Critics of 'Extreme' Tea Partiers Showed Little Interest in Bush-Bashers

[alienlovechild 75]

"What's interesting about the media's latest freak-out is that there were radicals aplenty under President Bush [who] protested in the streets [and] talked openly about revolution and killing," said Evan Coyne Maloney, a documentary filmmaker who has followed anti-war protests since 2003.

"But oddly, the violent imagery used by people claiming to be advocates for peace never registered with the media," he wrote online. "If there is such a thing as dangerous rhetoric, then the media is at least one president too late in reporting the story."

As the Huffington Post has pointed out, a few posters have popped up at Tea Party rallies calling President Obama the "new face of Hitler," a baby killer and even a slavedriver.

But those appear to pale in comparison to attacks on President George W. Bush, who was hanged in effigy, burned in effigy, compared to Hitler, called the Antichrist, a human abortion, and made the subject of numerous sustained death threats for about seven years. Those attacks, while highly visible, went mostly unreported outside of scattered conservative blogs.

The Tea Party movement, meanwhile, has seen no shortage of critics in the press. The New York Times has faulted it for setting off a powder keg of "mostly white" nativists, separatists, militia members and wild conspiracy theorists. Columnist Frank Rich compared Tea Partiers' "tsunami of anger" to that of Nazis and segregationists. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said they are guilty of echoing the "paranoid ravings of the most extreme right-wing nutcases."

And the beat goes on: CNN worried that the "dangerous rhetoric" of Tea Party activists may be "inciting violence" against lawmakers. And Salon columnist Joan Walsh did one better, painting the group as "disturbingly racist and reactionary, from its roots to its highest branches."

But even attacks of that level are nothing new to American protest. Former Bush adviser Karl Rove was targeted last week by handcuff-toting Code Pink members who tried to carry out a citizen's arrest during a book signing in Beverly Hills. As the attempt failed, one protester shouted to Rove that "the only comfort I take is that ... you're going to rot in hell."

Thousands of extreme critics weren't content to wait until Bush administration figures reached perdition — many made open death threats, though they got little press coverage.

"I think there are always going to be people at the fringes of any movement that express themselves like this. The question is how much attention is paid to those people," said Peter Hart, activism director for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

He said threatening signs and outbursts offer "low-hanging fruit" for press attention and crowd out the humdrum activity at most rallies. The Tea Parties have been well covered, "warts and all," he added.

The lack of attention to the "Bush=Hitler" signs at anti-war protests were part of a larger lack of coverage, Hart said. Entire rallies comprised of more than 200,000 people were shrugged off by the media, while smaller Tea Party demonstrations have been given full treatment, he said.

"It's very difficult to compare a movement that was under-covered" — the anti-war movement — "with one that I think was overexposed," he said, referring to the Tea Parties, which have been under media surveillance for the past year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused opponents of health care legislation of being "un-American" in an August 2009 op-ed she wrote with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, blasting citizens for heated exchanges with members of Congress during town hall meetings.

"These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American," they wrote.

But back in 2006, Pelosi thought that verbal outbursts were all for the public good, telling a San Francisco crowd laced with shouting protesters that she was a "fan of disruptions."

"So I thank all of you who have spoken out for your courage, your point of view. All of it. Your advocacy is very American and very important," she said.

Maloney said that timing and ideology had more to do with it than anything else. "[P]ublicly airing your grievances stopped being patriotic right around noon on January 20th, 2009," he wrote.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/05/critics-extreme-tea-parties-little-threatening-bush-bashers/

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Different climate I would imagine. Bush was hated a lot more than Obama is.

[SMOKE 1,426]

Different climate I would imagine. Bush was hated a lot more than Obama is.

idk about that. guess it depends on pov.

[Peikko 1,575]

Some in the media clearly do love their hyperbole, and no less so on the left. It's bullshit is what it is. Tea parties are not that important in the scheme of things, but they have every right to make a song and dance about anything they want to. It would be really nice if the main stream media would give over with feeding the frenzies though but I am not expecting anything to change.

[alienlovechild 75]

Different climate I would imagine. Bush was hated a lot more than Obama is.

You've got to give Obama more time to be hated. Bush was in office for 8 years, Obama 14 months.

[luckytxn 2,264]

It was OK for the Socialists to do all the bashing they wanted. The koolaid drinking sheep though see a real threat and have to try to stop what they had done themselves as they have nothing to fight with otherwise.