The Tea Party's Favorite Media List
In a press release it issued Thursday afternoon, the organizers of next month's Tea Party Convention in Nashville announced that press passes would be extended only to the aforesaid WorldNet, Breitbart.com, Townhall.com, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.
Let's put this in the form of an SAT question: Which of the above-mentioned organizations don't belong? That's a no-brainer. Despite its acquisition by News Corp. in 2007, the WSJ remains one of the world's top news organizations in the English-speaking world. The other folks on that short list don't even come close. WorldNet Daily helped spearhead last year's "birther" movement, questioning the validity of Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility for the presidency. Even Glenn Beck has called out the claim as "the dumbest thing I've ever heard." (WND's response is here.)
Ben Smith of Politico nailed it when he described the Journal's inclusion into this right-wing fraternity as an "insult" to the WSJ's news side, "traditionally a smart straight-news operation perpetually a bit irritated to be mistaken for its conservative editorial page."
There is word, however, that Sarah Palin's much -awaited keynote will be open to the media - though it's still unclear whether that means the real media or just the handpicked friendlies. Since Palin now has a contract with Fox, maybe it's a twofer - she keynotes and she gets to report on what she said? Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips wrote in an email that "We are working on media access for the Governor Palin Speech. Please stay in touch and I will give you more details when they are available."
I've helped organize a couple of conferences and know how easy it is to irritate someone by setting an arbitrary cutoff. Still, the tea party crowd isn't being logically consistent. Throughout the spring and summer of their discontent, they complained loudly about the insufficient attention being paid them by the mainstream media. So when they finally announced plans to host a much-anticipated shindig featuring the right wing's prom queen herself, I thought they would fling open the doors and let in as many scribblers as the fire safety code would allow.
Pot, kettle?