggers:

A teabagger also often fails to acknowledge that George W. Bush and his neo-conservative minions perpetrated one of the boldest and most egregious executive power grabs in the history of the United States. Furthermore, teabaggers mistakenly continue to blame a newly elected President Obama for all that ails the United States of America, based on a grossly flawed perception of reality (including latent racial prejudice) and despite the fact the U.S. economy collapsed on the previous administration's watch.

Teabaggers are also known to base their misguided, right-wing-media-inspired beliefs about President Obama on stupid conspiracy theories about totalitarian takeovers, FEMA camps, etc., despite the fact these very same theories have been circulating around on the Internet for years, and were originally ascribed to neo-conservative cabalists at a time when Barack Obama had not even entered national politics. Teabaggers also are known to be particularly paranoid, xenophobic and intolerant, especially with regard to immigrants and anyone who isn't white.

Additionally, teabaggers generally echo stupid myths about entitlement spending (it actually only accounts for about 1% of federal budget spending), have no idea that most poor people in America are not lazy, actually do work and don't want to be on welfare, and have no idea what socialism actually means or that socialist reform in this country is actually what allowed a middle class to flourish and ultimately make the U.S. one of the most prosperous nations in human history.

Furthermore, teabaggers incorrectly equate socialism with Stalinism, think a system that rewards greed (capitalism) is the divine preference (despite Gospel evidence to the contrary), and are shameless champions of a misguided belief in American exceptionalism. Teabaggers also fail to recognize the inherently unpatriotic nature of their failed every-man-for-himself ideology that ultimately vilifies anyone who supports public policy aimed at reaching out to fellow Americans in need. They celebrate an exploitative corporatocracy (holy creator of jobs, blah blah blah) while denigrating the little guy for being "weak."

Interestingly, teabaggers uphold an immoral, morbidly obese, twice divorced, draft-dodging, college dropout and known drug addict as their de facto leader, and are even known to advocate burning books. Of course, teabaggers fail to recognize the blatant hypocrisy within the GOP and tend to oversimplify all political debate and social issues, much like their pseudo-intellectual, fat-ass leader.

Finally, incredibly, teabaggers fail to recognize the hysterical double entendre associated with their proudly adopted teabag moniker.

Every village has its idiots, of course, but it's sad when citizens of any nation allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy en masse by a state-run propaganda machine masquerading as a legitimate, fair, balanced and independent news organization. Teabaggers are right to believe the future of the U.S.A. is in jeopardy, but sadly they have not yet correctly identified the real enemy. Perhaps when teabaggers finally grow up and mature into thinking adults, they will see the right-leaning power establishment for the oppressive and cunning beast that it is.

[susieqme]

Are you taking something for this hatred and bitterness that fills you life so much? Your obsession is a little scary. Seriously, maybe you aught to be talking to a counselor or something. As it is, you have drank enough of the liberal kool aid to kill Jim Jones's people all over again.

[Cuda-Driver]

susieqme...No hatred or bitterness. I'm just telling it like I see it. It's you teabaggers that are drinking the Faux Noise kool aid.

[tsigili]

There are very few responsible journalists, left in the media. Most of the media today is not news, but rather designed sensationalism, designed to draw viewers. It is published with the intent to stir controversy, rather than report, and much of it is knowingly inaccurate, misleading, and downright false, on the part of the media.

The media is even employing bloggers, whose totally biased, and bigoted opinions, drive the controversy.

It is totally disgusting and repulsive.....like most of modern society, and of course, government.