Tea Parties

Blame the victim! Twenty-three liberal news operations have taken that strategy about the IRS attack on conservative nonprofits. Fifteen of the 63 members of the left-wing Media Consortium have thrown their support behind the IRS’s investigation. The 15 organizations either wrote or re-posted stories defending the IRS actions.

Another eight liberal outlets, including MSNBC, ran similar stories. Altogether, these outlets have received a combined total of more $14 million dollars from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations since 2000.

The IRS admitted to giving extra scrutiny to applications for nonprofit status from groups with words like “tea party” or “patriot” in their descriptions. After this revelation, at least 25 media outlets ran stories arguing that “The IRS was doing its job,” “the IRS was justified,” and that the only crime the IRS committed was “the sin of political correctness.”

Leave it to Ed Schultz to conjure up the most deranged spin yet in response to the Internal Revenue Service admitting to undue scrutiny of tea party groups.

While many liberals have been critical of the Obama administration in the wake of the hardly surprising revelation, Schultz on his radio show yesterday was full-throated in his defense of the IRS -- even to the point of making the absurd claim that it showed how conservatives should support President Obama's plan to "simplify" the tax code. (Audio clips after page break)

As NewsBusters has been reporting all morning, the folks on MSNBC's Morning Joe almost unanimously came down on the Obama administration for using the Internal Revenue Service to intimidate its political opponents.

Putting an exclamation point on the outrage late in Monday's program were co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist who shockingly agreed, "This is tyranny" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

MSNBC's Martin Bashir bashed the Tea Party Patriots for creating a picture of Karl Rove dressed in a Nazi uniform as part of a fund-raising email.

While he ridiculed "Conservative hypocrisy on Hitler at its blatant best," Bashir conveniently ignored his own Nazi references to conservatives (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Bill Maher came back from his long winter vacation Friday to predictably say stupid things on HBO's Real Time that only a liberal would utter or appreciate.

One such was telling Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal, “What's happening in Israel is kind of what would happen in America if the Tea Party took over” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

The media's hatred of the Tea Party knows no bounds.

On Sunday's syndicated Chris Matthews Show, the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman said, "The Tea Party people are not here to legislate. They're here to demonstrate" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The New York Times's Manny Fernandez greeted the opening of the biannual Texas legislative session in Austin in Wednesday's paper: "Texas Budget Surplus Proves as Contentious As a Previous Shortfall." After explaining how Texas has become flush with cash over the last two years, going from a budget deficit to surplus, Fernandez couldn't help working in a cut against the "far-right" Tea Party.

The Washington Post's Bob Woodward took a ridiculous swipe at the Tea Party Sunday.

Appearing on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Woodward said, "We'll see if the White House is going to realize it's much better to have a Speaker Boehner with that mindset than somebody from the Tea Party or the more extreme right which would just lay down and, you know, let the country burn" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

ABC News, the same network which falsely linked the Tea Party to a mass killing in Colorado, on Wednesday ignored an alleged connection between Occupy Wall Street and a wealthy New York City couple apparently planning a terrorist spree. Instead, a Good Morning America journalist referred to the investigation as a "preppy terror case."

The New York Post on Monday reported that Morgan Gliedman and her boyfriend, Aaron Greene, have been arrested after a vast number of guns, bombs and the "Terrorist Encyclopedia" were found in their home. According to the Post, the two are "the privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and...a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist." Yet, GMA reporter John Muller simply described, "She is from a prominent family on New York's ritzy upper east side. He is a Harvard graduate."

Sam Donaldson went after the Tea Party this weekend.

During a discussion about 2012's biggest game changers on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Donaldson said, "The greatest slogan that I hated during this last campaign was 'We want to take back our country.' Guys, it's not your country anymore - it's our country" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Monday's CBS This Morning, Norah O'Donnell seemed unsure about the extent of Tea Party's political influence. During an interview of former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, O'Donnell first indicated that the movement was a potent force: "I want to ask you...about how powerful the Tea Party is. Is the Tea Party holding back House Republicans and Speaker Boehner from agreeing to additional revenues?"

The anchor later hinted the Tea Party's power was on the wane: "FreedomWorks spent $40 million in the last election, and you had less than one-in-four of a winning record on the candidates you backed. Was it the organization, or is the Tea Party weakened?"

How can you tell when conservatives really annoy a liberal?

When his hyperbole exceeds even the broad parameters of absurdity embraced on the left. Case in point -- attorney and "Ring of Fire" radio show co-host Mike Papantonio's appearance on fellow libtalker Thom Hartmann's show on Wednesday. (audio clip after page break)

Nancy Cordes couldn't have made outgoing Senator Jim DeMint's conservative credentials clearer on Friday's CBS This Morning, labeling the South Carolina Republican "one of the most conservative members of the Senate." Cordes outlined that DeMint was a "Tea Party hero, who has raised more than $15 million...to help elect Tea Party senators...But he has also backed a series of losing far-right candidates."

However, the correspondent couldn't be bothered to identify Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert as a liberal, as she noted the comedian's efforts to get his fans to lobby South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to name him DeMint's replacement. She merely pointed out Colbert's persona as "one of the most conservative TV personalities out there - fake personalities, anyway." [audio clips available here; video below the jump]

Left-wing radio host Mike Malloy keeps reaching for new lows in depraved discourse.

