By Stefanie Schappert
Special to The Clyde Fitch Report
stefanie@lipstickconservative.com
Do you know which of these statements were not made by members of the media?
- Tea Baggers accused of Times Square bomb plot.
- Tea Party members spit on members of Congress.
- Gun-toting Tea Baggers target blacks.
- Tea Party flags connected to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
- Tea Partiers try and stop gulf oil spill by shouting slogans at it.
- Tea Party racists back new Arizona immigration law.
- Tea Party members part of anti-government militia.
Answer: All of them. Well, the fifth one was at least identified as “satire” on Alan Colmes’ Liberaland website. And no, I did not make the other headlines up. It seems that slagging on the Tea Party is more popular than ever and the Times Square terror plot has just made it to the top of the media-bias list. Before it was confirmed that the alleged Times Square bomber was indeed an Islamic extremist with ties to the Pakistani Taliban, rumors that the Tea Party could be responsible for Saturday’s bomb attempt had been circulating throughout many mainstream media outlets. Even New York City’s own Mayor Bloomberg hinted at the same to Katie Couric on the CBS Evening News:
Tea Party supporters were so outraged by Bloomberg’s comments that they are demanding a public apology from him.
So what’s the point, you say? My last piece for Lipstick Conservative was about my own personal experience with the Tea Party. This week, it’s all about the public’s perception and why middle-aged grandmothers are being called Tea Baggers — to their faces, no less. And yes, I know the term originally started within the Tea Party, but let’s face it, this sexual slur, first used in bad taste by CNN’s Anderson Cooper back in 2009, has been completely hijacked by the left-wing media — with glee I might add — as a derogatory reference to Tea Party members. If you’re still not sure what I’m talking about, click here (warning, graphic image). If you want a more G-rated explanation, click here. Either way, the disdain is, as they say, palpable.
At first, the media couldn’t care less about covering the Tea Party: the grassroots movement was billed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her followers as “Astroturf,” a nonentity. And as the number of Americans who support the Tea Party has grown, so has the vitriol from the media, bloggers and so-called citizen journalists.
The latest polls now show that more than a quarter of Americans support the Tea Party and nearly half of U.S. voters think the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Obama.
Other polls claim that Tea Partiers are wealthier and more educated than other voters. Hmmmmm, since the rich pay more taxes than the average American, maybe they’re on to something.
Experts also say that the older crowd who grew up with love of country can actually sense more clearly the difference between the worlds that they grew up in compared to the social democracy that Obama is pushing on us.
And just because some of the Tea Party accusations are so false and outrageous, I must address some of the scandalous rumors I mentioned in the beginning of this article. One of the most controversial has been the accusations by African-American Congressmen John Lewis and Andre Carson, and out-gay Congressman Barney Frank, that Tea Party protesters at the anti-Obamacare rally in D.C. spit at them while chanting racial and gay slurs. Supposed top-notch journalists from the Washington Post decided to report the story as fact before corroborating evidence. Conservative pundit Andrew Breitbart even offered a $10,000 reward to the United Negro College Fund on his website to anyone with video evidence of the alleged event. To this day, no one has come forward and the reward has now grown to $100,000. Click here to see the video for yourself.
Then there’s MSNBC pretty lady Contessa Brewer, who insinuated that the Tea Party was responsible for the Times Square bomb attempt, and who is no stranger to inflammatory, bogus reporting.
Check out the video below, also from another anti-Obamacare rally last summer, and listen to her diatribe against white, gun-toting Tea Partiers.
What Brewer conveniently forgets to disclose on air is that the video of the white racist protester is actually a black man whose head has been cropped out of the shot:
So how come the media can’t seem to stop the barrage of attacks? I’ve come up with three conclusions. First, they think its fun. Second, they don’t really care. Third is my favorite explanation: the liberal media is actually afraid of these non-threatening, flag-waving, cruise-ship-loving group of retirees. Why? Because they can still vote and Tea Party candidates are all the rage this election season. Look at GOP newcomer and Tea Party favorite Mark Rubio in Florida, whose popularity forced Republican governor Charlie Christ out of the Senate primary altogether. I guess, for the left, if you can’t convince the average American with your policy agenda, try and bully the credibility right out of them. It’s free campaign slander months before the vote — a win-win for Democrats. That is, unless it backfires.
So is tea party the new dirty word? For this generation, sadly it is.
Stefanie Schappert is a freelance journalist based in New York. A staunch conservative in a self-professed city of liberals and the military wife of a Green Beret, she created Lipstick Conservative to share her unique viewpoint on politics and culture. Schappert is also reporting on the Tea Party movement for the New York edition of the Examiner.com. Other credits include Fox News Channel and NY1 News. Schappert’s conservative viewpoint came into sharp focus following the events of September 11, 2001, the resulting political climate, and living through her husband’s multiple deployments to the Middle East. This former NFL cheerleader and lifelong dancer is known to hang out with quite a liberal crowd and has been the buzz kill during many a dinner party. Contact Stefanie or learn more at lipstickconservative.com.
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Lipstick Conservative does not necessarily represent the views of The Clyde Fitch Report.
