EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties
Anyone who has watched Fox News of late has seen them talking about the April 15 "tea party" demonstrations, which they take pains to characterize as a spontaneous grassroots uprising against government spending that they are simply "covering."
We are are going to be in the middle of these protests because at Fox, we do not pick and choose these rallies and protests. We were there for the Million Man March, even though, as I pointed out, it turned out to be well shy of a million men.
The Million Man March happened in 1995. Fox News didn't go on the air until 1996.
Why all the effort to distance themselves from the teabaggers? It's obvious they are integrally involved -- Fox has given them millions in free publicity, despite the fact that there's no evidence of "ratings gold" here. Four of their biggest stars will be appearing at the rallies, Fox Nation will be hosting a "virtual tea party," Glenn Beck is holding a $500 a plate fundraiser for them and Fox has been officially promoting the entire affair as the FNC Tax Day Tea Parties:
Maybe they're afraid that if people knew that those behind the demonstrations were the very same lobbyists and influence peddlers the teabaggers claim to decry, the whole thing would be revealed to be what it is -- a hollow excercise in extremist right-wing hypocrisy.
A report by Lee Fang at Think Progress documents the involvement of corporate lobbyists FreedomWorks in organizing the teabaggers. FreedomWorks is run by ladies' man (and registered lobbyist) Dick Armey, and if they're not "organizing" the Tea parties, it's news to him. From a letter he wrote on March 10:
On the Freedomworks website, it says: "If you are not able to organize or attend a Taxpayer Tea Party, you can still help the cause by donating or buying a t-shirt.FreedomWorks has been organizing many of these "tea parties" and we are listing the details on our website IamWithRick.com
If you visit the website, you can rsvp for an event near you, and you can download guidelines to organizing a tea party in your home town if there isn't one being planned already.
The "donation" for the Tea Parties page goes to -- you guessed it -- the FreedomWorks Foundation. The "thank you" letter is signed by Matt Kibbe, President & CEO, who cut his teeth working for Lee Atwater. He was behind the attempt to get Ralph Nader put on the ballot in Oregon in 2004, prompting a complaint to the FEC of illegal collusion with the GOP.
FreedomWorks was launched a GOP version of MoveOn. "We believe that hard work beats daddy's money," said Dick Armey at the time. Armey seems to be a bit irony challenged -- Steve Forbes is on the FreedomWorks board. As Krugman notes, their money comes from the Koch, Scaife, Bradley, Olin and other reliable funders of right wing infrastructure including Exxon Mobil.
This fact that none of this would be possible without the open checkbooks of right wing billionaires and the lobbyists who love them is beyond the grasp of Glenn Reynolds:
These aren't the usual semiprofessional protesters who attend antiwar and pro-union marches. These are people with real jobs; most have never attended a protest march before. They represent a kind of energy that our politics hasn't seen lately, and an influx of new activists.In 2004, a woman who identified herself as a "single mother" in Iowa, Sandra Jacques, appeared at a George Bush town hall and gushed about his plan to privatize Social Security. She left out the part about being an employee of Freedomworks, who were lobbying on the issue at the time.
Before any media covering these events accept the idea that this is just a grass roots outpouring of populist sentiment, they ought to take a look behind the curtain -- where Dick Armey is laughing and counting his cash.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
22 Comments so far
Show AllIs there a difference between the Right and Left in this instance? Is Hamsher saying that all our demonstrations are spontaneous and unfunded? That only Right Wingers do this? Lets be honest for goodness sakes.
Since when has the so-called Left ever done a "tea party" or anything close? I thought that all they do is fold like tents and let the Far Right ABUSE them. I'll agree that some of the protesting by the Left isn't effective such as going to Washington to protest when in fact the protesting should start local where the Congressional reps and sens can be hammered at or even protesting a coal plant when in fact pressure should be put on Congress to divert subsidization of coal to solar and wind. However, I don't understand where you came up with the idea that the Left Wingers are doing the same as the Right Wingers?
I'd say the Pink Ladies (or pink somethings) did a pretty good job of riling up those on the right. They were all over the place during the bush years. Sometimes you have to check out some of the right's webpages and blogs to learn what the left is doing since what they do rarely ever gets air time - at least none that I've seen.
I'm kind of mixed on Code Pink. I think they'll be more effective when they protest in various locations across the country and awaken various locals who in return will strengthen the anti-war movement which is currently hollowed out a bit too far.
Protesting.....is this the plan? The solution? The way out of our human trappings?
It is not the same. The left is generally from the ground up and anti-corporate elite, whereas the right is straight under the banner of the power elite and easily funded by their vast wealth.
When the left has money it is typically because their is strength in numbers.
George Soros's gifts to democratic causes is an exception. Most billionaires are not leftwing.
Thomas More April 14th, 2009 11:07 am, I think it's undeniable that only the right-wing gets the endorsement and coverage of a major cable news outlet for events like this. I can't recall any demonstration against the Iraq War or WTO that was promoted in this way by any national news organization. ("Wolf Blitzer hosts the Seattle WTO protests, live on CNN!")
