Newsweek's Gross Confronted on 'Teabagging' Schtick

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When a senior editor from Newsweek goes on MSNBC to discuss conservatives who protest the massive tax and spend agenda of the Obama Administration, why shouldn't he join in the fun of disparaging them with juvenile sexual innuendo? After all, he's among friends and fellow travelers.

But eventually, someone may call that senior editor to account for his "pornographic" slurs, as St. Louis radio host Jamie Allman did to Newsweek's Daniel Gross on April 14.

Gross had appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown," on April 10 and told guest host David Shuster, "I think when it comes to tea bagging, the president should probably ignore this ... to get bogged down with what seems to be a fringe group of people throwing consumer products into the lakes and rivers of this nation, ah, doesn't seem to be worthy of his attention."

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Allman called Gross on his statement immediately. "It disturbs me, your characterization of tea party individuals who you must know are more than a fringe group and are in fact your fellow Americans who seem to have an issue probably different than yours with your government," Allman said.

"What surprised me though," he continued, "I mean, come on, you're an author, you've reached high levels of Newsweek Magazine, a prestigious slick in the United States of America, and you resort to calling your fellow Americans who have an issue with their government ‘tea baggers.'"

Gross said that there were different meanings to the term and he didn't know which one he and Shuster were using. Allman wasn't buying it, so Gross changed tack, saying he wasn't responsible for what Shuster said and, anyway, the protest organizers themselves used the term.

"Second of all, when you look at the e-mails and promotional literature, you see people saying, using ‘tea bag' as a verb - "tea bag Obama,' ‘tea bag Congress.' ... these are the people who are organizing this that are saying that ..."

However, Allman brought on Dana Loesch a tea party organizer "on a national level who's been in this from the get-go."

"I have never seen an e-mail cross my inbox that refers to what we're doing in that manner." Loesch then confronted Gross on his assertion that many of the tea parties are "fraudulent" and are not in fact grass roots-inspired but have been coordinated and encouraged by the "Republican and conservative establishment."

"In fact, here in St, Louis and in other cities," she said, "we're telling the politicians to stay away from the events."

When asked, Gross refused to tell Allman who he voted for, citing Gross "company policy."

The segment ended with this exchange:

ALLMAN: "Why is it company policy?" Allman pressed. "Is it because your journalists?"

GROSS: "Yes."

ALLMAN: "Ok, so if you're a journalist and not a pundit, why would you go on David Shuster's show and refer to tea party people like this?" Allman said. "You call them tea baggers and you demean them and you claim that it's all part of ah, Lipton's this and Lipton's that. You seem to, as a journalist, have quite an opinion."

GROSS: "I'm supposed to have an opinion about all kinds of things. It's part of my job," Gross said.

ALLMAN: "But you can't say who you voted for?"

GROSS; "I'm not involved in partisan politics."

ALLMAN: "So Newsweek's policy is that you can go on MSNBC and accuse your fellow Americans of fraud and call them ‘tea baggers' and all kinds of pornographic ah, discussions, ah, ways of characterizing them but Newsweek won't allow you to say who you voted for?"

GROSS: "If that's how you want to interpret it, I guess I can't quibble with that. We can all reach our own conclusions."

ALLMAN: "That's one of the reasons why I cancelled my subscription to Newsweek."

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I got my father to cancel his subscription a little over a year

ago...  now to get him to cancel his newspaper (which he can get online for free).

Fringe

Fringe group? ACLU, Moveon.org, Daily Kos, Weather Underground, Black Panthers, Black Liberation Theology, NAACP, those are all fringe groups. TEA partys seem composed of a cross section of regular Americans who are tired of taxes that go up, up, up and never down.

D

Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.

Right on Jamie!!

Way to hold them accountable for what they say!!!  Right on!

 

"Contempt prior to investigation is ignorance."

Much of the strong

Much of the strong arguments in the conservative media comes from the local guys. Good job, Mr. Allman! You ought to coach some of the national "stars" of the conservative media.

The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.

Daniel Gross dug his own hole.

Now he can share it with his teabag buddy David Schuster.

heh. Gross is playing stupid

he does it pretty well.

That's because

It comes naturally.

They might say "Wow, that sucks!"  But at least they'll say "Wow!"  -Duff Goldman, the Ace of Cakes

Those discussions on MSNBC

Those discussions on MSNBC show how unprofessional the network is and how low they have sunk.  They are desparately trying to cling to the idea that this is a Republican event, when the truth is, it began from a spontaneous remark by Rick Santelli of CNBC.  I'd venture to say a good percentage of the people attending were Independent voters.  I'm hoping a third party emerges from this.

Vulgar? Oh Please...

The folks at MSNBC can do a better job than that. If I were them, I would just say it straight the way Peter Griffin on Family Guy would do it.

"Dick Armey? What's your wife's name? Vagina Coastguard?"

Now that's vulgarity you can be proud of.

§ Sticks...Really?

Hmmm...

 All T-Bag...ALL THE TIME.

Do You like the T-Bag?

<how do you like it>

Hmmmmm....

Ster.

My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Media....

All of these clowns in the media who are in the tank for Obama just don't seem to understand this is not a Republican or Conservative movement. The people in attendance at the Tea Parties were probably mostly business owners who are mostly of an independent ideology...If the House and Senate go Republican(or new third party???) in 2010, they will be slack jawed in disbelief. Elections in the U.S. are won in the center by independent voters...They may not vote Socialist Democrat in 18 months, and this rush for a socialist/facist government may be quickly overturned...

not a real good defense

Gross says he wasn't responsible for what Shyster said.

Hell, Shyster isn't responsible for what Shyster says.

My dad cancelled the

My dad cancelled the house's subscription to this rag when I was in high school.  I won't even pick it up in the doctor's office lobby, unless the restroom is out of toilet paper.

I can't wait for the day rags like NewsWEAK and Time go out of business...

MORE

We need more of the Media and Republicans in general to call these disrespectful ingrates out at every opportunity.

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."

He should pay attention, we

He should pay attention, we pay that bastard's salary as well as support the marxist state he's trying to build on our backs.

"Fringe group"? Those

"Fringe group"?

Those thousands of people I saw at these various tea parties yesterday looked mainstream as hell to me.

Want to talk about 'fringe groups', let's talk about state university activists and their professors, ACORN, Rev. Wright's church, Code Pink, Bill Ayers, and the others that are either conveniently ignored or treated with respect by the Democrats and the MSM.

One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 61% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory (yep...approval for Congress now at 39%...do you believe that!?).