Thursday, April 16, 2009
You've heard about these Tea Party things? Yeah? You know...named after the Boston Tea Party? Pretty big crowd in Boston yesterday, but if you read the Boston Globe, you'd never know: Michael Graham: Why It's Called The Boston Globe-Democrat, Part XXXVI
When the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported that the Boston Globe-Democrat hadn't run a single story on the national "Boston Tea Party" movement (key word: Boston), I'll admit I was surprised. Their blatant political bias is obvious, and every rational reader knows their "news" coverage is driven by their politics. But not one story? From a journalistic standpoint, it's utterly indefensible.
So I shouldn't have been surprised when I picked up the BG-D this morning--the day after thousands of BOSTON-are citizens gathered at BOSTON Harbor for a BOSTON Tea Party to protest (in part) the taxpayer abuse by our BOSTON-based state government...and found a single local story in the BOSTON paper. Buried on page A16 there was a small AP story with the dateline "Frankfort, KY."
I guess the Boston Globe-Democrat staff just couldn't resist a "KY" reference.
To add ignorance to incompetence, the AP story spreads the canard that our Tea Party was part of some national Republican effort. They link it to FreedomWorks and the GOP--neither of whom had anything to do whatsoever with our event...though I'd be happy to send them the invoice for our expenses.
Here's the Boston Globe-Democrat's model for journalistic success:
- Ignore a national story inspired by local Boston history for as long as possible;
- Refuse to cover the story when it becomes local;
- Misreport the story with a wire report from Kentucky;
- Then wonder why you're losing $1 million a week.
Remember all those stories featuring every anti-Iraq war protest, however many people showed up, with no concern for how many people or any examination of who was sponsoring the protests? I do.
I rather enjoyed calling to cancel my subscription to the Sunday Globe the other day. Even the coupons weren't necessary anymore.
Great stuff at Big Hollywood: Rock 'n Roll in the Obama Era: The Ass-Kissing Years
You know, when you do something really stupid late at night, like read Henry Rollins' Dispatches section on his website, and you come across his characterization of the tea parties happening around the country as "Small groups of grouchy white people acting out and being ridiculous," not only do you realize that Rollins is a self-hating grouchy white person, but also that we have entered a whole new era of Rock 'n Roll: The Ass-Kissing Years...
How far Black Flag has fallen.