Aside from that, I've heard, in another head slap of blunt-force irony, that at one of these earlier tea party events the astroturf group organizing it went to a long line of people waiting to apply for a few minimum-wage jobs and offered some of them $25 each to hold signs and fill out the pathetic turnout at their tea party. Apparently many of the images later appearing in the media of the event (I think it was held in Boston) show unemployed folks eagerly supporting the notion of the top ten percent not paying higher taxes and keeping the government from raising the minimum wage. Right.
Perhaps what's left of the Big Media not owned by Rupert Murdoch will bother to ask the sign-wavers this time around if they were paid to be there, and if they agree with the sentiments expressed on the sign they're carrying, but I won't hold my breath.
Meanwhile, to my knowledge, none of the demonstrators against Bush's wars and the WTO, et al, were paid to be there.
No, no....lol, the irony is that Obama appears to be the turfy/roots hybrid protester change agent pied piper. But don't think about that...think about what you think he is...or might be: the hope for progress? Talk about the truth being stranger than fiction and in this case it is hard to separate out which is which.
This lame attempt at "Astrotuft" lobbying is humorous on several levels. First is the unintended hilarity of their use of the word "teabagging." Second is the sight of their deluded minions acting out their rage in a manner that would get a failing mark at a grade school play. Third is how quick the originators of this farce were exposed and lampooned by the press organs who compete with Fox Noise. Fourth is the possibility that this "movement" may well soon by hijacked by the frustrated Ron Paul web acolytes whom persist like a religious cult.
If the tea party protests are hijacked by the Ron Paul acolytes, Foxy News will drop it like a hot potato.
NateW -
Rachel M seemed to grasp the unintended hilarity of this moment in her commentary on MSNBC last night about the conservatives' newly embraced penchant for teabagging.
I thought this whole Tea Party gimmick was brainchild of the libertarians, who were having their idea coopted by the GOP leadership, Faux, and Limbaughland. Now I'm reading here that it's the other way around, what with the Ron Paul connection.
I just can't tell the players without a score card anymore.
Bill from Saginaw
Any viewer of intended pornography (not the unintentional kind produced by the right wing noise machine) knows exactly what tea bagging is. Maddow is on an American broadcast outlet and thus can only obliquely hint at best what it is. I would love to be a fly on the wall when the "brains" behind are finally informed of what tea bagging means.
I would be quite fascinated to see what Fox Noise does if the Ron Paul acolytes hijack it for their own, as they are quite capable of doing. They have numbers, dedication, web savvy (unusual for that side of the aisle), & are itching to do stuff with or without the prodding of their erstwhile leader, Ron Paul (whom at times has shown disdain of them akin to Hitler towards the SA just before June 30, 1934).
This whole episode has a huge helping of schadenfreude here.
Bill from Saginaw April 14th, 2009 1:41 pm, this tea party nonsense originated with that CNBC idiot Rick "Losers" Santelli, trying to protect himself and his fellow 'traders' from the 'horror' of paying a few percentage points more in taxes on their six-and seven-figure incomes. Who picked it up from there is a good question.
Did I miss something here? The article reads like an ad hominem attack on the 'right'. Ad hominem fallacies are counter-productive no matter who they are aimed at. It would be better to be specific and say why there should not be protests - if that is what the author believes. There ARE legitimate reasons to protest the government. I know. I was arrested and convicted for protesting.
Also, did Atwater attempt to get Nader on the ballot? If so, we owe him a belated 'thank you'. If Nader was president there would be less need for protest.
rosemarie jackowski April 14th, 2009 3:03 pm, in 2004, the GOP only wanted Nader on the ballot to split the progressive vote in states like Oregon in order to help Bush get elected. You might remember that Nader's 2004 running mate, Peter Camejo, wanted Nader to reject the support of these right-wing front groups, but he didn't.
For $20 you can get truckloads of unemployed dirt-poor right-wingers to protest the fact that people making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year are being asked to pay 3% more in taxes.
I'm sure that's what Scaife is paying them per-day to take part in this tea-bag infomercial.
They're rattle-heads who don't understand they're protesting against their own interests.
gnken
All we can hope is that the "Tea Parties" flop and the Obama administration ignores them. If they cave and rethink there tax plan, then I know it will be all over for the Dems. and we will have another (god forbid - Bush type republican) in office in 2012.
Why can't we organize IV-bag parties to protest the lack of health care reform?
NMLib April 14th, 2009 5:38 pm, good idea and they could feature legions of people who had insurance but were canceled by heartless HMO bureaucrats when they developed long-term illnesses, and the survivors of the ER lottery -- those who were lucky enough to receive treatment before they died -- paired with the relatives of those who didn't.
Of course, I wouldn't count on Fox News endorsing it, nor any major media outlet in this country.
Quoth Star Trek: Brain and brain, what is brain?
- Insurgent
Healthcare? Social security? It's all gone. You and your Obama dosen't have a leg to stand on.
You have pledged your childrens future to the same kind of bondage most of "the third world" have experienced the last thirty years.
You have bailed out the same companies who plundered them, and now it's your turn - so just keep on paying....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDNMB6wYmI&feature=channel_page
I think that consideration for the hybrid turfroots reality should be given it's due consideration here. Because turfroots leadership is what we are getting.