Why mainstream media is circling the bowl

During the Bush years, we never saw a reporter insult the wacky anti-Bush protesters and insinuate - much less assert - that protests were organized by "outside agitators."

But for the "Tea Day" protests, CNN makes an exception:

This video with CNN anchor Susan Roesgen is pretty unreal. She attends the Chicago tea party, picks some wacko out of the crowd and tries to argue with him about whether Obama's a fascist (and even then the guy with the ridiculous Obama-as-Hitler sign comes off more willing to engage in discussion than her), then she talks to a guy who seems perfectly reasonable and rudely cuts him off multiple times. She then attacks Fox News, ranting that the crowd is anti-CNN and says that the tea party is not "family viewing." Of all the leftist protests I've covered over the years — and I've covered many of them — I have never seen a reporter enter the fray and act personally offended by the many, many examples of outrageous behavior at a protest. There's little to be gained by it, and it's simply not professional. What Roesgen is doing is doing here pure hackery. Even as grandstanding, she fails. She goes about things with all the subtlety of a brick through a window, and in the end it appears she's just an angry jerk.

Remember when "dissent was the highest form of patriotism"?

It must have been like months ago, but there's a new boss in town and the meme has changed and calling the president a fascist is suddenly insulting.

"You can't pee on my head and tell me it's raining" update:

Check out this Founding Bloggers video post on how one protester called the CNN reporter on her patent bias.



I particularly liked how the woman pointed out that CNN didn't show the sign that "Republicans are Pigs," to which the reporter responded that it was out of their view.

How convenient.

What aggressive reporting.

The media isn't fooling anyone who doesn't want to be fooled.