Another Slander Against the Tea Party

When the Tea Party movement arose after 2008, the American Left launched a full court press to discredit it. There were three general lines in the strategy: that the Tea Party was encouraging or even engaging in political violence, that the Tea Party people were pervasively racist, and that the Tea Party was "astroturfed", i.e., created by rich conservatives.

All three charges were obvious nonsense. The Tea Party meetings, of which there were thousands across the US, were as spontaneous as any political movement ever was. No doubt some had wealthy benefactors, but the vast majority of the meetings and organizations were locally funded and organized. No doubt some of those who showed up at Tea Party meetings were racist. It would be astounding if that were not true. It is easier, however, to show evidence of anti-Semitism among the people who showed up at Occupy events, anti-war rallies, or among Democrats in general, than to show racism among Tea Party folks.

The most common calumny against the Tea Party, however, was the line about political violence. Joel Gehrke, writing at the Beltway Confidential site, provides a brief history of the attempts by the MSM to falsely link the Tea Party to acts of violence.

Exhibit A, of course, was the appalling journalistic sin committed by ABC News' Brian Ross as the Aurora Colorado shooting was hitting the airwaves. Here is the actual quote:

Stephanopoulos: I'm going to go to Brian Ross. You've been investigating the background of Jim Holmes here. You found something that might be significant.

Ross: There's a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo., page on the Colorado Tea party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it's Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo.

It turns out that there are a lot of fellows named Jim Holmes running around. Apparently, according to James Taranto, there are almost three thousand of them. So why did Ross pick this one innocent JH out? For the simple reason that he was listed in a Tea Party document that someone on Ross's staff managed to Google.

Ross not only managed to slander thousands of Americans who did nothing more than show up for public meetings but also to finger, briefly (if with a caveat) an innocent man. The caveat (we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes) makes the scandal worse. Imagine for a moment, dear reader, if you fingered by Ross as the person who maybe, we don't know yet, might be the mass murder.

There are conspiracy crackpots and racists on the right and all honest conservatives should vehemently disavow them. The Left should give up its passionate desire to demonize the Tea Party movement.

Comments

[larry kurtz]

There are 15 known TEA or sovereign citizen movement cells in Colorado. Why are you confused, Professor?

Aryan Terror Brigade
Racist Skinhead

Barnhardt Capital Management, Inc.
Anti-Muslim
Lone Tree

Blood and Honour U.S.A.
Racist Skinhead
Littleton

Creativity Movement
Neo-Nazi
Family Research Institute
Anti-Gay
Colorado Springs

Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints
General Hate
Mancos

Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints
General Hate
Westcliffe

Gold is Money
Anti-Muslim
Lone Tree

MSR Productions
Racist Music
Wheat Ridge

Nationalist Coalition
Neo-Nazi
Denver

New Century Productions - A Conversation About Race
White Nationalist
Littleton

Scriptures for America Ministries
Christian Identity
Laporte

United Knights Of Tennessee Order Of The Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Longmont

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=CO

[Bryce Rausch]

There's a great book which covers the media's portrayal of the tea party by Andrew Breitbart called "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World".

[Bryce Rausch]

To Larry's point: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/299011/occupy-southern-poverty-law-center-charles-c-w-cooke

[larry kurtz]

Since 1985 red states have killed far many more people through domestic terrorism and mass shootings:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

http://interested-party.blogspot.com/2011/01/domestic-terrorism-awake-in-red-states.html

[Donald Pay]

To slander someone in the legal sense, doesn't the slandered entity have to exist? Is there, in fact, an organized entity called "the Tea Party?" Isn't it just a bunch of yahoos? I know in Wisconsin the Tea Party is really a colloquialism, and it doesn't really exist n any organized form. There are a lot of splintered groups, and a few astroturf organizations that from time to time claim the mantle of being "the Tea Party," but there really is no organized functioning Tea Party.

[Stan Gibilisco]

"Ross not only managed to slander thousands of Americans who did nothing more than show up for public meetings but also to finger, briefly (if with a caveat) an innocent man."

I hope that innocent man sues ABC and Brian Ross.

[duggersd]

Donald, even if there is not a "Tea Party", there is an individual who was unfairly suggested as being the shooter. Ross linked this person to the Tea Party and tried to paint with a broad brush the stereotype of what a Tea Partier is. As is usually the case, the picture painted is less than accurate to say the least.

[Bill Fleming]

...kind of like Michelle Bachmann's "John Wayne" gaffe in reverse, actually. Whoops! Never mind...

[Donald Pay]

Here is part of the quote from Ross: "Now, we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it's Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colo."

This is clearly not slander, particularly because he backed away from this pretty rapidly. What it is is reporting being done on the fly at a competitive news outlet by a reporter who wanted to get on the air without thoroughly vetted information. Anytime you have a fast moving story, these sorts of issues are going to come up.

[Ken Blanchard]

I don't know if Donald Pays is the same Donald who walks around in public in a blue sailors costume, naked from the waste down; but there's been talk!

Larry Kurtz is an idiot and an ass.

Michelle Bachmann is just an idiot.

[Donald Pay]

Watch out. That might be libel---not the part about me, although you spell my name wrong, so you have that defense as well as the fact that what you tried to say about someone named Pays could apply to me, because, yes, that was me walking around naked from the "waste" down. No, what's libelous is that you accuse Brian Ross of slander against the Tea Party.

[Dave]

I find your indignation laughable and in need of some "liberal media" style false equivalency walk back as both the Breitbart and Drudge media empires are reporting that the shooter "may be a registered democrat"

In fact if you google the phrase "reports the shooter is a registered democrat" you will get "About 5,180,000 results" linking to all kinds of blogs running with the propaganda...

[Religion Jeans outlet]

Enjoy reading this great article!