Anatomy of a Hit Job: NPR Takes Aim at the Tea Party Movement

NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook has an agenda: Promote and protect Barack Obama. And like all good statists, Ashbrook filters objective reality through a filter – a template of leftist assumptions, distortions, half-truths, and outright lies. On Wednesday, January 13, 2010, Ashbrook ambushed two Tea Party activists. One of the reasons why these particular activists were chosen must have been their inability to clearly articulate the purpose and goals of the Tea Party movement. Lorie Medina, a leader in the Dallas Tea Party organization, seemed competent enough but completely out of her depth. Jeffrey McQueen, founder of USRevolution2.com, came across as an inarticulate, militant nut-case. Time is money. In the world of broadcast (or, in the case of NPR, advocacy) journalism, nothing is left to chance. Ashbrook did not wake up on the morning of January 13 and decide to interview a couple of random Tea Party activists. Every second of every NPR broadcast is carefully planned and scripted, from the opening monologue to the closing segue to the next day’s broadcast. Medina and McQueen were deliberately selected. They met NPR’s preconceived notions of Tea Partiers as dim-witted, hate-filled racists and were therefore useful in promoting the agenda: Promote and protect Barack Obama...read more