Those familiar with Malloy from his numerous appearances at NewsBusters over the years are aware of his pathological obsession with violence, especially toward those who don't share his totalitarian politics. (h/t for audio, Brian Maloney at mrctv.org).

Gateway Pundit blog and Michelle Malkin's Twitchy site both reported on Saturday how Ryan Clayton, a far left contributor to DailyKos and Huffington Post, was escorted out a Friday night showing of the documentary, Hating Breitbart, in Arlington, Virginia, for his outbursts during the opening minutes of the film. Clayton actually makes an appearance in the movie, where he shouted bogus allegations of cocaine use and soliciting male prostitutes at Breitbart in 2011.

I actually played a part in getting the leftist booted out of the theater. I went to the 10:20 pm showing at the invitation of Jason Jones of Movie to Movement, who is a good friend and a former boss. I sat towards the back of the theater, as many of the seats were filled by the time I entered. When the documentary started, Clayton somehow thought it was appropriate to add his own commentary track and laughed like a hyena at various points. I spoke up and told him to stop talking. But he didn't stop.

NewsBusters is showcasing the most egregious bias the Media Research Center has uncovered over the years — four quotes for each of the 25 years of the MRC, 100 quotes total — all leading up to our big 25th Anniversary Gala on Thursday evening.

Click here for posts recounting the worst of 1988 through 2009. Today, the worst bias of 2010: Journalists attack the Tea Party as Nazi “goons;” Arizona’s attempt to thwart illegal immigration is likened to the Nazi occupation of Denmark; and Katie Couric suggests a Muslim version of The Cosby Show as a remedy to American “bigotry.” [Quotes and video below the jump.]

With Occupy Unmasked being released today in select theaters, this morning’s edition of CNN’s Early Start with Zoraida Sambolin invited David Bossie, producer of the film and President of Citizens United to discuss the film.  However, things got hazy towards the end of the interview where Sombolin shamelessly tried to convey the narrative that Occupy is a “peaceful” movement.

ABC's Diane Sawyer, in a Nightline interview with the Washington Post's Bob Woodward Monday, aggressively defended President Obama from any blame for last summer's debt ceiling crisis.

"Barack Obama was hostage to events outside his control" due to a "Republican Congress newly dominated by the Tea Party" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

TAMPA, Florida | FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe said Tuesday that the success of the Tea Party has the media in a bit of a panic.

Speaking with NewsBusters at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Kibbe also said press attacks on the Tea Party will probably end “the day after the election” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

CNN's Soledad O'Brien just isn't comfortable with anyone criticizing Barack Obama.

On Monday's Starting Point, the host seriously challenged her Tea Party guest, former Republican senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell, when she had the nerve to say the President's policies were Marxist (video follows with transcript and commentary):

For roughly sixty minutes Friday, Obama campaign contributor Bill Maher behaved like, well, a man that has given $1 million to reelect the current White House resident.

In his final 'New Rule' segment, the HBO Real Time host said, "If Republicans can make it harder for minorities to vote with their tricky ID laws, then we get to make it harder for Tea Baggers to vote by bringing back the literacy test" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"Another example of journalistic malpractice in this country - the constant writing off of the Tea Party, which just goes about its business of electing senators."

So said George Will on ABC's This Week Sunday about Ted Cruz's victory in the Texas primary Tuesday (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Longtime CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has finally said it: “Fact is, I’m gay.” In an e-mail to Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast/Newsweek, Cooper declared, “I've always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly. As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn't matter.”

Well, in that case, Cooper fails, despite his claim “I’m not an activist.” His work on gay issues hasn’t had fairness -- matching an aggressive pro-homosexual bias at CNN – perhaps in part to keep angry gay activists at bay.

In a report currently time-stamped early Saturday morning, Emily Wilkins at the Columbus Dispatch claimed in her opening sentence covering Ohio's second We The People Convention in Columbus ("Fears fuel kinship at tea party convention") that "Tea party members are alone and scared — and to them, that’s a good thing."

Well, I was there this weekend in Columbus. I didn't see "alone" or "scared," or hear anyone say that such a combination of emotions would be "a good thing. Neither did the rest of Wilkins' report, some of which follows the jump:

Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) on Sunday gave CNN's Candy Crowley a much-needed education on what "moderate" and "willing to work with the other side" mean in Washington today.

Appearing on State of the Union, Santorum correctly informed his host that the kind of Republican she wants in office "means doing what the other side wants only doing it slower instead of doing what is necessary for this country" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

Diversity of thought on MSNBC: Liberal Chris Matthews on Wednesday talked to liberal journalist David Corn and liberal Congressman Steve Israel about the "Tea Party crackpots" and whether the GOP is trying to "sabotage" the economy in order to defeat Barack Obama.

With no conservative or Republican in the Hardball segment, Matthews seriously wondered to David Corn: "I know you are an advocate but you're also an journalist. Why do Tea Party crackpots keep winning elections out in the country?" Not shockingly, the Nation journalist cited the Tea Party's ability to "exploit" anger. Matthews summarized, "...[Democrats] believe in government."

Just in time for May sweeps, the producers of the animated Fox hit series Family Guy decided to devote an entire episode to trashing the Tea Party Sunday.

Liberal creator Seth MacFarlane's goal was surely to offend every right-thinking person in the nation as he depicted the conservative movement as a bunch of racist anarchists destined to destroy America (video follows with transcribed lowlights and commentary).