Goldberg: Double Standard for NBC Networks Criticism of FNC's Tea Party Coverage -- Remember 'Green Week'?

Despite all the criticisms of the Fox News Channel broadcasted on MSNBC for promoting tea party coverage, one thing hasn't been pointed out - how the NBC networks, including CNBC and MSNBC are given a pass for their shameless promotion of their Green Week and Green is Universal network events.

Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large for National Review and author of "Liberal Fascism," appeared on Fox News Channel's April 18 "Fox News Watch" and commented on FNC's promotion of the tea parties, but the double standard of MSNBC's criticism of Fox News.

"I think that there's a perfectly legitimate criticism against Fox for not so much the coverage, but the commercials, you know - promoting the coverage, which was in effect advertisements for these things," Goldberg explained. "But, this was all transparent, people knew that's Fox was doing. But let's flashback to what GE, to pick up a point that Jim [Pinkerton] made - that GE basically issued a fatwa to NBC for Green Week, where they did hundreds of hours of environmental messaging in all of their dramas, news coverage, "Today" show - throughout the network and it was all hailed as a wonderful progressive thing. That is a much more pernicious promotion than anything Fox did."

Jim Pinkerton, a "Fox News Watch" regular and Fellow at the New America Foundation pointed out that the parent company of NBC Universal is General Electric (NYSE:GE), which received a share of the TARP bailout money last fall - as much $139 billion if needed according to The New York Times.  He referred to a New York Post report that an order had come from GE management for CNBC to back off of criticism of the Obama administration.

"Let's clarify this," Pinkerton said. "As the New York Post reported, General Electric gave the order to CNBC to knock off the Rick Santelli-style populism and I'm sure MSNBC was perfectly happy to join them. CNBC and MSNBC are on the government payroll. Of course they're going to trash an anti-government tea party thing.

According to Pinkerton, the tea parties got disparaging coverage from the mainstream media because of the perception reporters' hold of the tea party participants.

"But let's talk about the mindset of the mainstream media here - there's never been a poor minority that the mainstream didn't gush over and they increasingly identify with Wall Street. What is left out is the white middle and working class. To them, they're just a bunch of Archie Bunkers."